Up until a few days ago, you would have been reading this on Tumblr (go with me here, since obviously I wouldn’t have written it if I was still using Tumblr).
When I started this blog-thing last year, in addition to some longer pieces about specific topics, I envisioned dashing off a few thoughts every now and then on my tablet or phone; if for no other reason than to have an outlet for the never ending clutter that goes through my brain. I do actually do some ‘real’ writing in other parts of my life, but otherwise I am constantly ‘writing’ in my head: random sentences; rebuttals; rants; commentaries on things happening around me; or opening paragraphs of sci-fi stories prompted by strange beings on the subway…you get the idea.
Well, that obviously hasn’t happened. I mean, sure, I’ve written and published a few things on the blog; some I’m pleased with and some I would probably be better off deleting, but my output has been minimal at best. I haven’t even bothered for 3 months now! (Actually, that’s not quite true, I have several incomplete entries I just haven’t gotten around to finishing, for various reasons.)
Anyway, there are two main reasons for the lack of productivity that I can directly point the finger at…and the first is me. Brevity has never been my strong suit, so trying to “dash off a few thoughts” is not, for lack of a better term, ‘my thing’. I usually start with an idea that I intend to write just a handful of paragraphs about. The next thing I know I'm spending hours on the laptop, as it’s ballooned into a thesis-like-monster involving research and re-writes, threatening to eventually rival a Game of Thrones or Outlander novel in length. If I’m lucky, the subject matter is still relevant…if not, it joins the collection of unfinished pieces.
But I’m working on it, I really am! (Mind you, looking at this so far...hmmm.)
The second reason is Tumblr itself. I am finally ready to admit defeat and say: “I DON’T GET IT!!!” (I really don’t like it either, although I imagine those two things are somewhat related.)
I initially used Tumblr because I had some friends who used it for blogs, they insisted it was easy as pie, and besides, I already had an account set up. Not that I’d ever done anything there.
Well. So much for that. I’ve now switched to Blogger.
I now realise - contrary to their claims - Tumblr is not designed for simple text blogs. And I’m probably missing the point, but I really don’t see much use for it other than to post endless GIFs and photos of whoever your page is dedicated to. I know many people do successfully create and maintain blogs in Tumblr, but it seems you can’t DO anything with them except click on a heart or ‘reblog’. That’s nice, I suppose. Pretty to look at and all that. But you can’t engage in any discussions – should you wish to – unless you install third party Disqus (making the whole thing more complicated than I want to deal with), or open up the ‘Ask’ feature – which is ridiculously convoluted, not ‘allowed’ everywhere, and still doesn’t really permit proper back and forth conversations.
Blogger has built in commenting. Done.
However the biggest frustration was Tumblr thinking I’m a programmer who would be thrilled to use archaic HTML to create posts on a mobile device…ah…no thank you! I haven’t used HTML for years, and was never all that proficient with it...other than creating italics or new paragraphs, I was having to Google for the formats. What a waste of time. So I thought I’d be clever and create my blogs in another application to copy into Tumblr. Haha on them. Except the joke was on me: all my formatting would completely disappear once I pasted it in.
On the other hand, Blogger not only provides basic formatting tools even in the mobile app version, it retains your existing formats if you paste something from another source. Or, I can easily open up Blogger on my mobile browser instead of in the app, set it to the desktop version – and voila…a lovely, normal complete formatting toolbar is right there.(Theoretically you can do the same with Tumblr, but their desktop version never opened properly for me on a phone or tablet, scrolling and zooming weirdly until I gave up in frustration. Frankly, I could never even get it working the way I'd be comfortable with on a PC either.)
And finally – this is the best – Blogger automatically saves your draft in real-time from the moment you start typing. Tumblr, meanwhile, will happily let you lose all your work if you manage to hit the wrong combination of keys…after forgetting to manually save your draft every few minutes. Yes, I have done this, on more than one occasion. I was not a pleasant person to be around at those times.
So…decision made, existing blog entries imported here to Blogger. Even doing that turned out to be much easier than I anticipated.
I’m sure a bucketload of people will tell me I was doing everything wrong, but it matters not. I’m with Blogger now – and I feel FREE! Ready to let the words flow onto the page!
(Yes, you may laugh at me.)
Whether or not this means I’ll actually post more often, or whether I'll be regaling you with tales of aliens on public transit...well, only time will tell!
