Today, I’m dropping into the blogosphere asking advice of bloggers both old and new. The first draft writing of Chasing Down the Night is in gear now and, though I’ve been through this twice before, I had forgotten how intense this phase of creativity can be.

I definitely need to do a bit of pre-planning for the day ahead before I enter the world of Crater Lake. I emerged in a daze the other day to realize it was almost 5:00 pm, I had no plans for dinner, the breakfast dishes were still in the sink and a cold wind was whipping through the cabin. When did it get cloudy and when did the wind shift?

Clearing the decks of a few tasks before writing time begins is a great idea. But here’s where your advice comes in. The WordPress blog world is a wonderful place. I follow a number of blogs and new ones catch my interest at a fairly regular rate. I try to stay caught up with most of the posts that stream into the WordPress Reader – at any rate – with the one’s that catch my eye (and so many do!) and posts written by long time blogging friends.

It takes time to read a post with the attention necessary to like it or make a relevant comment. We all know there are people out there who whip down the Reader clicking like, like, like without ever reading more than a couple of words we’ve written. Seriously, what is the point?

Even with a degree of winnowing out – let’s face it, not everything is of interest at any given time. Some days I’m in the mood to read a movie review or a list of the top ten places you don’t want to be seen taking a photograph and other days it’s more like serious writing tips or advice only – the process of staying caught up is daunting and time consuming. When I’m first draft writing, it seems impossible.

I want to be a blogger who is engaged with others and time must also be allocated to write a decent post now and then and respond to comments. That is the triple header of blogging to me – writing, reading, responding.

I know there are bloggers out there who simply make an announcement – I’m off the radar for x amount of time – period, end of story. Oh to be so firm on setting boundaries. If that was me, I wouldn’t be asking for advice and I wouldn’t be me.

So, how do you chase after your daily pursuits and stay caught up in the blog world? Does anyone have a method they could share? I’m all ears.

The sun is out today in our little corner of the world and the rock wall garden expansion is happening. I will definitely leave Crater Lake a couple of times today to walk in the sun, enjoy the garden and get inspired.