Consistency

"Well you are going to have to be consistent."

This was the comment I received from my wife Amanda when I mentioned that I had started a blog. It filled me instantly with a sense of dread. I wasn't sure exactly what she meant, but I didn't like the sounds of it. I mean, the only thing I seem to be consistent at is being inconsistent. At 45 years of age I have had about the same number of home addresses as well as jobs; consistency is not my forte.

Then I thought of content. I have friends who blog about what goes on in their lives, I have friends who blog about philosophical issues, and those who blog about their careers. What is my focus? Where will my consistency be? Well I thought I had covered my ass on that one in the blog title - IbManic's Monochrome Meanderings. IbManic is a simple screen name that I have used for years, a nod to my bi-polar and the usual state of hypomania that I enjoy (and enjoy is the right word most of the time). Monochrome an old school reference to writing as appearing in one color - hence the theme of the blog being in black and white, rather than decked out in vibrant oranges - my favorite color. Meandering - ahh there's the kicker - rolling back to the manic, I love to go off on tangents and wander around. I wander around where I live, where I work, when I talk or write. How the hell can I expect to be consistent when I embrace this aspect of my make-up? Why should I?

Turns out a simple question to my wife to explain what she means opens up another can of worms. Content is not the issue. Posting on a fairly consistent schedule is. People will expect to read something new every certain interval as I start to define this blog simply by the frequency of my posts. I hadn't really thought of the implications of that. I had decided to start writing again and the blogging idea seemed to be a solution to the writer's block that I have been experiencing these past years. However, people read blogs. I knew that. I really did - after all I did share this Facebook so that people knew about it, but I hadn't consciously considered this. For the first time my writings were public, to everyone and anyone. Not only were they public, the very nature of the medium I chose encourages me to want more people to read what I write. I am not writing just for myself for the first time in my life. I have an audience to consider. That may sound obvious to many, but for me, I wrote for release, or as some sort of poetic word therapy to try and figure out what I was feeling or experiencing. A lot of what I wrote spent years hidden in books without anyone ever reading it. The books and the contents didn't resemble a dairy or journal, but often they held the same sort of unspoken secrecy. Having someone else read my work was an intimate and personal affair - it required trust. A blog is different.

The original question was about frequency, but the implications for me are audience, content and motive. I have the honor of writing with other people in mind. In as much as this is an initially daunting task for a solitary writer like me, it is probably the first barrier that needs to come down if I am going to evolve as  a writer. How can I ever fulfill my dream, my goal, to write a book, if not without an audience in mind? With all that in mind, the consideration of the expectations of my potential readers for some consistency in how often I write does become important. I can't promise a tight schedule that every Sunday morning at 4:00 am that there will be a post, but I can commit to keeping the posts coming frequently enough to have the semblance of consistency. Committing to writing would be another hurdle that I need to work on - rather than just relying on the muse to impart divine words into my head that need to be released onto the page.

So thank you for being a part of this dear reader, and thank you Amanda for questioning my commitment to consistency as we start this journey of words together. I am learning new things already.