I know that many of you are in awe of my blogging prowess. You sit awake at night marveling at my sheer unadulterated talent and ability. This is understandable, my genius staggers me sometimes too.
But envy is a sin. Granted, it’s not one of the more interesting sins. in fact it comes pretty low down the rankings. If you take into account the Pope’s recent additions it probably wouldn’t even make the top ten. But it’s a sin never the less.
And so to relieve you of its burden I am going to drop my veil of perfection, I’m going to let you see behind my mask.
This time last month I’d had enough. I’d begun to feel like blogging was a chore rather than a pleasure. I felt like my posts had become hackneyed and predictable, that I was somehow trying to impress others rather than writing for enjoyment. This feeling didn’t come out of the blue, nor had it been the first time I’ve experienced it. I had a blog-life crisis in the middle of last year, I know what to do when this happens. Keep your head down, keep writing, and work through it. I’m not planning to give this up any time soon, as tempting as that delete all button looks at times I know I’d regret it.
But I felt I could do with a break. The Dales Walk is taking up increasing chunks of my time and I wanted to devote some serious energy into getting the local fundraising rolling. Initially I was planning on handing over All That Comes With It to guest bloggers for a couple of weeks, but then something Miss Britt said scared me into thinking I’d lose all of my readers. So I changed the plan to having a weekly guest posts, throwing in a few easy photo’s now and again, and trying not to put myself under false pressure to post every single day.
And by and large it worked. The blue funk has passed, I’m back to being enthusiastic about blogging again. I still wanted a bit of time off though, and so last week I cobbled together a bunch of posts in advance and set them up to go online throughout this week.
Except there is a problem.
Today I’ve had to take the day off sick from work. My throat feels like it’s lined with acid, every bone in my body aches, and my hacking is periodically splattering my laptop in germ ridden goo. In short, I am dying a dreaded death. Pity me, oh pity me.
However the post that was scheduled to be published today is all about me blogging from a pub. There is even a picture of me sitting in there enjoying it’s comforts.
People I work with read this blog, although most of them very kindly pretend they don’t. I think it would piss them off a tad to be reading about me drinking beer and enjoying myself while they struggle to deal with the inevitable Friday night rush (why do people wait until Friday before becoming mentally unwell?).
So I’m pulling the piece. It was a good one though. I even published it by accident yesterday and got a couple of comments:
Oli said:
Bloody coffee.?And why didn’t I get to see the videos and pictures? I’m all and sundry too, you know.I did once receive an interesting video of a young lady, while I was sitting on a train. That’ll teach me to have bluetooth switched on while on public transport.?I’ve not received anything quite as interesting since.
CamiKaos said:
I wanted to hear the juicy bits too!
Damn coffee…
There; you’re intrigued now aren’t you! But no, it will have to wait until another day. And when I do publish it you will all have to pretend that you don’t know that it was written last Thursday.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lung I need to cough up and pitiful groaning and whimpering noises to make.
Oh, and if anyone is feeling there own bit of blogging blues, I highly recommend reading NYCWD’s excellent pep talk.
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Writers take breaks. They need to refuel and rest. There have been a number of people that said that they felt like blogging is a chore right now.
Let’s face it; when it comes to blogging, it’s certainly not the most important thing in the world. You certainly do not have an obligation to your readers to provide content on a daily basis; especially when it’s pushed content.
So take a break. We aren’t going anywhere.
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Glad you’re over your blog-funk, now hurry and get over your body funk!
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
1 – These new sins just recently added: Just how crap is the sequel to ‘Se7en’ going to be?
2 – You thought YOU were getting predictable? How many ways do you think there are to talk about your own semen? You ain’t predictable.
3 – Blogging shouldn’t be a chore. Write what you know. Always.
4 – I read that post in my reader, AND saw the photo, I was so jealous you were in a cozy pub and I was in an anal retentive work environment, I wished it gone forever. It was promptly goned.
I’ve published stuff too soon before, and pulled or republished it, it’s like you farted and hope no one noticed.
Onwards and upwards Daniel, onwards and upwards…
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Today I have commenter burnout.
Hope you feel better soon.
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
CamiKaos’s last blog post..lost and please don’t let me find it….
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I’ll assume that’s a “no” for poker tonight then :)
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
And get better soon.
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Did you know there is a village near Durham called ‘Pity Me’. Maybe you should move there for a while?
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Blogging hiatus’ can’t compete with my RSS feed, I’ll just read whenever there’s a new post.
I’ve got reading hiatus’ sometimes because I don’t have an online life for a couple of days. So don’t hurt yourself into making a post everyday..I won’t get anything done besides reading blogs then.
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on Apr 4th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I honestly do not think you will lose readers if you take a break, sometimes you need to take one.
Have a great weekend.
Blog hopping by…..
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on Apr 5th, 2008 at 5:05 am
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on Apr 5th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Joe – Time alone is a precious thing for me too.
Jeff – My body is always funky.
Xbox4NappyRash – 1) You have no idea how long I spent trying to work an amusing reference to Se7en in that post.
2) You seem to be doing well so far, just do me a favor and avoid posting a taste test
3) Wise words
4) The beauty of working shifts is that you can be doing pleasant things when everyone else is working. Of course the opposite is true too.
Avitable – Why thank you sir.
Rol – Thanks for battling through the commenter burnout.
CamiKaos – Thank you very much, I promise to try harder next time.
Craig – Yes. I mean no. I mean yes.
Organic Mama – Perhaps I’m like one of the Bronte’s. they were dying all over the place yet still managed to pump out some blathering drivel.
Jo Beaufoix – Hang on, is there anyone who didn’t actually see it? Bloody google reader.
Gail – Durham? I always thought it was people who lived in Sunderland you should pity?
Arjan – I’ve gone on Reading hiatus’ in the past and have found them useful for recharging batteries.
1stopmom – It’s not so much loosing readers I worry about if i took a break. it’s not being able/motivated to get going again. i’m like a clapped out car; I’m fine as long as I’m moving forwards but as soon as I stop then I just want to sit there in my own rust.
Jenny – Blogger burnout appears to be pretty widespread at the moment. As does this bloody disease I am currently dying from.
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on Apr 5th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I loved the photo from that post!
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on Apr 5th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Got any snow yet?
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on Apr 5th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
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on Apr 6th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
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on Apr 6th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Gail – I live in Sunderland for three years. the only worse place on earth is Middlesbrough.
Phil – Anytime
Whit – No, you’re mistaking blogging for bathing.
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