A Well-Timed Prod

Dear Uncle Gus,

Now that you've had a successful debut as an OpEd writer at PajamasMedia, will we see more such pieces from you?

Signed,

Tired of Waiting

Dear Tired,

First, let me once again tamp down those persistent rumors to the effect that I can predict the future.

With that out of the way, the timing of your question could not have been better. I would like to ease in to writing a regular column, while continuing to blog on a daily basis. Clearly, the first hasn't happened, yet. Your timing suggests a solution, or at least the start of one, though.

In the first "Ask Uncle Gus," I described a process of squeezing an extra blog post out of scraps of blogging time. Your question suggests to me that this "extra time" would be better spent on work for columns instead.

In fact, now that I think of it, part of the problem with the way I have tried to work in op-ed writing has been that I need to get out of the habit of doing the bulk of the work for such pieces in one sitting. That often requires large blocs of time that I can't always count on, just for starters. The above strategy would work well for such a purpose.

So I'll try that, see how well I can produce that way, and evaluate at the end of each month. Such a work process would have the added advantage of not nuking me out of a column any time my weekend gets crowded, too.

I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but I didn't. At any rate, it's partially for the sake of insights like this, that come from interacting with my readers that I want to continue blogging, so I appreciate your question. (And I'll keep taking FormSpring questions, but now they'll be part of the blogging rotation, instead.)

-- CAV

If you'd like to ask a question, just type it into the box at the upper right labeled, "Ask Uncle Gus."