While one-thousand blog articles in five years may not form the basis for an earth shattering record, it's a significant milestone for me personally. 'Round the Chuckbox represents my longest running writing project.Prior to the establishment of 'Round the Chuckbox on February 4, 2005, my average writing project would fall apart in its second year. I was beginning to worry if I had it in me to stick with one project for the long term.
I pulled the plug on each of a dozen projects for various reasons. Lack of capital forced me to cease publication of my most ambitious project in early 1999.
I published the Seabee Log, a journal that "celebrated Seabee wit and ingenuity through history," between 1997 and 1999.
Some, like the Seventeen Stewburner, a quarterly newsletter for the cooks of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 17 in 1992 and 1993, came to a close when I moved on to my next assignment.
But most projects fell for less valid reasons. I usually lost interest and quit writing or contributing to the project around the 18-month mark. That's what happened when Suite101.com stopped paying its contributing editors in 2001.
When I conceived the idea for 'Round the Chuckbox in late 2004, my concern was that I'd loose interest sometime in 2006. Another writing project would fail.
But something happened. Writing for 'Round the Chuckbox. I posted a steady stream of blog articles for the next eight months. Even after my productivity fell off in the winter, I surprised myself.
I kept writing and posting recipes. I currently have no plans to let 'Round the Chuckbox die a premature death. I'll keep writing as long as I'm able.
'Round the Chuckbox has become a natural extension of my work as a chef and cook in the world of non-commercial food service. I enjoy cooking for residential populations (like my current position in a drug-alcohol treatment program).
As long as I'm able to cook and write, I trust that you'll continue to find the blog interesting. Please drop a note. I'd always enjoy hearing from my viewers.
Excellent! Congrats on such an achievement! I have the same fears, but I am not going to get upset at myself if I don't keep writing. I only do it as long as its fun! :)
ReplyDeletemy blog tyronebcookin started as a journal of my life in the kitchen and in missions, then it morphed into a joint blog after getting married tyroneandstephanie.com ...but lately it has been more of a family update newsletter...priorities change and yes I too would become bored, busy, or blank enough times let other projects fail...for less than a year I kept up the AFMmenu.com for keeping my thoughts and menu's online for the Africa Mercy with Mercy Ships then they went and upgraded the 'intranet' and my project came to an end when I had to post the same things internally. Then of course my time on the ship ended.
ReplyDeleteSIGH. I started tyronebcookin.com again as a seperate project from tyroneandstephanie.com but did not have the time and steam to maintain two different blogs with so much going on in my life. And after leaving the ship my wife's posting pretty much quit.
So now with facebook...I quit tryint to fool myself into thinking I am going to maintain anymore writing projects besides tyroneandstephanie.com which only updates about once a month...and most people who read it, are subscribed or wait till it posts to facebook! LOL!
Of course I am not a writer or had anything published before like you Steve. Just a blog or facebook writer...