The online community of writers is such an important resource for all of us. Writers share a ton of industry information, are supportive when we hit writing or industry snags, and offer tips and friendship through their blogs.
But sometimes, we all get a little burned out.
I was skimming through my Google reader and read this post writer Anne Annie ran on her blog, in favor of “slow blogging:”
BUT, and this is a big BUT—blogging takes a humongous chunk out of your writing time. Bloggers are usually advised to post every day. AND run contests and giveaways to bring in more followers. AND post on all their followers’ blogs. AND generally let the blog run their lives.
Which makes bloggers carry a little wad of guilt around any time they’re doing something else—like nurturing offspring, earning a living, or actually working on a manuscript. How many blog posts have you read recently that consisted of apologies for not blogging?
So I’d like to take this opportunity to say YOU DON’T NEED TO BLOG EVERY DAY. If you want to do a daily blog, and it’s not taking away from your creative work, that’s great. But if you’re just starting out, I recommend a once-a-week blog like this one, or even once-a-month.
Anne starts out her post being very supportive of blogging and gives reasons why writers should have a blog—so she’s definitely pro-blog.
I think, though, that writers are juggling so much anyway, then being creative on top of it—and then want to have a daily blog with top-notch content. I think that’s doable, but it’s tough to maintain.
If you’re a blogger who needs some ideas from time to time (and I think we all are), then here are some useful articles I’ve bookmarked (many from months ago) that I think are helpful:
The Massive List of Ideas for Blog Posts—from The Abundance Blog
10 Sure Cures for Blogging Burnout—from WordCount
The 9 Essential Posts that Every Blogger Should know—from NorthxEast
Need copyright-free images? 30 Free Image Resources on the Web: These sites are great—but make sure you’re in the copyright free section…sometimes there’ll be other sections.
Hope these help! I’d also add that if you find yourself leaving a really long comment on someone else’s blog post, that’s a sign that you might do well to write your own post exploring the subject—and link back to the original article that inspired your post.
Have you got any other blogging burnout ideas or thoughts?
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