I’ve been asking myself that question increasingly often of late.
I’ve been finding it hard to think of things to write about, and the very urge to write seems to have diminished.
Admittedly, I’ve been operating under difficult constraints this month: huge amounts of time devoted to househunting/packing/moving, attendant stress and shortage of sleep, being cut off from the Internet for a week, and striving to observe a self-imposed word-limit on my posts.
But I fear I may have burned myself out on this blogging lark.
It probably doesn’t help that so much of my work these days – virtually all of it over the past two months – is writing. If you’re bound to the keyboard for 5 or 6 hours a day to earn a crust, writing starts to lose its appeal as a restorative hobby.
Or maybe I’m just running out of stories to tell??
10 comments:
Lol, don't!
I have been a bit of a blog junky for the past few years, and you without a doubt strike me as one of the bloggers who really enjoys getting stuff off the chest. Do it for yourself and nobody else, and only if you still find it enjoyable/therapeutic.
I really didn't truly understand blogging until I started my own. Now I am sure other bloggers have had different experiences but I was incredibly dissapointed with it and subsequently my participation in the 'blog scene' plummeted. I felt I had an interesting tale to tell (hiking the PCT), and a decent pool of family, friends, and bloggers whom I had supported to pull from, coupled with an above average writing ability (if I may say). What I was disappointed in, was the lack of interaction.
For me, the only purpose of running a blog is to interact. I sent out announcements to all my friends and fellow bloggers and recieved consistent interaction from 3 people. Here's what stung, I purposely was active on about 2 dozen blogs for the sole purpose of supporting the 'blogger', I received pretty much nill reciprocation, including to a degree from one Mr. Froog. Granted, you did devote a post to my journey, but so many bloggers whom I had previously supported with dozens of comments couldn't be bothered with well wishes to start my journey or condolences when I was taken off with injury.
It was at that point, I realized, I had been wasting my time. Bloggers were little more than narcissists. I was sadder, yet wiser. Nothing more pathetic than a blogger who won't interact with the commenters, as if they fancy themselves a paid journalist. Much credit to you for always partaking in conversation with your commenters.
It goes beyond that, how much do our personal connections really care? My best friend called about two weeks after my injury post to ask me how the trail was going and had to embarrasingly admit he hadn't been following the blog.
My point is..... If you enjoy it, keep doing it, if you don't.... don't. 52 channels and nothing on.... there are about a billion channels now with nothing on. Most of the other blogs I dumped, I keep coming here because your insights and writing abilities make it worthwhile. But don't blog out of obligation, most people won't give a shit one way or the other.
Ah, you dredge up an old guilt, HF. I believe I have apologized before for failing to comment on your blog - an omission for which I had elaborate, if not particularly impressive excuses.
Glad you're still reading here, at any rate.
But you're right - while I do feel a certain gratitude and obligation towards you and my handful of other regulars, I am essentially writing for my own amusement. And if it's not so amusing at the moment, I may take a break for a little while.
Then again, I may recover joie d'ecrire in a day or two. (Is that a phrase? It is now!) Just feeling a bit rundown and depressing after all the moving hassles recently.
Me thinks you need a different tack and this word limit I don't understand at all; I look forward to your blog every day so when it ends so abruptly short it's a bit sad, not like your older articles.
Of course I understand what you're saying but a break may mean you never come back. A change in direction on the other hand, now all we need are some ideas...
A lot of my immediate thoughts should probably be reserved for the younger blogger (I expect you'd find them a little immature e.g. having themes or tasks to restrict yourself to rather than a word count- becomes like a silly game; this week I'm going to find as many sand piles as I can etc.) so the only suitable thing that comes to mind is what I often return to- a more image based approach. Photos and dare I say it, video might rekindle your fire but again I don't know how comfortable you'd be with such things. You recently wrote about how the Chinese are incredibly nosy, well I'd love to see it in action and you'd only be returning the favour so to speak (although that does remind me of something you mentioned about the Chinese being terrified of cameras, oh well.)
I'm in danger of sounding like I'm ordering you around for my amusement but I'm trying not to be so rude; I'd just really miss the blog if you decided to call it a day, that's all.
Well I think you realize what the best approach is Froog, take a break. Honestly, I can't imagine you ever stopping entirely, you just strike me as someone who really benefits from this as an outlet.
Also, do you really need two blogs? Maybe consider merging them or dropping one. I've noticed there is a lot of redundancy even though you do make a concerted effort to specialize on each one.
But most of all, take a break and then decide. Never make a decision when you are at an extremity.
it's ok to back away a little when you're feeling like that. as you know, i've been making liberal use of that prerogative lately... sometimes there's just less to write.
I feel I should perhaps I should have added a (*Rhetorical) note to this post's title.
While I am grateful for your concern, dear readers, this was decidedly NOT an appeal for advice.
An explanation/apology for my recent low energy levels, possibly; and a thinking-out-loud about how much or how much longer I might continue to write. But PRIMARILY... it was a meditation on the idea in that cartoon: that, for a professional copywriter and/or aspirant author, there is a danger that a blog just becomes a repository of every idea that isn't good enough to use anywhere else.
Would love to know what the book's about Froog. ;¬) Don't most bloggers eventually make the inevitable book from their best posts though?
I love Dave Walker, I occasionally look up his stuff in the Church Times when I see my mother (who reads the rest of it). At least I think that one's by him. There's another older cartoonist with much the same style. He used to have a regular informative strip for children in a newspaper; it of course got collated into a giant book! I have that somewhere but not to hand so I can't find out his name unfortunately.
Uh oh, looks like the spammers have gone up a gear. That's about four for this article alone in the last couple of days.
Oh dear, do you get deluged with all of the spam if you subscribe to comments? Sorry about that.
I think I had 40 or 50 spam comments in one day last week. Something is definitely afoot!
I fear I'll have to re-engage the word recognition security feature to stem the tide. (You may recall that I nixed it several months ago because it had got so glitchy it was obstructing genuine comments. I hope the Google/Blogger drones have fixed that problem now.)
Yes I remember, that's why I mentioned it. Just had another one right now!
PS: I still visit the blog when I can, I've been busy so I'm still catching up.
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