State of the Blog Report
We're at the change or die phase here. I'm choosing change...back to what works.
Among many anniversaries in August was the sixth anniversary of this blog on the 5th. My old blog, Rockin’ Roy’s Rage ‘n’ Romance! had 600 posts after nine and one-half years, which was nothing to brag about. And, yet, Blustery Shovel, after six years, has had just over 100, and as of today this post will be number 116.
I did a count of posts by year.
Blustery Shovel post count:
2020 – 21 posts (started on 5 August!)
2021 – 24 posts (11 in July alone)
2022 – 30 posts
2023 – 9 posts
2024 – 12 posts
2025 – 12 posts
2026 – 8 posts as of today (116 total)
It’s not as if Wix is difficult to use. (I’d quit Google because their constant upgrades had rendered some features, like embedding links, defunct.) Given that I wouldn’t even promote the blog on my Facebook page is probably the biggest tell. I’m simply not into writing as much as I used to be. I don’t trust the quality of what little I have written.
I’m going through the posts one by one now. Most aren’t as bad as I’d thought they were. It’s not like I don’t have anything to talk about either. Something has to change, though, because writing is one of the few talents at which I truly excel. A few weeks ago I came across an incomplete novella that I’d abandoned in 1991 and I was astonished by the polish I saw there. After 35 years, I felt inspired to try and finish the piece.
Writing is a literal God-given gift. To abandon it is to disrespect the Giver. It’s time to put some defibrillator paddles to this gift before its death takes me with it.
I’m encouraged by a discouragement with this blog, namely, its title. I’d started on Wix with my old blog title, Rockin’ Roy’s Rage ‘n’ Romance! a title I’d used for a zine I’d started in January 1988. Shortly afterward, I felt compelled to change it, if only because it simply didn’t feel the same on the then-new platform.
I’m giving the old title back to myself as a birthday present. Blustery Shovel came from a combination of words I’d seen in a crossword puzzle I was working. It had a quirkiness to it that I’d liked. Frankly, it’s never sat all that well with me since. I don’t want to write for something called Blustery Shovel. I want my old title, one I’d had a modicum of notoriety with for decades, back.
Before committing to this, I want to go through my posts and either spiff them up or delete them altogether. I want something worth linking to. I also need to make tweaks to the design and maybe even the categories. I hope to get this done in time for my October birthday.
Just thinking about it has me excited for the first time since I forget when. I’m excited enough to consider finishing up some old projects, including a certain zombie trilogy I’d started 15 years ago. I’m looking forward to rediscovering and relearning my style, a style that kept me interested, energized, and entertained, while engaging readers from all over.
That I’m not the same person I was last year, let alone ten or 15 years ago, makes my writerly resurrection all the more interesting, energizing, and entertaining to me. My perspective as a Christian growing in his faith is a lot fresher than that of the bitter agnosticism I’d worked under for so many decades.
So, here’s to the best birthday present a fellow can give himself—re-gifting a gift that was gifted me a long time ago, and left in my mental attic to collect dust and dry-rot.
Praise God, it feels so good to feel excited about something again!
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