Blog of Funk, 2005

Several times this year I have experienced the true joy of blogging. It exists, blog heaven, that blissful state where art and communication fuse and enter the technosphere in some synchronous near-spiritual way. I am not the only one to make it my meditation, my shaman, my drug of choice, my salvation, my funky dance. There are millions of us, many far more pretentious than even me.

I get about 23,000 visitors a month. This includes about seven thousand actual readers, and a small but dedicated group of subscribers. I think. Even allowing for traffic generator "pimping" - how I love that phrase - Blog of Funk is doing quite well, internet traffic-wise, getting a steady trickle from directories and other reciprocally linked blogs, but what fascinates me is the ever-increasing traffic from search engines - the new dumb mind of the world, stumbling along, asking questions and arriving at Blog of Funk, and various of my dubious scrivenings. Looking at the logs, Toblerone does the best, followed by "Bonking" Boris Johnson, followed by These Boots Are Made For Walking. Portland Road does quite well, as do Adrian's Haunted Trousers. Fish, Sex and Sleep is a constant runner.

At the end of 2004, my writing was a random mix of personal reflection, autobiographical anecdote, speculation, ranting and imagery, and I decided to tidy it up and find more focus. During 2005 I stuck mostly to the plan of one theme per month. Some of the time I knew definitely what the theme for the month was ahead of time - Valentine's Day in Feb and the UK Election April/May, for e.g. were obvious - but the rest of the time, I followed the curves of the year and responded by writing myself through it.

The bad months of 2005 were also my most personally productive - August and September were awful, but blogging - specifically, writing fiction - saved me. I wrote two short stories during that time, which effort lifted my game, and as person I survived somehow (yes it was that bad) some days only because of the dirty "d" word - discipline - that writing has provided me.

So, this was Blog of Funk, 2005:

December, I was on the MONEY

November, I was scared SICK

October 2005, I was MARKING TIME

September 2005, I MADE IT ALL UP

August 2005, I considered CREATURES

July 2005, was I being CURIOUS?

June 2005 I diced with DEATH

May 2005 I was UNWINDING

April 2005 I covered POLITICS

March 2005 I wrote about LYRICS

February 2005 I explored PLACES

January 2005 I examined LOVE

I won't be repeating the 2005 Blog of Funk writing regime, but I do recommend it to any blogger. It's rewarding in itself as a writing framework to stimulate invention and deepen your take on a subject. It's a great way to increase your readership, and have a dialogue with your readers. It's fun - people are still playing the love song game.

My other life also contains writing - songs, not prose, not fiction, and my songwriting has also gone well this year. I think i owe that partly to my concentration on the blog. I am going to release songs next year, and this should be a lot more fun.

For me the best aspect of 2005 has without a doubt been the connection with readers. I have a sense of profound gratitude bordering on love for the people who really do like my writing and who have been continually reading me for months. Astonishing loyalty, I marveled at some point this year - they are STILL reading my work and liking it! So, thanks! Good for the self-esteem. It keeps me going. It's a great experience when a new reader finds the blog, likes it, starts reading the archives and makes comments; suddenly responses to things I wrote months back are arriving in my morning email. How cool is that? It keeps me in touch with my travelling mind.

So many of you are great in your own blogness, fabulously intelligent, witty, kind and fulsome people, relinquent and stamfastic in your incredibude, and I sincerely thank you all for your comments, which have caused many a delighted laugh, several wry smiles, some musings, a rash, one upset stomach, and two periods of several days of serious concern about the wellbeing of people I have never met.

I want to meet you all and drink endless nectar toasts to our good selves, to the wood elves, and to the horny, funky spirit of everything upliftingly glorious.

May the Funk bless all who sail in you.