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This is a Blog Post

To be honest, I won’t be offended if you don’t read this post. It isn’t going to say anything new or profound, I’d simply like to say something about how and why I produce blog posts.

To be honest, I won’t be offended if you don’t read this post. It isn’t going to say anything new or profound, I’d simply like to say something about how and why I produce blog posts.

I try and write something most working days; that is five posts a week. The main reason for this is that I have found that my readership decreases substantially when I don’t post frequently. It’s not that I’m particularly hooked on looking at statistics, but there doesn’t seem a lot of point in writing stuff if people are not going to read it. Getting the balance on this is difficult.

Generally, posts are not planned out in advance. I sit down at my computer around 7.30, open up WordPress and then try and think of something to write. Generally, this will be inspired by something I’ve been reading or working on over the last few days, but most posts involve a frustrating period of staring at a blank screen wondering what on earth I’m going to say. Book reviews and the occasional blog series come easier, because I know what I’m going to write about in advance. Once I finish the post, I start my working day.

I try and keep my posts to something around 500 words. Some are significantly longer than this, but I aim for brevity. Because my posts are short, they tend to carry one central idea. I don’t explore every possible implication of the things that I say and I throw in things which are controversial or thought provoking without always giving all of the background as to why I’m saying them. My posts are short, pithy, thought-provoking pieces which aim to raise issues and to get people thinking, not to solve the world’s problems. I am not writing academic articles or organisational reports where all of the ‘i’s need to be crossed and the ‘t’s dotted. If you want long reasoned arguments, read a book.

So why am I writing this post, today? Well, firstly, because I was short of inspiration. I couldn’t think of anything profound to write, so I wrote this. If you have any good ideas about what I should have written about, please feel free to leave them in the comments. However, there is another reason; I want to have a post that explains how and why I write blog posts so that I can refer people to it when they seem aggrieved that I’ve not written something along the lines of a masters’ dissertation immediately after breakfast (as happens from time to time).

Over the years, Kouyanet has sort of taken on a life of it’s own. It started off as a vehicle to help us raise support, but it has developed into a somewhat of a niche blog. There are other world mission blogs that go into far more depth than this one, but there are few, if any, which publish as often on such a wide range of issues (and I’m not even thinking about the posts on running and dubious detective fiction). The breadth, frequency and brevity of Kouyanet posts are, I believe, its great strength. They are also its great weakness, but I’m happy to live with that.

While you are here, the original purpose of Kouyanet was to help raise support for our work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. The need for support is still there. If you appreciate what we write on Kouyanet, please consider doing something to support us; you can make a one off gift or (even better) support us regularly via Wycliffe or buy us something from our Amazon wishlist or even make a one off gift via PayPal at the foot of the page. Thank you. 

 

2 replies on “This is a Blog Post”

I enjoyed this! Full of admiration for the relentless effort that goes into this, and grateful for it.

I saw your tweet recently helping someone to plan a course where you suggested your top mission thinkers that should be covered. Would love to see a series on that where you briefly outline how some missiologists past and present have shaped and enjoyed your thinking. I suppose your book reviews come close to that, but not quite.

I know you’ve done it previously, but posts on mission blogs that are worth following are always useful. Have you ever done one on twitter too (e.g. best mission agencies/mission-thinkers worth a follow…I’m always on the lookout!

I am a regular reader and always enjoy your blogs. It stimulates much thought and I often find myself saying ‘AMEN’ but have never commented before, so maybe it’s about time! THANK YOU Eddie and keep it up!

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