If You Could See My Schedule

When I was connected to wifi again after a couple of days out of the loop, I looked at some of the comments I had received on my posts. Comments are on the whole great. I am sure you feel the same way that the vast majority of comments in between bloggers are a huge boost and incentive to keep on writing.

But every now and then, there are “weird” comments. I don’t mean spam – spam is an entirely different kettle of fish. I mean bloggers who you recognise, who seem to have misunderstood the post you have just written and leave a message that indicates they don’t appear to have read it. Or they have read in between the lines and jumped to conclusions perhaps.

Occasionally I will try to tactfully explain the post. If a reader has no idea of the history behind a post, I can understand that isolated, it could be misunderstood. But other times, I wonder if I am detecting the reader just trying to be a little provocative in their message. I am not going to start feuding with complete strangers. Blogging is supposed to be fun.

One thing that I think is often misunderstood is just how many posts I write well in advance, and then schedule to be published later. I have posts scheduled a month ahead at the moment. I am already thinking scheduling posts for Christmas, when I won’t be around at all, and for some of the other dates when I will be away.

In fact I think the majority of posts (perhaps 95%) are written and scheduled. I rarely hit the “PUBLISH” button. Instead, I schedule. This is for a number of reasons. Sometimes, I only have a small window each week, to do any writing at all. I will write between three to ten posts within a two or three hour period. I am very quick nowadays. Some posts take longer. Award posts take ages (I work on them little by little) and so does fiction. But all my personal posts…they are very quick.

Scheduling has other advantages. Because I schedule most of them in advance, I can always go back and check them, editing them before they are launched into the big wide world. Sometimes, I don’t spot grammar gaffes, but I am normally checking that the post was going somewhere and wasn’t pure waffle.

Almost everyday, I spend time reading other bloggers work, but I can’t write everyday. I don’t always have the mental energy or peace and quiet to write. But I usually have one or two posts ready to be scheduled, because of the routine that has been working for me for some time now.

My recent posts about me and my ex-flatmate…most of them are written and then scheduled to be published a very short time after I have written them. But some I have written just after he has dropped me home, when I have been bursting with thoughts and feelings, and then I scheduled them to be published a few days later. So, I am sorry if it is all a bit confusing.

Last weekend. I wrote a post while I was waiting for him to pick me up…forgetting the fact that the very next day there was a post scheduled to be published which I had written some days before. I also wrote a post when I reached a wi-fi connection about something that happened the night before. Looking back, I can see how it looks a bit jumbled.

I think what I am trying to say is, I love scheduling. I am not going to stop using this extremely helpful WordPress function. So if you are confused about timings, if you read a post and think, I thought she was here or there, please stop worrying.

Most of my posts are scheduled to be published at 5.58am, when I am usually still asleep. Lots of posts are published when I am out at work or with friends. I like it that way. I wake up, or arrive home, and see that already my posts have had views, and likes and lovely comments. I don’t expect to see a comment indicating the reader is confused about my exact whereabouts and activities at the time the post is published.

I will just add this, I am not going to be drawn into anything unpleasant. If someone is leaving increasingly acrid comments on my site, there is only one obvious solution: “goodbye”. There are some marvellous WordPress features that allow me to block comments from readers who seem to have their knickers in a twist for some strange reason. Are we all on the same page now?

Jack and I…we are going to be living. I might write about “stuff”. Some of my posts will be scheduled, some might not be – do not stress about the order of my posts being a bit odd – I DON’T! Why should you?