20190623.0430

This webspace has received entries seven previous years on this date, in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (if ineptly titled), and 2018. I'm not sure that any of my previous efforts on the date speak to me in any real way at this point; perhaps it is simply the way I feel as I sit down to write this entry, but I do not feel much connection to the writing I put out into the world on those occasions. I think I am beginning to get to the end of my enthusiasm for this month's blogging project, even though there's a week yet for me to cover with it. Again, though, it could simply be that I'm tired at the moment for some reason; I may well feel differently when I return to the task for tomorrow's post.
Honestly, I'm a bit distracted at the moment. As I write this, I am scraping out a bit of time between freelance writing jobs and other tasks to which I need to attend. It's hard to focus my attention on this little bit of work, even though it is important to me. I try to address well those tasks I have appointed to myself as a matter of principle; I'm not much good to anyone if I can't meet my obligations even to myself, after all. And I know that if I want to get better at writing--which I do--I need to practice it, even more than I have been. I average 500 words or so per post to this webspace when I write prose, or I use that number as a benchmark, but I know it's not a lot of writing, overall. I really ought to be hammering out a thousand at a time for a blog entry, if what I've seen is conventional wisdom. It might not have been, but still...
Once again, as near the beginning of this calendar year, I wonder if I ought not to fold more of my writerly efforts into a singly venue. I question whether the work I do here is sufficiently distinct from the work I do in, say, my more professional blog to warrant the added upkeep on this space. (The Tales after Tolkien Society stuff is not all mine, of course, so it will need to stay where it is.) Or, rather, I question whether it is really in my best interest to keep what I have been doing here as distinct from what I have been doing there as I have been. I've calmed down a fair bit in some ways as I have gotten older and taken on more in my life outside academe, and the areas in which I have grown more outspoken are areas I voice in public venues, anyway. I'm not protected by anonymity--not that I'm terribly anonymous here, given what I link and what I've written elsewhere in this webspace.
If I opt to consolidate, it won't be quite yet. As this gets where other people can see it, I'll be away on a trip, and I'm not going to make any major changes while I'm on the road. And, like I note above, I may just be feeling a bit off as I squeeze this in among many other pieces of writing I do.