The blog as a time drain
Amy Gahran at Poynter answers a frequently asked question: "How can I blog without making it a time sink?" It's the wrong question, but I'll address that momentarily. She answers: A blog post is not (or at least, it shouldn't be) a writing assignment you must prep for and deliver as a finished package. Let go of the idea that you must have everything nailed down, organized, and edited before you publish.
She lists three ways:
* Blog your initial brainstorming
* Blog your research
* Blog your interaction
That's right, but they don't prevent blogging from becoming a incredible time drain. To me, they increase the opportunity for even more time to flow down that drain. Instead, I offer this advice:
* Think about your blog while you're doing something mindless. Ideas come to me in the shower. A friend of mine does his best thinking mowing the grass. That time shouldn't count against the blog.
* Write only when you have something to say.
But you know what? That's a natural question, but the wrong one. The right question is, "How can I spend more time with my blog?" What can I do that I should stop doing? Rather than assume that blogging is an add-on, with the insinuation is that it is taking away time from "serious" journalism, how about treating it as journalism itself?
Fact is, if your blog is all that it can be, you'll be spending more time on it because you'll be part of a conversation with your readers. Talking with people -- blogging -- takes more time than solitary writing. But it has tremendous value. Why, as Amy points out, your audience may help you with your journalism.