the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

It is a while now since Monday Musings settled into its current format and I would like to make some changes. As yet I’ve not entirely decided what these should be, but what follows is the way that I am thinking.

The 600 words every Monday at 0600 UTC was a challenge that I was happy to meet. Over the years that I have been hitting that target I have written in a variety of styles and on a range of topics. Musings was intended to be a vehicle for serious topics even if I do get them over with a periodic use of humour, but the 600 words once a week has become something of a constraint, or at least from time to time it has.

I will keep the Monday column going though, simply because it is a good discipline and one that I find very useful in terms of business writing. Six hundred words in a standard font and size is a single sheet of A4 paper, and being able to set out an idea on a single side of paper is something that anyone in business should be able to do.

But when I wrote I Don’t Have My Decision Making Trousers On, the old Musings posts that I incorporated into that book all benefitted from being re-written with the freedom of however many words it took. In some cases they were improved by condensing them, but in most cases they came out a little longer. The 600 limit also precludes some of the stories that I have wanted to tell and a few of those drafts that I had stored away found their way into “Trousers”.

So what I have in mind is to keep my 600 word format musings coming through on Mondays, but to be able to bring in anything else that crosses my mind as and when it does. That leads to the second change, and this is also something that I’ve not yet decided on, but I will change the name of the blog. Monday Musings was somewhat un-original; there are many blogs with that title, but so far every alternative that I can come up with is also either in use or too close to someone else’s pride and joy for me to want to muscle in.

The change of name will therefore come when I get that spark of inspiration to find a new name for it; there is no hurry.

So it is business as usual, but with a gradual change over the coming weeks. Thanks to all who read what I write here, and another thanks to those who leave a comment, Tweet the blog or talk to me about things that I have written when we run in to each other.