I’ve been writing MadeByMark.com posts for almost six years. Lately, I’ve been thinking it’s time to wrap things up.
I took the past week off, in fact, with an eye toward closing up shop. Some of my reasons for moving on include:
– The pressure of regular posts. For years, the goal has been to post once a day, every day. Lately, days go by before I even think of posting. Is that a sign that I’m ready to move on?
– The business of blogging. These days, everybody and his uncle has a blog — and many of them are blogging for profit. Personal blogs, like MadeByMark.com, are vastly overshadowed by high-profile, team-written pro blogs (like the wonderful BoingBoing) or high-profile digital community darlings (like Kottke.org).
– The time and energy equation. i invest a lot of time and energy in this site. More and more, I’m coming to understand that time and energy are limited commodities. Does the emotional satisfaction I get from writing the site justify the investment of my time and energy?
– The schedule question. I know myself well enough to know I work best when working according to a schedule. So: when’s the best time to work MadeByMark.com into my daily writing schedule? Morning? Evening? I’m not sure.
Thinking along these lines eventually led me to the ultimate question: Why am I writing MadeByMark.com in the first place?
In the end, the truth is this: I write MadeByMark.com because I’m painfully aware that, second by second, I’m using up this thing called life. My blog entries are a bread-crumb trail — a record, however sketchy, of where I’ve been, or what I was interested in, or which obsession gripped me last Tuesday.
More importantly, perhaps: I really do want people to know that, through the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, there was this guy named Mark. He loved this guy named Clyde. The two of them, despite all the odds against doing so, managed to put together a really fantastic life.
That story is not exactly the kind of thing that gets featured in newspapers (or the celebrity-obsessed gay press). After all, we’re just two people who found each other. We’re living comfortable, normal, happy lives.
And then it hit me: the one thing I really have to offer you — the one thing you can’t get anywhere else, ever — is the tale of who I am, and who I love, and how the world looks through this pair of eyes. The best and most efficient way to offer that to you — to anyone, really — is through MadeByMark.com.
So: here I am again, banging away at the keys, writing a post. I’m sticking with the site — for now, anyway — and looking at more efficient ways to do what I’m doing.
Meantime: thanks for stopping by. If you feel moved, you can support my efforts by leaving a comment, by dropping me a line (at mark@hismailbox.com) or, as Clyde would be quick to remind you, by clicking an Amazon.com associates link or two. (That’s my Clyde — always the businessman.)
HoHo Mark!will you please stop this ‘what am I doing this for’ thingie? :)Just keep on writing. We all have these blogcrisis moments once in a while (I have been blogging since late ’99).
So, please keep up the personal writing. Step back from daily or ‘routine’ if it helps. Blog when the muse strikes you. That’s what I do.
-Martin
Mark,
I hope you don’t shelve this blog. I read it not because I’m on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what you had for Sunday brunch, but because week by week I get to see what a courageous person who is absolutely true to himself looks like. You’re a liberal gay Christian who writes about tarot and lives in the deep South–and isn’t afraid to talk about ANY of those things. I just love that.
I grew up in the Bible Belt in an atmosphere of hiding EVERYTHING: what if the people at church found out I was reading about tarot and astrology? If my mother found out my best friend was gay, would she still let me hang out with him? If I put that Mondale/Ferraro bumper sticker on my car, would it get keyed? 🙂
Of course, I’ve gotten over most of these things as I’ve gotten older, but I still feel the urge to keep my new age/personal development library (which includes a couple of your books) on shelves in the attic instead of in the living room. Although I do still blog pseudonymously. Oh well. 🙂
I consider your blog an ongoing lesson in how to live fearlessly. I really hope you’ll keep posting, at least occasionally; you’re a great example to the rest of us.
mark,your writing has inspired me to get off my duff and write. further on, it has made me look at ways to improve my writing.keep up the blog…even if it is once a week.cheers,todd
Mark,
I’m glad you blog. Since we live so far away, it is a way that we, Lisa and I, keep up with your life, which is very interesting. And we do love seeing it through your eyes.
Barbara
Yeah, ditto what B said. Plus, nothing goes with my PBJ lunch quite like you do Mark. Thank you for sticking with it.
Oh, gosh, I would miss it if you stopped blogging! I love your take on restaurants; I travel vicariously through you; I enjoy your adventures; I wish I could meet Clyde! And besides, how else would I have known to get a Scrubbing Bubbles shower thing, which I love, without you?