Burn out blogging
burn out intransitive and transitive verb become exhausted: to become or make somebody exhausted or unwell through too much hard work, stress, or reckless living: "You'll burn yourself out if you don't slow down."
Source: Encarta World English Dictionary
On Monday (21 April) the admirable Norwegian blogger, Bj?tę²«, posted the following message to his readers:
"Sorry for the unannounced silence. A sudden urge to shut up came over me, and I didn't resist it. The events two weeks ago made me realize that a lot of what I've been writing about in this blog has moved back into slow-history mode, and it seems — at the moment, anyway — somewhat pointless, and distracting from the overall perspective, to continue day to day coverage of it. For now, I've said what I have to say.So I'm granting myself an extended blog vacation. I know better than to force myself to have opinions, and I also know better than to think that I'm done with blogging for good, and kill it off. I'd just have to make up a stupid excuse to revive it again later. So a vacation of unspecified length seems the right choice."
We all wish Bj?ell and hope that he'll be back before long scourging those Scandinavians who would prefer to side with orcs and goblins rather than the race of Men.
The warblogging of the past year has taken its toll. Physical and emotional exhaustion are widespread among those who invested so much time fighting the good fight. Blogging is at its best when dealing with crisis but that means high-energy output, and the energy supply is finite. An ebb is to be expected, then. The term "burn out" might strike some as too morbid to describe the situation that many bloggers find themselves in now but it's appropriate, if one considers the definition above. Still, "burn out" should not be seen as totally negative here. The incandescence was caused by the pursuit of fact, the exposure of lies and the noble call to spread truth. Out of the ashes new shoots will spring.
While in this thought stream, let me point to a story that appeared in The Register yesterday. Andrew Orlowski penned an item titled William Gibson 'gives up blogging'. Orlowski was picking up on an interview Gibson had given to Karlin Lillington of the Irish Times. According to Lillington, Gibson fears that his blogging could interfere with the thought process for needed for a novel. This astute remark:
"I do know from doing it that it's not something I can do when I'm actually working. Somehow the ecology of writing novels wouldn't be able to exist if I'm in daily contact. The watched pot never boils."
Gibson added: "Writing novels is pretty solitary, and blogging is very social." That's debatable, I feel. Sure, there's commenting and linking, but blogging is only "social" in a limited sense. Authors have it betters in lots of ways, and I don't mean just royalties. There's reading tours, book signings, cocktail receptions and dinner party invitations, to mention a mere handful of perks that scribblers on paper enjoy. If that's "solitary", I'm available for confinement.
Diarist of the day: Lady Cynthia Asquith, 26 April 1917"Moira told me an amusing story of Lady Wolverton. The latter, thinking the time had come to economise, got into a bus. She sat beside a woman who kept loudly sniffing and she asked her aggressively if she hadn't got a handkerchief. The woman replied: 'Yes, but I never lends it in a bus.' "
