Eleven years of blogging? If I knew now what I knew then, I’d probably do it anyway.
A month and a half ago, Ken Levine wrote a post called The link between successful writers and mental illness. Yes, there is one.
Andreas Fink at the University of Graz in Austria… found a relationship between the ability to dream up ideas and the inability to turn off that function in the brain that is always thinking…
We writers are constantly making associations between external events and internal memories. Make it stop!
Another study claimed successful individuals were eight times more likely as “regular” people to suffer from a serious depressive illness…
Lots of successful scribes have battled with extreme depression. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Twain, Dickinson, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill – just pick any writer Woody Allen reveres.
The theory as to why there is rampant depression is the following: We think a lot, we’re often isolated, and we tend to be narcissists. And that’s for the good writers. Imagine how much worse it is for [crappy] writers.
I don’t know that I’m a good writer. I DO know that I suffer that function in the brain whereby, even in sleep, my mind is processing what I want to write. And when it’s the case that I don’t have time to do so, the brain, the mood, the temperament gets…skewed.
I have long suggested that blogging, for me, is some sort of therapy. You all are my public shrink. Well, maybe not, in as much as I started writing before anyone was looking. Perhaps you’re all part of my group therapy session?
Maybe seven times this past year, I reposted older material, including three of the four Black Comic Book posts (one’s still to come) that were SEVEN posts when I first wrote them. I imagine this year will be the same use of older material, more or less. When I hinted at doing this a couple years ago, a few of you feared that it would be too familiar. I trust that I’ve allayed that particular fear.
As you know, I often write ahead in my blog, but, because of annoying things, such as LIFE, the number of posts in the queue is down significantly, 36% from the peak. This means that one of these days, I’m going to wake up, realize I have no post prepared, and will scurry around looking for a picture of one of my cats.
In any case, today represents my 4,019th consecutive day of blogging, which surely PROVES a certain mental illness. I plan to continue to “lie on the couch” for at least another year.
Congratulations Roger! I love your Blog, and I hope you do it for 31 more years!
“…one of these days, I’m going to wake up, realize I have no post prepared, and will scurry around looking for a picture of one of my cats.”
At some point, I may have to get a cat, just to keep up.
Damn you Roger throw it in my face again you’ll always be at it longer than me… I don’t hit 11 years until January. Phooey.
Congratulations! And if a photo of your cats gets you out of a blogging jam, go for it! In my case, I thought posting 13 days of photos might be a bit much, so I remained in a blogging jam.
Seriously, congrats!!
Congratulations Roger – that is an impressive achievement. I try my best not to let it get to me if I miss a blogging day, but must admit that it preys on my mind if I don’t. I suspect that you’re right when you talk about group therapy. It certainly helps to get things down on virtual paper. Better out than in as the saying goes.
Blogging is therapeutic for me, too, and I really need to get back to being more regular about it. I’ve enjoyed being part of your group therapy every day for years now, and I hope I’m lucky enough to keep getting it. Congratulations on your milestone, Roger.