Blogging and Taking a Break
Aug 1st, 2008 by Carlos
This past week has not been the most productive for me when it comes to blogging. I woke up every morning, got my cup of coffee, and sat myself down in front of my computer like every other morning. I opened up the windows I needed to open and started typing away on some ideas I had saved up from last week.
Then I stopped — I did not want to be sitting there writing about this stuff. I wanted to just check out some box scores, see what was going on with the news, and send out a few emails. I was in a slump. Usually, I’ll just hammer out a post anyway to keep up with my self imposed, once-a-day quota. But this week I realized that, you know what, I didn’t have to do it. I didn’t realize it then, but now I see what was happening: blogging had turned into a second job. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the reason I started this in the first place was to learn, share, and enjoy myself. Not to have another job that I trudged to in the mornings because I had to. Not only that, if this was a second job, I wouldn’t even be making minimum wage.
I don’t want blogging to become a job that I feel like I have to do.
So I basically took Monday and Tuesday off and told myself I wouldn’t write for the rest of the week if that’s what it took to get me back on track. Well surprise surprise — Wednesday morning came around and I couldn’t wait to get to my computer and hammer out a new post. That excitement of sharing something new with readers was back and enjoyed every minute of it. It made me realize that yes, writing ahead is important because it would’ve “covered” days like Monday and Tuesday, but I don’t see a problem with not having a post up for those days. Maybe it’s me being lazy, but I’m not a machine, I’m not a corporation, and it’s not like I have thousands of readers hanging on my every word at this point.
Anyway, this is one of those quirks that come with doing something creative like writing. It’s happened to me tons of times when I write fiction and I have a whole set up things I do when that happens (mostly just read a book or take a walk), but I hadn’t applied them to blogging just yet.
I’ve been thinking of taking a blogging sabbatical for a while now and those two days got me thinking about it even more. I want to work on my fiction more and I have really been neglecting that — who knows, it might even be a good thing that will make the blog better. I would probably take like a week off or something and have some stuff posted ahead of time. Anyone out there ever do that? I have but only on a vacation, not specifically to “take a break.”
If two days gave me that kind of a boost, maybe a week off is just what the doctor ordered…
P.S. I’m watching The Dark Knight tonight at the IMAX! Finally!
Yup…I just did that. It was called July (only slightly kidding). I stopped posting when I didn’t have anything relevant to say, stopped submitting to blog carnivals, and stopped reading my regular PF blogs until I felt like coming back, which lasted nearly a month. And it was, as you said, just what the doctor ordered. When your hobby becomes a second job without the second income, it’s time for a break.
Nut, I think you’ve earned it.
Almost forgot to mention…the one article I wrote in July ended up being an editors pick (my first ever – yahoo!) at a carnival, so it added that much more insight to my respite.
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