Consistently Inconsistent
June 10, 2009
If today’s Wednesday, this means I’ve posted 3 days in a row.
Are you back up off of the floor yet? Yeah, I know, it knocked me for a loop too.
I’ve been saying for a very long time now (months really) that I was going to get back in the saddle and start posting regularly. But I think it started being sort of a running joke amongst my friends and a bit of a lie that I told myself so that I could pretend that I wasn’t suffering from blogging burn-out.
Why lie to myself? Well, I think it’s kind of like a mid-life crisis — you don’t want to admit that you’re buying the Porsche and shopping at the hipster clothing stores because you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and it seems you’re a little soft around the middle and crow’s-feetish around the eyes.
I expect I’ll see a large number of my friends over the next couple of years going through it themselves. There’s a point in your blogging career where you have to tell yourself that one post a day is actually sufficient (thank heavens Twitter seems to have helped a lot of folks burn off the excess urges!) and a point where you feel like a day isn’t complete unless you’ve blogged. Then there’s the point where you start wondering if you’re running out of interesting things to say. Then the point where you wonder if anyone would notice if you skipped a day.
And then…
The mid-bloggylife crisis comes when you get to a point where you start arguing with yourself that the reason you aren’t posting today is because you were too busy, too tired, too uninspired, too something… But that you’ll totally post tomorrow. Or maybe Monday. Or maybe you’ll take a hiatus and come back fresh and ready to post. Or maybe it’s just that blog – if you closed it and started a new one…
But the truth is that like anything creative? No matter how much you love doing it – it’s possible to burn yourself out and need recharging. And no amount of resolution or self-deception is going to change that.
So here’s what I did — about a year and a half ago, I closed down multiple blogs I’d had for 7 or more years — claimed this one as my primary blog, and spent all of my time on Twitter.
What’s that? Oh, I spent all of my time on Twitter because it was a different type of creative outlet. A new shiny toy. If I had been a musician instead of a word-chick? Blogging would’ve been my guitar and Twitter would’ve been my side-trip being obsessed by sitar. (If you’re not Beatles obsessed or old enough or to remember? I’m invoking George Harrison here.)
Where am I now?
I think I’m over my burnout. I’m hesitant to say that, because let’s be honest, 3 days in a row does not a regular habit make. But it’s a start. So is admitting that I seem to have rediscovered the joy of writing something that doesn’t limit me to 140 characters and lets me have really in-depth conversations with folks in the comments section.
Okay, so I’m a little squidgy around the middle, and I have “laugh lines” so deep that you have to wonder what the heck is so darn funny. But there’s nothing wrong keeping the Porsche and having a mini-van that sits beside it in the driveway, is there?
Before we get too lost in metaphorland, what I’m trying to say is that I believe I’m back to blogging and twittering at the same time. Yeah, I know that doesn’t seem so amazing to some of you, because you’ve been doing that all along. But I promise to be sympathetic and not tell you “I told you so” when you hit your own mid-bloggylife crises.
After all, sometimes a few months of metaphorical sitar lessons are good for the soul…
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8 Responses to “Consistently Inconsistent”
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Sometimes, you just got to take a step back. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog frenzy over the past three days
Thanks Iva — Hopefully I can keep it up!
Glad you are back!You are *always* welcome in any blog-space or tweet-space.
I’ve been blogging since, I dunno, 2002. Started with free and moved to my own hosting. I’ve had slumps now & again but the one I’ve been in recently has been the worst. I don’t know whether to take a break or just drop it altogether. I love the community and comments, but I just seem to be at a loss when it comes to what I want to say. Maybe I’m working too much. Maybe it’ll get better when my son is a little older. Who knows?
I hope my own “mid-bloggylife crisis” ends soon.
Thanks Paul!!
@Becky – sending tons of sympathy!! That’s about the right timing for it… when you suddenly start seeing it as a huge problem rather than a passion… The people are actually what helps you get back to it!
(((hug)))
Well, I’m glad you’re going to start {potentially start} writing again because you are new to me…and I like ya!
I hear you. I have gone in and out of this so many times in the last 10 years that it is not funny. I am looking at ways to consolidate and streamline as well. Do I take 8 year old domains and just drop them? Redirect (penalties?), merge them to one? how much info about my family should go public? and why do I really care because unlike you who has been so careful it would take someone 30 minutes to piece together my families life from all the sites? I think I am somewhat OK with that. I knew what I was doing when I became an out of the closet advocate for my sons disability.
Not expecting you to answer those, just an example of the thoughts swirling in my head. Blog burnout has hit me big time yet I manage to keep up the business end. I just feel like I have nothing of value to really say right now (or I do but can’t seem to find the right platform to process it?)
Think I will plug along this summer, I have a few conferences I want to go to BlogHer, EVO09, and BlogWorld. Maybe the answer will present itself there…….
By the way, really enjoying that you are back to consistently being inconsistent in blogging
Barb
YAY!!