All I Want For Christmas
is my blogging mojo back!
And then it happen, creeping up on me and engulf me when I least expect it. The dreaded B word, an unfortunate phase most of us will suffered at one point or another. I’m talking about Blogger’s BLOCK or writer’s BLOCK, or whatever BLOCK you want to call it. In case you haven’t notice, my usual posting pattern was interrupted and I’ve not posted for about a week. That is a long time in Internet time.
For the past few nights, I’ve been sitting in front of my laptop with a blank mind staring at a blank screen. The creative juices just dried up, the more I wanted to write, to stick to my usual posting schedule and frequency, the more vacuum I found my mind to be in. My mind seems to have taken an early Christmas holiday break!
After several highs recorded last month, I was raring to go and better those traffic peaks, but instead, found myself at the trough struggling for the next big wave to swept me along. Alas, a wave that never seems to come.
Having owed a personal responsibility to my readers, I realized I have to break the ice and come out to explain my current state. I’m pretty certain the following video had partly contributed to my current state of “blog life crisis”.
Yes, yes, y’all….please bear with me, while I go rediscover my blogging mojo!
That’s an interesting video…I’m assuming its an ad for a new company or initiative, but even after watching it I’m not quite sure.
Maybe you should get some other bloggers to do some guest posts for a while, to give yourself a break?
The video is a rap by senior management of the Media Development Authority of Singapore, talking about new media, technologies, censorship etc.
No one can make another funnier video than this!
Ahhh, the dreaded “B” word, I know it well
I think the more you focus on your situation, the further out of reach the relief is.
Some days I stare at a blank screen not knowing what I’ll write for the day and unable to find any inspiration on the net. It’s extremely frustrating. I maintain a folder with ideas to draw of for those days, but sometimes the mood just isn’t there to bring them to life.
I think we’re the prisoners of our own self-imposed ‘jails’ at times. Many of us have conditioned ourselves to post on a regular basis to maintain our readerships that we’ve worked so hard to gain. We fear that we’ll lose them if we don’t post for the day.
But it’s better to not write anything at all if you’re only going to provide a poor read, which would be far more detrimental to all … those who wasted their time to visit your site (and thus your loss of reputation), and your own pride in the quality you provide.
There was a surprising revelation in a poll at ProBlogger recently about RSS readers and why they unsubscribe, which actually relates to readers in general. The number one reason that readers unsubscribed was for TOO MANY posts written daily. Readers were much more forgiving for too few.
I’ve begun to take either a Saturday or Sunday off from posting recently. I was fearful of losing readers, but surprisingly, it hasn’t appeared to have affected a loss of readers.
I’m in the habit of writing in the wee hours to post for between 7 to 9am, and today was one of those days where I had the dreaded “B” word and felt like taking the night off, but didn’t because it’s a weekday. I did manage to find inspiration afterall once I stopped stressing over it. But we all need to take a break when we really need it to rejuvenate. The juices don’t flow endlessly for anyone, and I think many do understand and can even relate.
Maybe one day I’ll even sum the courage up to take a day off during the week!
I guess my point is to stop stressing so much about disappointing readers over the occasional break, as it only compounds your problem. Stop, rest, and rejuvenate. And I think I need to take a little of my own medicine I just dished out
Ahh, the ‘b’ word. Hang in there. I’m sure you’ll snap back into the hang of things as all of us experience highs and lows. The video was hilarious btw.
The title of the post sounds like a Christmas song
IMO, better spend a day or two reading and commenting on other blogs -that is a sure fire way to bring back you “blogging-mojo.” btw, I love how you coined this term.
cheers!
Your mojo never left! Don’t give up.
-Mike
Giving up is not an option for me.
Winners never quit, Quitters never win!
Thanks!
Hi Cheewee,
Your mojo is still awesome and you shouldn’t worry at all. Deborah already said it all and I can also relate to those experiences of yours.
I’ve actually struggled today with my own mojo and after fretting about my lack of conviction I decided to doing the commenting and promoting rounds instead.
Hi Monika
Thanks for your encouragement! I’m doing the blog reading and commenting round, to keep myself visible and in the loop.
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