I have been the beneficiary of praise over the years for being able to produce content like sh!t through a goose. That’s not to say it doesn’t come out the same way when I’ve his schedule or publish, simply that there are times when the conjunction of “what should I write about” and the finished product arrives…quickly and in quantity.
Needs must, but usually without any negative connotation. The Grok is a hungry thing, and someone has to feed it—seven to eight new pieces, every day, 365 days a year.
Thankfully, they don’t all need to be mine, and I have resources at hand, which include regular users (‘Grok Authors’), Op-Ed submissions, press releases, group emails, and a handful of third-party resources I can tap to fill the schedule each day, whom I must link to and cite if I share.
Readers send me lots of links, articles, or just suggestions, and that helps, but parts of the year see a drop-off in several or all of those. Many of our “regulars” are unavailable, tangled up in family or personal matters, or have moved on from this platform as a vehicle for their activism. Some just stopped, or never really started. Skip and I have an inside joke we like to share. The best way to get a prolific op-ed writer to stop is to give them their own login.
I can’t count the number of times it has happened. A fantastic contributor relationship ends if you ask them to marry themselves to it.-even though nothing about the relationship has changed. No obligation, we’re just letting them write it, or copy and paste it into the actual workspace where we put it for them.
They were putting out at a record pace, but something about allowing them access to the platform scares them off. It is a curse I continue to challenge because it wasn’t always like that. No one got down on one knee, offered a ring, or had any expectations for content, quantity, or quality; we just thought we’d skip a step. You can write it in GraniteGrok, choose images from the media library, add stuff as long as it’s not copy-protected, and we’ll give it a quick editorial glance for spelling, grammar, etc., potential for lawsuits, and publish it.
Poof, runaway bride.
Would it help if we went back to the old way?
All of which is to say, each morning I get up and try to fill a day’s worth of content, typically the next day, and some days it is more complicated than others. Some days, like today, that magic goose stops laying “eggs.”
It’s not exactly writer’s block. I explain it more like this. Some days, every headline or video clip is a story waiting to get out of my head. Some days, there’s no there there. Today, for example, instead of some insightful or snarky observations about the news of the day, you get this.
I’m not sure if it is a technique to get past, over, or through that which constipates the goose, but writing about why you can’t start writing is how this post came to be. A collection of random thoughts with no plan when it began, other than to put some words down that might be worthy of the audience.
I respect your time and attention. Like our many forms of contributors, you are not under any obligation to participate. It is our job, my job, to find things you might like to explore, be it for exploration, elucidation, entertainment, or to take to your woodshed.
Yeah, fundraising is hard, but have you ever tried to make content appear when there’s nothing there? You feel like it, or at least you think you do, and the inspiration is absent, at the same time as everyone else who helps you get it done.
It happens. Comes with the territory. My being inspired by more things more often is not a litmus, benchmark, or goal to which anyone else needs to strive. And there are lots of other places to express your political observations. Some of them pay you, so I get it, and I appreciate everyone who contributes, from memes to links to post content, to readers, commenters, all of it.
It is not a trite notion when I refer to us doing more together. GraniteGrok.com is all of us doing something together that reaches a lot more people than Google will ever let on. And we grow that reach together.
Beginning in 2026, Grok Manchester is expected to see an increase in content, as Republicans there seek a platform for Manchester politics, and we built one years ago. The curse might yet kill it, but ManchGrok might yet surpass NashuaGrok (which was slow to start, itself, and yes, that’s a challenge.
I will be a regular on Morning Update with Jeff Chidester on WFEA 99.9FM/1370AM. The first Wednesday of each month at 7:35 am, Jeff and I will talk about the politics and news of the day. Jan 7th is the first appearance.
Grok content is now available on Patch.com in New Hampshire. Not all of it. A select few to aggravate the proglodytes a few times each week and help reach a new audience. Excerpts published under my name, beginning at Merrimack Patch, and shared in the odd Patch newsletter.
We started building an audience on LinkedIn in 2025 and grew it a bit more on X, and after adding our own Morning Update in September, we are working on building audiences on my YouTube and on Instagram.
We added podcasts 7 nights a week in 2025, and spent way too much time fixing things on the backend, but it was to improve the reader experience. More to do, always, and we’re still looking for some younger authors who don’t fall prey to the curse.
And it looks like I managed to write my way through whatever that was.
Thanks for comin’ on the ride with me, every day, whatever that may look like for you. It is so very much appreciated.
