I don't think I'm quite so philosophical. I started my blog as a
journal for myself, and I have noticed over time that keeping notes
for even the most mundane tea has helped me with my drinking -- I'm
noticing more things. Also, writing about it in a way others will
(hopefully) understand helps me process the information in a way I
wouldn't if I weren't doing this.

The initial reason for choosing to blog was simple -- it's an easy way
to keep the pictures together with the notes. I know if I kept a
notebook it'll be disorganized and I'll be too lazy to keep it up
after a while, and there'll be no pictures. Pictures say a lot more
than words. I find words fairly useless in describing flavours and
generally don't try to do so, since everybody's definition of "woody"
or "fruity" is different. Words are better at describing one's
physical reactions to a tea, and that's what I tend to do a little
more.

It doesn't take very long, actually, to do any of this. Half an hour
at most per day, not counting the time it takes to drink the tea,
which I'll be doing anyway.

lz

On Oct 22, 12:38 am, HobbesOxon wrote:
Dear Julian,

I hope you don't mind if I venture an opinion on this subject, as
it's one I've been considering, too, having been writing the "Half-
Dipper" for a while now.

The motivation really has to come from the fact that it's a normal
part of your hobby - this is true for all writing, I think, not just
blogging. I think you have to answer the following question very
carefully, when thinking about starting a blog:

What are the primary reasons that you want to write to blog?

So, for example, my own answer to this question comes from the fact
that I have a lot of notes, spread around a large number of hand-
written books (my journals, in fact, which also contain my personal
jottings). All except the most recent volume are kept in a wooden
box, and they're quite inaccessible. To go back and find my notes on
a particular tea is not an easy task. So, one of my main reasons for
blogging is to allow a fully-searchable (and indexed) list of my
thoughts on various teas - mostly wulong and pu'er. It also has the
advantage over my journals in that I can include some photos of the
tea itself, and that upon revisiting a tea, addenda can be created in
a tea entry for new impressions that cannot easily be done for paper-
and-pencil journals. As my readers will have probably noticed from
the photos, I still keep the journals going, but I transcribe the
results to the Half-Dipper afterwards.

That was my founding principle, but of equal importance are two
other factors: the notes are, I hope, of some (albeit probably small)
interest to others, in forming a rounded opinion of certain teas. If
I am contemplating buying a new tea, I like to read around my trusted
sources to canvas their opinion, and I hope that the Half-Dipper can
fulfil this function for others, to some limited extent.

Last, but clearly not least, it's a great way to emphasise the
communal aspects of tea-drinking. RFDT, the Pu'er Livejournal, Mike's
pu'er forum and other dedicated fora are great cornerstones of the
distributed (computer literate) tea-drinking community, but personal
blogs are a great way to focus comments on particular teas, and
randomly discussing other transient topics that pass through the
authors' minds as they're writing their blog articles.

So, you've identified your reasons for writing - but how do you
motivate yourself? I think if you explicitly need to make an effort
to motivate yourself, then you probably shouldn't be writing a blog,
with all the best will in the world. That is, if it becomes a chore
and a grind, and you need to "push on, day after day", then clearly
your blog has stepped out of the realm of being fun, and started
becoming a bit of a burden. They say "a half-baked loaf satisfies
neither baker nor eater", and I think this is true of blogs. My
favourites are those that stay fresh and retain the passion of the
writer, while those that slip to the bottom of my frequently-read list
are those that are clearly becoming more of a chore for the authors.
I think Tea Logic's VL has the right approach: when it shifts out of
being a pleasure, and starts becoming a chore, then just take a
break. Better that than pushing on, I think. Though everyone cried
when Watterson stopped writing Calvin & Hobbes, they were better off
in the long-run; their memories of the lovely, wise comic strip would
not be quite so sweet had he pushed on and started churning out
material while letting the quality slip (as with so many other
syndicated comic strips).

I think one of the biggest sins of blogging is thinking that you
have to write at a certain frequency. Instantly, you have created a
burden of your hobby (even if the burden is light), and the beauty of
tea-drinking becomes embroiled with an obligation to write another
article for one's blog. Just to write when you have something to say,
that is enough, I think.

"Keep it fresh", as a friend of mine likes to say whenever
opportunity presents.

Toodlepip,

Hobbes