UNINSPIRED BLOG POSTS
It can be a headache for me trying to come up with blog posts every week. For a long time it was a case of writing them well in advance and posting them whenever I felt like it. Then for a period after I started to post every Monday it would be something I did on the Monday it was due, but that sometimes meant that I was working well into the night and still no closer to knowing what to say. And then I hit on the idea that along with my usual end of month stuff, I would write the coming months blog posts as well as the one for the first of the next month. It was a headache in the beginning but now I've gotten into a routine that when I'm running out of ideas, I look at my sticky note and start to brainstorm as well as going over what I've covered in the past six months or so.
Because a lot of what I post on a Monday is advice, I don't want to be doing too much along the same topics, but I've also made them my own too in that I will, around releases and such, have character pieces that I write and publish closer to that time of the year. I never usually have more than a couple of months worth planned because the ideas can be hard to find. It's a creative thing for me just as writing is that a lot of the time a topic will come to me and I'll have to write it down. Usually when I get low on ideas, I fall back on what's done well before. I have my mini series with Spoonie Writer, Trials Of A Crime Writer and Trials Of An Indie Author, and they're pretty easy to narrow down too because they have a specific readership and meaning on the blog.
You could say the same for the After Process. It's pretty easy to work out what belongs in the pieces that happen once you're published, but when it comes to the Creative Process, well, sometimes I'm just stumped and unsure about what to do. A lot of the time I'll sit down at the end of the month, once I've recorded my final vlog and are getting ready to wrap everything up and then it's about pulling teeth to bring out the blog posts. And I know I'm not the only one who feels like that, so why do I keep doing it?
Simply put, it's something I do well at. I get a lot of interaction, less so on the blog, but more so on the places that it's cross-posted to that tell me that my advice and snippets of wisdom are well received and wanted. My audience is telling me to continue. Same with the Friday posts where I promote other authors, it's something that gets a light shined on my blog, but also makes me feel like I'm sharing the wealth as it were. And those are all good things.
But today, when I sat down to write, I realised that I just didn't have a full calender for the coming month. I didn't know what to write about, what to advise on and given that I'm still coming back from burnout (piece found here) and have talked about taking a break to refill my creative well (piece found here) I thought I would be honest and talk about what happens when you're just not inspired to write an advice piece. The question can sometimes be simply answered by just not doing it any more. I've covered why I don't take that route, but it might be one open to you.
The other side of it is that I like my schedule the way it is. I have excelled at getting myself to make the most of my time, my energy and all the others things that are needed from me to stay both mentally and physically healthy, but also to keep writing which adds to the first two. Sometimes that means that I just don't have time to think up a specific piece of advice, and I guess what I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is: that's okay.
There is so much pressure both in the actual writing community and from ourselves to be pouring out this and that twenty-four/seven. And sometimes you just can't. Sometimes your brain is saying nope, your body is having a fit and you just can't produce what you normally would. And I don't feel like enough people say that, guess what? It happens to us all and it is okay. You are not weak. You are not a failure. This is not the end of you. You will get through this. And you will be okay.
So take a breath and just hold onto that. There's no shame in having an off week. I go through stages of having them weeks in a row. But also don't be afraid to ask for help, to reach out, there are people around you who care and they will listen, and if they don't, then reach out to someone who will. You gotta take care of you, and that's more than okay.
So that's my wisdom for the day. Now I'm gonna curl up with a good book and call it done!
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