My previous blog entry received a surprising amount of attention -- admittedly, mostly from fellow bloggers. I didn't intend for "The End of Blogging Days" to serve as my final posting but, as I later told a commiserating correspondent or two, if and when I do collect the best of my Video WatchBlog writings in book form, at least I know now that I've got a closing chapter.
I'm not going to shut Video WatchBlog down, but I am going to take a break and try to wean myself from it. This blog was conceived to fill the breach during the period when the Bava book was in production and forcing VW into an irregular schedule. We've been back on our monthly schedule for some time now, but I've continued to write this blog because I enjoy it. I still do; in fact, if it was financially feasible, I would probably stop VIDEO WATCHDOG tomorrow and write this blog full time. (Anyone who's ever paid a printer's bill will know what I mean.) But doing both -- at least the way I've been doing both -- is wearing me down.
When I say this, I'm not just talking about overwork, because blogging typically invigorates a writer's productivity; it has encouraged me to produce writing that I wouldn't have produced otherwise, for lack of an outlet or market -- but I wasn't paid for any of it. In the process, blogging's inviting ease of expression/publication has surreptitiously curbed me from seeking out new markets; I have written and published literally hundreds of pieces here, instantaneously, that I might have sold to other magazines or another (paying) blog site, had I slowed down long enough to recognize the value of what I was doing.
Thus, blogging has become a kind of pacifier for me (hence the illustration); a gratifying pantomime of achievement rather than achievement itself. What precisely has been worn down by this blog, as I have practiced it, is my sense of professional ambition. If I'm going to recover it, it is necessary for me to redefine my duties here, which means giving myself permission not to be here sometimes. More to the point, I need to find and commit to a new, creative side-project that can begin to fill the immense personal void that was left by the completion of the Bava book.
Never fear: Video WatchBlog will continue -- albeit in more realistic, less demanding form, as a place where I can address VIDEO WATCHDOG readers when necessary and post updates pertaining to my professional activities. Later this week, for example, I'll be unveiling the cover and contents of VW #140. In time, I may also surprise us both by posting an occasional bonus review, editorial or photo feature -- we'll see how it goes.
P.S. It may interest readers of "The End of Blogging Days" to know that Flickhead's Raymond Young, similarly disenchanted with toiling on behalf of the Ether Plan for Global Distraction, is currently in talks with us about becoming a contributor to VW. So, as time goes by, if you find yourself missing the kind of fun, in-depth writing about cult cinema that you used to find regularly on Video WatchBlog and Flickhead, you'll know where to find it.
