Reflecting back on my stint blogging for the Monthly's Political Animal headliner blog, I have a few thoughts:
1) It ain't easy. Being able to crank out ~12 posts in a day is, when I think about it, an extremely strange skill. You've got to be a fast writer, a faster reader, and able to come up with a coherent point (little ones count) about issues extremely quickly.
2) I have some talent at it. Not to toot my own horn, but I think given that it was my first time I did a reasonable job. By the standards of, say, Matt Yglesias, I'd say it was pretty amateurish--I had some repurposed posts from this blog, and a couple posts that I knew were half-assed when I was writing them--but on the other hand, I thought I had a couple of solid ones too. That was by far the most blogging I've done in a single day, and adjusting for my lack of experience I'd give myself a B+. Give me a bit of practice and I think I could keep up with the big dogs.
3) Most importantly, I had a great time doing it. Even though I felt intense pressure to perform, and barely slept the night before for nervousness, it was an absolutely great experience. It was the good kind of pressure, where you feel a chance to succeed in doing something that you love. And then I managed to, if not hit a home run, hit a double. That is a great feeling, and I am yet more convinced that I have chosen the right career.
1) It ain't easy. Being able to crank out ~12 posts in a day is, when I think about it, an extremely strange skill. You've got to be a fast writer, a faster reader, and able to come up with a coherent point (little ones count) about issues extremely quickly.
2) I have some talent at it. Not to toot my own horn, but I think given that it was my first time I did a reasonable job. By the standards of, say, Matt Yglesias, I'd say it was pretty amateurish--I had some repurposed posts from this blog, and a couple posts that I knew were half-assed when I was writing them--but on the other hand, I thought I had a couple of solid ones too. That was by far the most blogging I've done in a single day, and adjusting for my lack of experience I'd give myself a B+. Give me a bit of practice and I think I could keep up with the big dogs.
3) Most importantly, I had a great time doing it. Even though I felt intense pressure to perform, and barely slept the night before for nervousness, it was an absolutely great experience. It was the good kind of pressure, where you feel a chance to succeed in doing something that you love. And then I managed to, if not hit a home run, hit a double. That is a great feeling, and I am yet more convinced that I have chosen the right career.
Good work, congrats!
ReplyDeleteOkaayy, I see this was posted... yesssterday.
Back to work! Chop Chop!!