TNB Night Owl – Save The Night Owl

Welp, Lady Snark’s most recent Night Owl lit a fire under my assets, so here we go.

The best impulsive decision I have ever made was to volunteer to write for the News Blender. Back in May of 2018, Steve ran an article titled, “Help Wanted!” and, without hesitating more than a moment, I responded to the advert-article. I had no idea where it would lead, I just knew I wanted to be a part of this new and dynamic website which was exponentially better than the place from which we (well, most of us anyway) had come.

I understand Lady Snark’s need to get away from the toxicity of politics. It’s not healthy to be immersed in the sludge without coming up regularly for a breath of fresh air, especially when also dealing with muck outside of social media. After only my first dozen articles, I crashed for several months. The only way I was able to come back to the table was through the Owl. The Night Owl helped me get through these past several years. As a result, I have a fondness for the Owl. I also think it serves an important purpose and fills a need.

Now, I’m not the type to make impulse buys. I’m analytical. I take my time making important decisions. In fact, I started thinking at least two years ago about cutting back the number of articles I contributed each week. You are now reading my third attempt to explain why you should write for the Night Owl. I wasn’t satisfied with the (unpublished) earlier drafts that I started many moons ago – although that may be because deep down, subconsciously, I really didn’t want to curtail or stop.

However, the time has come – indeed is long overdue – when I must turn my full attention to responsibilities outside of TNB. There’s just too much on my plate right now to do everything required of me. It’s been headed that way for awhile, which is why you’ve seen so many music playlists. I can do them (and have) in my sleep. No other format requires less of my time and effort. Similarly, the Question Of The Night (QOTN) was long ago unceremoniously axed in the interest of saving time and getting more sleep.

Like Lady Snark, I am not saying goodbye, I’m just declaring a hiatus for the foreseeable future, beginning March 3.

It’s not possible for me to contribute on a schedule anymore, and I expect to be gone for quite awhile. However, time permitting, I might be able to write some Owls as backups to be held in reserve in case someone can’t make a publication deadline for some reason. Life happens, I know. There were a few times when I had emergencies or circumstances beyond my control come up. Fortunately, Alienmotives and Tiff were there to cover for me. As an aside, I enjoyed working with both of them, immensely.

While I’m acknowledging people, I want to be sure to mention how grateful I am to Steve for taking a chance on me. I was overly (unrealistically) optimistic, thinking it would be easy, but I quickly found out how rusty my writing and deep-thinking skills were. As painful for me as it was, the time and effort it took to get up to speed has been far more than worth it. Steve, Alien, Tiff, Beth, and Lenny, thank you for all your help, support, and patience, especially in the early years.

Let’s get to the heart of this article. These are a few of the benefits of writing for TNB, especially The Night Owl:

• Writing is thinking – it makes you use your brain – it’s even more dynamic for your mind than reading,

• Exercising the mind is one of the important ways to keep our brains young, prevent atrophy and perhaps even dementia as we grow older,

• Writing improves cognition as well as written communication skills,

• Surprisingly, writing also improves verbal communication skills (try it and see!),

• Writing non-political articles for the Owl gives you a break from thinking about politics,

• Non-political Night Owl articles provide a brief distraction from politics for others,

• You can bring back the QOTN if you like.

 

Content is King. Websites live or die by content. That was true at the dawn of the web, and it’s still true now. New content draws new regulars. New regulars are what makes a site grow and keeps it alive. If the comments section is all there is, new regulars will be rare. Few webizens want to crash a party where everyone else has been there for years, with long-established relationships. Without new regulars, a site shrinks from attrition.

To keep a site going takes commitment. For TNB (or any successful website) to work, there must be content creators/contributors who are committed to showing up at publication time with an article. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever get time off. Thanks to Halo stepping up, Beth, Tiff, and Lady Snark have been covered when they needed time off. However, it needs to be pointed out that the site has been operating with a skeleton crew for a few years.

For the site to have a bright future, we need to develop a deep bench of talent. I know that the talent is already here, hanging out in the comments section, including both those who comment frequently and those who don’t. I’ve never been one to comment much myself, which I think proves one doesn’t need to be a constant commenter to be a contributor. Also, I’ve seen many comments over the years that could have easily become short articles fit for publication.

I encourage everyone to write non-political Night Owl articles (paging Lady Snark). Every single one of you is an interesting individual (and I feel I know you pretty well when I say that) with interesting stories to tell and ideas to convey. Articles don’t have to be lengthy to be worthy of print.

If you prefer to write political pieces, those would be awesome and most welcome as well, but please consider helping to save the Night Owl, too.

If you’re worried that you’re not a good enough writer, allow me to re-introduce myself. When I started writing here, I felt all my articles sucked (some more than others). I wrote at least a hundred pieces before I began to gain confidence in my abilities. A few things kept me going even when I thought I wasn’t “good enough”: (1) the realization that I’d never improve without practice, and practicing in front of a live audience (like playing a musical instrument) keeps the pressure on – a little pressure can be an excellent motivator, (2) the realization that everyone makes mistakes, which allowed me to give myself a break – and I’ve made beaucoup mistakes, ranging from the common and trivial to the deeply embarrassing I-know-better-than-to-do-something-so-stupid-and-I-didn’t-even-see-the-error-for-days-even-after-it-was-pointed-out-to-me, (3) the fact that I was writing for friends who were not prone to dishing undeserved criticism – in fact, I believe everyone has been very kind here, I’ve often seen other sites where criticism of authors has been brutal and unjustified, (4) understanding that writing is an art and will always be a work in progress.

This is the perfect place for novice writers to get their feet wet.

Writing for TNB is a great gig. No one has ever told me what I must or should write. There’s almost no limit to what you can do with the Night Owl or the weekend open threads. To cite a few examples, Lady Snark’s OCD Jukebox and (film) Noir Side Street series were brilliant. Emily’s Weird State Laws series and assorted Tik-Toks have been very popular. Alienmotives’ wide-ranging, often arcane, and sometimes esoteric brand of Night Owls were always unique and interesting.

You can write about your hobbies, your pets, or anything that interests you. (Just keep it clean, this is a family show.) Don’t hesitate to try something new. If it doesn’t pan out like you envisioned, try a different direction. This is a learning experience, first and foremost. So what, if an article doesn’t get the response you’d hoped for? What have you learned from it? Could you have done something differently? Don’t ever stop trying, and don’t forget to have fun. I had a blast, once I started writing Night Owls. It awakened a passion I didn’t know was there.

TNB now needs several contributors to step up to the plate. If a handful of you come forward, each would only need to write one or maybe two short articles per week to fill the time slots about to be vacated.

Please make a commitment to TNB, and help save the Night Owl. Express your interest to: tiff_thenewsblender@yahoo.com

Thank you.

About the opinions in this article…

Any opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website or of the other authors/contributors who write for it.

About Richard Doud 622 Articles
Learning is a life-long endeavor. Never stop learning. No one is right all the time. No one is wrong all the time. No exceptions to these rules.