Another important decision I had to make, as I began to re-imagine The Honest Apothecary blog, was about the posting cadence I intend to keep up. To put it in more pharmaceutical terms: What would the dosing frequency be? QD? QOD? PRN? Those are pharmacy shorthand for daily, every other day, or as needed. How often would I decide to regularly dispense content from my little corner of the Internet?
With blogging, like medicine, consistency in the dosing schedule is pretty important. If you are supposed to take something daily, skipping a few days isn’t good. If your blog posting schedule is 3 times a week, then missing multiple weeks ends up confusing your readers. It’s Wednesday, where is my post? Is he okay? Should we call someone? Panic ensues, like the person who runs out of refills on a weekend.
Honestly, this decision about the posting frequency was the hardest one I had to make when it came to re-launching, or re-imagining, my blog. Writing is my drug of choice. I love everything about it. The click click of the keyboard as I tap my thoughts into existence. The wrestling with the words, the struggling with the sentences, the fighting with the phrases, until finally they fall into submission before you. The backspacing. Oh the backspacing. Deleting whole documents because, upon re-reading, it felt like a cold cadaver and I shuddered to think it almost got published online.
The Struggle
Because I love the art of writing, my temptation and strong desire was to commit to a daily posting. I could hear the smokey whisper of an angel in my ear saying, “You can do it! Write every day. You know it’s what you want.”
But that angel had horns. He wanted to see me fail. He loves it when others, like himself, aim too high and fall to the ground.
A brighter being, whose robes somehow smelled like sunshine and sea breezes, persuaded me that three posts per week was a better approach. This could be managed. This pace could be kept up.
The struggle was over. The fever broke. I felt like things were looking up. I had an answer I could manage and live with.
The Dosing Decision
So that is where I have landed for now. After an initial series of “re-imaging” posts, I will settle into a Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday schedule. As I mentioned in my first post after the re-birth of my blog, the topics that will be found here at The Honest Apothecary will be broader than they were before.