{"id":1701,"date":"2009-12-07T11:21:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T16:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2009-12-08T16:37:57","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T21:37:57","slug":"absence-makes-blogs-shorter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/12\/absence-makes-blogs-shorter\/","title":{"rendered":"Absence Makes Blogs Shorter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brick<\/strong> has been sporadic for some weeks. With luck, it will be more active in December.<\/p>\n

\"National<\/a>
National Novel Writing Month<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Want an excuse? How about National Novel Writing Month<\/a>. It\u2019s 50,000 words to create a first draft of a novel (around a 200-page book) in 30 days. November is the one. My third try<\/a>, and I went past 50,000 by midnight Nov. 30. It contains parts that might work as a beginning, climaxes and conclusions for the end, and scene upon scene to fill the middle. It will take another year or three to revise it to where I could show a savvy friend. The surprise for me is that I thought I\u2019d be creating characters from people I know, but the cast is amazingly fictional.<\/p>\n

So that explains November. What about only 10 postings in six months? There\u2019s explanations and excuses. But why not look forward? Besides, my self-editing prevented real junk from littering the shoulder of the Information Highway. Even if that never bothers other people.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that always the case on the road?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brick has been sporadic for some weeks. With luck, it will be more active in December. Want an excuse? How about National Novel Writing Month. It\u2019s 50,000 words to create a first draft of a novel (around a 200-page book) in 30 days. November is the one. My third try, and I went past 50,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technical-difficulties"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":376,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/one-third-short\/","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":0},"title":"One-third short","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Hats off to the organizers of National Novel Writing Month. This group began in 1999 with 21 participants who challenged one another to write 50,000 words of a novel (which makes for a short but complete novel, Gatsby length) in 30 days. The month chosen is November. The word count\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4666,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/12\/dinting-not-daunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":1},"title":"Dinting Not Daunting: Daily Diary for December","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I lost in \"NaNoWriMo\" this past month. The goal of National Novel Writing Month, held every November, is to craft at least 50,000 words of a new novel (not revising a draft nor picking up an abandoned manuscript) in those 30 days. This was my fourth try, beginning in 2007.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3186,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/11\/wheres-the-sin-in-synchronicity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":2},"title":"Where’s the Sin in Synchronicity?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This column first was published as the \u201cPresident\u2019s Message\u201d in the November 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. \"How can there be any sin in sincere? \"Where is the good in goodbye?\" -- \"Sincere\" by Meredith Willson in The Music Man It may be yet another way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3146,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/09\/making-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":3},"title":"Making Book","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here it is September, and not only that but mid-September, and I have not posted my periodic list of books absorbed. This will be the second year I have attempted a complete list of books. Some I read, some I hear, as CD sets in the car while commuting. January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/06\/john-updike-really\/","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":4},"title":"John Updike, Really","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- After arriving at the Dunes of Ogunquit motor court after midnight and in a drizzle, My Beloved Wife and I gave ourselves permission to take it easy today, not push. We have through Thursday morning in Maine and we don't want to waste a minute, but we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boston Blotter"","block_context":{"text":"Boston Blotter","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/boston-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3581,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/03\/fourth-and-goal\/","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":5},"title":"Fourth and Goal","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Completing the book list of 2011 shouldn't be taxing. Its first entry after all took in the first three quarters. So where are we? Or to quote independent Ross Perot's 1992 running mate James Stockdale (it IS a presidential year, after all), in a televised debate's opening statement: \"Who am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1705,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}