I’m in there somewhere.
Here is one thing I learned in month six:
- In terms of readership, it’s almost as important to respond to what other people are saying on their blogs as it is to write your own posts. My February views and visitors were lower than views and visitors in January, but many of those views resulted from comments I’d made on other sites.
Some of my favorite Blog posts from the month of February are:
- Let’s Play Literary Would You Rather!(6th Edition) 101 Books
- Friday Book Chat: Movies That Were Better Than Their Book, Such Small Hands
- The Good, the Bad, and the Low Flush Toilet Peg-0-Leg’s Ramblings
- Jesse Fuller, The Lone Cat, The Immortal Jukebox
- A Year of Reading the World: A Q & A with Ann Morgan, WordPress.com
- Permission to Fail, Brevity
My blog just didn’t get much of my attention in the month of February. I only posted 4 times, and the most read post was Love and Time. An intestinal infection plagued me for the better part of two weeks, and I lacked a general sense of focus, which is unusual for me. I think brain fog is a good description for what I felt in the month of February. Is that one of the symptoms of the pause with men in it? I can’t remember.
In the years before my pause year, I probably had these dry spells, but who has time to think about their missing mojo when that report is due in the next two hours and three people are standing in line outside of your office to have a heart to heart talk with you about what you need to do for them immediately? And before I had major responsibilities in an office, I had major responsibilities at home. Children don’t understand that Mommy is feeling a little off and therefore cannot make you that grilled cheese sandwich you’ve been craving. My whole life has been do, do, do, with no time for reflection.
My goal setting for February.
Now I’m my own boss, and I have both the freedom and time to decide how I want my life to proceed. I need some new strategies. So without a real grasp of what these strategies should be, I’m now writing some ideas down and naming them strategies because I have to start somewhere.
- I need solid ideas about what I’m going to be writing in a given month. I have been pretty consistent to write about a topic for a month or so. In February, I wrote three vague ideas on my whiteboard. They were unrelated to one another, and I only managed to write about one of them. This month, I’ll get more specific with myself, perhaps by using Gallagher’s if you have 1 you have 18 brainstorming technique.
- It would be nice if I could get just a little bit ahead. Maybe some of my posts could be shorter and the topics could extend into a second post. It would help if I had something to post when the well runs dry.
- I need one goal for the next month, not three. Three goals feels like an albatross around my neck. One is more manageable. So my goal for March is to publish two posts a week, at least one of which will related to the topic of the month, which I will think of soon.
What about you? What strategies do you employ when your mojo is in hiding? How do you keep blogging when the blogging gets tough?
I write every morning the minute I wake up. I don’t usually get out of bed until I’ve finished, except for necessary bathroom runs. I’ve cancelled all morning activities that interfere. If there is something that can’t be avoided, I get up an hour or two early. i’ve been doing this almost without exception for a year now. I always write to a prompt which removes that excuse of not knowing what to write about. After a lifetime of writing late at night, I find writing first thing in the morning lets me continue that conversation with my subconscious begun in dreams. I’ve never been a morning person, but now I’m addicted. Don’t know if this would work for you, but if you can, try it. You might be surprised. Good luck! Judy
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This is a very good idea, and something I had considered doing anyway. I don’t know if I could write in bed– I can’t wake up until I’ve had coffee and moved around a bit– but I like the idea of putting the writing closer to the top of my list. Thanks so much for your input.
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Hi Joni. Try just once writing before you have your coffee and move around. Both of those actions bring out your conscious self. See what happens if you let your subconscious run the show. Judy
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Alright, you talked me into it. I’ll try it on Friday as soon as I wake up… without coffee. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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Brave Gal….Do keep me informed. I am the missionary of mornings!!! Born-again early riser.
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When my mojo is hiding? I fake it. Some of post I enjoyed writing the most were I wrote about why I couldn’t think of anything to write about. I don’t try to do a killer post all the time, some times I just let it go with a picture and a line or two.
I have a goal/need to post at least once a week. For most of the four years I’ve been writing my blog I did little essays but recent I’ve been bitten by the poetry bug so every Sunday is now a poem.
When I find the creative well is a little dry is when I know I need to go fill it up. I’ll take a hike in the woods, see a play, read a book, go to a movie, see a museum or any activity that lets my creativity breath in.
Keep writing.
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This is very good advice. I took a personality test once, and I got an “A,” so the idea of not writing a killer post every time is hard to digest. I will think about it, though. It might be good to make myself uncomfortable over that idea.
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The other thing to consider is having a theme week. Write your one killer post for the start of the week and then followup with shorter supporting posts – pictures of the subject, reblogs of what others are saying, book review related to the theme, etc…
and remember that most of art, including writing, is really about creativetly stealing ideas from others (in school we called it “research.”) You might want to checkout this recent book on how to boost your creative self: http://austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/
Keep writing.
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Thanks for this thoughtful response. I will certainly check the book out. Since I work as a consultant in classrooms, I am quite familiar with the creative “steal,” but will be interested to see how this applies to my own writing life.
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