30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Publish Worthy?

Back in 2010... I started this blog as a way of documenting my hobby experiences and corresponding with others who share a passion for cardboard.  Over those five years, I've built a fair share of friendships online and published over 1,250 posts... which is pretty hard for me to fathom.

It's just crazy.  The amount of time that goes into each post can range from a few minutes to a few hours, with most posts falling in the 15 minute to 75 minute spectrum.  Multiply that by twelve hundred and that's a huge part of my life.

Breaking down this information makes me appreciate everyone else's blogs that much more.  Keep it up guys!

Anyways... over the past year or so, I'm finding myself sitting in front of my laptop with nothing to write about on a more frequent basis.  Combine this factor to a bigger "self-imposed" work load and to be honest...  it's a little scary.  My hopes are that I'll be able to continue writing about cards until I ride off into the sunset of senior citizenship.  However... I've started to wonder if that's actually realistic.

I guess only time will tell.

In the meantime... I'm going to continue to chug along and write posts that I consider "publish" worthy.

Does anyone else have a bunch of "unpublished posts" sitting in their "post depository"?

I'm not talking about the ones that are complete and scheduled to post.  Nor am I talking about the ones waiting for the right moment in time.  I'm talking about the ones you've started... but never completed.  The ones you're still fine-tuning and debating on whether or not you should just push the delete button.

I've slowly been purging my collection of "unpublished posts"... including the one I had scheduled for yesterday.  I'm down to only five.  It actually feels refreshing... almost like coming back to work and sitting down at an uncluttered desk.

Anyways... I've rambled enough.  Here are a pair of updates...

2015 Tier One Acclaimed Autographs #AGA

#1  My COMC order has arrived.  Just need to sort everyone's stuff out and I should have packages in the mail sometime next week.  There were only a handful of cards for myself.  This Galarraga was one of them.  It took awhile, but I've finally added the Big Cat's signature to my Montreal Expos PC.


#2  Tristar still hasn't responded to my public service announcement.  It's been less than two weeks, so I guess there's still hope.  If you collect certified autographs and haven't read this post... you might want to check it out.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

15 comments:

Zippy Zappy said...

Currently I have 40 unpublished posts. 5 of them are for rainy days/days where I have nothing prepared and need something hold the masses over in a pinch, at least 3 or 4 are long think-pieces I've been working on for months (some of which won't be released for another 2 months either) and the rest are random ideas I've had at 3 in the morning when I can't sleep because I'm too busy thinking about high end vs low end.

Anyway nice Galarraga, although I'll forever mistake him with the pitcher who almost threw a no-no. And I don't expect Tristar to respond. If they do and they acknowledge that what you said is true, it makes them look weak/makes their stuff look phony and unmarketable in the end.

defgav said...

I've got 44 embryonic drafts currently, some stretching back as far as 2013. I should probably clean those up!

night owl said...

I think I'm a rarity. I have had very few unpublished posts while blogging. Maybe 3 or 4 total. I don't know why. Maybe since I'm a writer in "real life" and one who has to write on deadline, I've gotten out of the habit of "rough drafts," because at work, there's no time for that.

Matt said...

I have so many that I type up and then delete. I have done series and deleted them

BobWalkthePlank said...

I only save posts if I'm traveling. Usually everything I write is same day.

cynicalbuddha said...

I have a ton of unpublished material as well. Sometimes I have an idea and don't want to forget it so I'll state a post with the idea and hope to come back to it later. Other times I'll start something and then want to sit on it or I'll need to look up information or need to get images and then they fall by the wayside. And yes sometimes I get done writing something up and reread it and decided it isn't worth hitting the publish button.

J. Meeks said...

First, you scared the crap out of me...I thought this was going to be a "farewell" post. Not cool, man...not cool. haha

Second, I'm one of the few (it sounds like) that rarely have an unpublished post. On occasion, something will happen while I'm writing and I will have to leave, but most of the time, I need to finish the post when I begin writing. I don't know if it's an OCD tendency or if I am just afraid of a disjointed post, but I can't seem to hit "Save" and come back later.

Greg Zakwin said...

A few.

But on the subject of posting has anyone else noticed Blogger not having your posts show up in the blogroll at the time they actually publish? My Wednesday post didn't show up for like 13 hours after it actually went live.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I have so many unfinished posts that it feels like it'll take years to complete them (especially with other things getting in the way). I find reading continues to bring more ideas that I jot down figuring they'll evolve into posts.

Hope you do keep writing into the sunset!

One thing I've picked up as I've read more blogs is a theme of concern or pressure to write frequently. I hope writers give themselves a pass whenever they need it. I'll still be reading their blogs in a week or a month later. Just knowing they'll be around is better than someone burning out. It's a marathon not a sprint.

Kevin Papoy said...

I never save anything, I just write and then publish, without proof-reading it. Which explains a lot.

The Lost Collector said...

I'm more of a one post at a time person. Once in awhile I'll get ahead and have six or seven scheduled, but otherwise, I'm usually on a per post basis.

Tony L. said...

I'm with NO on this. As a lawyer, while most of my writing is not necessarily fun, most of it *is* on deadline. It's not all that often that I have time for a rough draft.

As a result, I don't have any unpublished posts in my queue. I generally publish my posts pretty much immediately after writing them -- and my typos show this.

Anonymous said...

Greg, it's funny that you mention this because one of my 30+ unpublished posts is titled "Things Which Anger The Blogroll Gods" and is about some of what I've learned from my own similar problems. Maybe I should finish that post...

Anonymous said...

Not only do I have a pile of unpublished posts that I've been meaning to clean up, I've got a never-will-be-published post titled "Unused images" that is just a repository for the images I'd uploaded for a post that later got deleted. Every now and then I go into there to grab one for something I'm writing.

buckstorecards said...

I'm in the Matthew Scott category. I only have posts saved and ready to go if I'm traveling or know I might not be able to do a post on a particular day. Other than that, they're done the day I post them.

PS: Cool Andres card! I've got one in my COMC inventory as well awaiting my pressing of the ship button.