August blogfest – day 31
by thisnorthernboy
It’s finally over! At the beginning of August I wrote that I might be making a rod for my own back by committing to one blog post a day for the month. I was right. I really enjoy writing my blogs, but I tend to write and post them when I feel I have something to share or something to say. Finding the time, and a subject every day was a real struggle. Far too many of the posts have been written hurriedly at eleven o’clock at night. I definitely think I write better with a little more time – both to do the actual writing, and to think about the subject.
How was it for you? Did you enjoy reading a new post everyday? Were the subjects interesting? Was the content too image heavy? Too wordy? In the future are there particular subjects you might like to read about? I’d be very interested to know your thoughts, so please add a comment if you have time.
In terms of stats, blogging every day didn’t have much affect. I had just over 1400 visitors in August, compared to 1100 in July. A little up on my average of 930 each month so far this year. Likes, comments and new subscribers were about the same as previous months too. I think previous posts, where I’ve written in a little more depth about a topic, or had the time to put together lots of images, have definitely had better responses and have been shared more widely on social media. Which I think suggests that it’s all about quality rather than quantity.
Next month I’ll revert to posting three of four times, and I’ll try to make sure they are a little more detailed and considered.
Thanks for reading, if you are still reading and haven’t nodded off by now, and please do add a comment when you get a chance.
Goodbye August. Hello September.
this northern boy 
Just wanted to say you are a great inspiration. I accidentally stumbled onto your work today searching Google for moleskine sketches and your art immediately stuck out to me. It’s very simple and beautiful at the same time. Very similar to a lot of ideas I’ve been thinking of. I bought 2 moleskine sketch books about 2 week’s ago and have been struggling to put pen to paper as I have major ocd as well. But after looking at your work for the past hour(s) or so I think I’m ready to commit to a book lol. One question, do you sketch with a pencil first? Or do you just wing it with the pen?
Hi, thanks very much. I understand your problem with a nice sketchbook like a Moleskine – they are lovely objects, and those pristine blank pages can be quite daunting. You just have to stop yourself thinking of them as an object to treasure, or thinking that each page has to be a masterpiece. Lots of my Moleskins are filled, or half filled, with absolute rubbish – obviously that’s not the stuff I post online though. I often doodle on scraps of paper, or post-it notes while I’m working. ( https://thisnorthernboy.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/draw-it-post-it/) Very messy, small little doodles. Sometimes there’s enough there for me to have another go at it in a proper sketchbook. Sometimes I do a very rough pencil sketch, sometimes not. I guess it depends on my mood. All I drew in pencil for the Cloudtop (most recent blogpost) was a light grid as a reminder to keep my verticals and horizontals true.