Why I failed at my previous blogging attempts
This is not my first foray into the web log wilds. I have a long history of intermittent blogging, dating back from Blogger and BlogSpot. More recently, I’ve been on WordPress.
Restarting my blog is an exciting and joyous prospect. It makes me wonder why I ever stopped in the first place. To succeed at this daily blogging challenge, it might pay to look at some reasons why I stopped.
Emotional pain
One of the attractions to writing is that it creates a feedback loop. The last time I blogged, it help surface niggles I needed to deal with in my personal life. Although this was a rich seam worth mining, I wasn’t ready to share this publicly at the time, so I took a break to deal with it.
Blogging gave me the courage to confront my pain and the clarity to understand it, even as I was speaking of other subjects. This might be because writing asks of us to be honest and authentic.
Thankfully, that painful period has passed. I am hoping to make my writing more consistent, so that painful periods don’t mean that I have to stop completely.
Burn out
I put too much pressure on myself and I flamed out. I was writing long form essays that required a lot of research, which was exhausting on top of a demanding day job. I had an arbitrary rule to produce a thousand very deep and meaningful words every week, which is a recipe for failure, if you don’t have the time.
This time, there are no rules. My word count can be any length I want it to be, and I can post anything I find interesting. My primary focus is on commitment to daily practice.
This is why I’ve framed this exercise as an experiment. An experiment’s goal is exploratory. You do it to learn something. I want to discover things about myself. What holds my attention? What do I think about? It would defeat the purpose to put strictures on such a voyage, therefore I’m keeping an open mind about whatever experiences result from the activity.
Overwork
Another barrier to writing frequently is fatigue from the day job. I give too much to my work so that there’s nothing left for much else. This is definitely not a healthy way to live and I am very keen to make a positive change.
Exhaustion means that I don’t have the spare capacity for reflection. This makes me cantankerous and narrows my outlook to a pin point. It’s etiolating. As A L Kennedy points out:
“Toxic work doesn’t just blight our business hours - it wearies our affection, steals our time for each other. We rely on free moments and free energy to invent, to recharge, to create. An exhausted, stressed population is docile, but doesn’t solve problems well.”
I’ve struggled with overwork all my working life, and I’m hoping to create enough space here, to want to show up frequently and stop over-working at the day job. The impediment is that I enjoy my work immensely and I overindulge. But I really want to change, so that I’m still doing exemplary work, without killing myself or sacrificing my writing in the process.
Thinking is hard
I don’t always want to do the hard work of thinking. Regardless, there’s no way out of thinking for oneself, it’s an imperative. There are no easy answers to many of our human challenges. But this is no reason to give up. In fact, we need all hands on deck, each doing their small part. Grapple we must! This way, we’re in with a chance of working things out. If we can’t, in speaking about them and sharing our experiences, we can feel less alone and recognize that our problems though not solved, are manageable.
Conclusion
These are some of the pitfalls that left unexamined could trip me up again. Becoming aware of them could help me come up with sensible strategies to address them should they strike again.
When the fear sets in
You set off on your swashbuckling writing adventure. All is going well, until the cold hand of fear freezes your viscera. You realise that you’re terrified of:
- your creative power
- using your voice
- being vulnerable
- being seen and therefore known
- your changing self-image
But you must not give up! Instead, do this:
Acknowledge your fear
Sit with your fear and accept that is exists. Feel it, then let it go.
Treat yourself with kindness
Be kind, always, always, be kind to yourself (and others).
Accept yourself
You are who you are, and this is completely o.k. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, precisely how you should be doing it.
You will make mistakes. This is fine. You will learn and grow from them.
Keep an open mind
Assume the attitude that your writing experience will be like an amble round the block. Anything could happen on the walk, you could meet a stranger and have a pleasant conversation, or it could be as eventful as a lungful of fresh air and maybe a change in perspective. This is all fine. Exhale hard, drop your shoulders and enjoy it.
Find your writing approach
Experiment with different writing approaches. For some batch writing works, and for others nothing will do short of writing and publishing immediately. Find a system that works for you. At the moment, batch writing works for me because:
- it relieves some of the pressure of having to write and publish every day
- I can be in the zone for a period and then take a break while focussing on other projects
- my work can sit and cool down which allows me to see how it can be improved
But I won’t hesitate to change the system should the circumstances require it.
Conclusion
Embarking on any creative pursuit, can be terrifying, especially if you’re not used to it. Don’t let fear put you off. This is a normal part of the process aimed at keeping you safe. In due course, you will learn to distinguish when that safety is more of a hinderance than an aid. You will become better equipped to handle the pressure and accomplish what you set out to.
In this instance, you should ruthlessly abandon your fear.
Acknowledgements
As I embark on this 30 day daily blog writing challenge, I stand on the broad shoulders of the intrepid daily bloggers who’ve come before me.
Blogging every day is hard work, which is why many people fail to sustain it. I have tremendous admiration for anyone who shows that level of commitment to their craft. I’m impressed by the enthusiasm, self-care and nurture required to ringfence time for creativity, while balancing life’s myriad demands.
The sustained efforts of daily bloggers encourage and inspire the rest of us who would like to be counted amongst their number.
To all those I read, and those I never will - for there are too many blogs for one lifetime - I thank you. I’m here, because you blazed the trail.
8 reasons why I’m blogging daily
I took up the challenge of daily blogging to get my creative juices flowing again. But I also have specific goals I would like to achieve. My aims are not related to the daily part of blogging necessarily, I think they can be applied more generally to why write or blog, regardless of frequency.
Here are some of the aims I would like to accomplish:
1. Discover what I think
I don’t know what I think, until I write about it. To borrow from Joan Didion:
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
Writing sharpens thought. Doing it in public forces you to create something that is god enough to be consumed by others, which requires a degree of rigorousness I might not otherwise pursue.
The more frequently you write, the more you strengthen the writing and thinking muscles through repetition and training.
2. Build a body of work
I want to be able to look back and see what I was thinking over time. There have been many occasions when I’ve read something I had long since forgotten about, and felt such gratitude that I wrote it all down. It’s nice to be able to transport myself back to observe the trajectory of growth.
In the future, I might be able to build on these records and make something more of them. After all, many a book have been written from blog posts.
3. Self expression
Everyone needs a creative outlet. It’s important to have a space where you can express whatever is on your mind, tempered by kindness, compassion and empathy.
There is something unassailably wonderful about connecting with your creativity. It feels abundant, spiritual even. Having a daily reminder of this is grounding.
In an age where everything is monetised, it’s nice to have a space in public to just be.
4. Develop a daily writing practice
Building consistency is an important part of this exercise. It’s about what happens when you show up for yourself and allow yourself the time and space to create. It changes you.
5. Increase eloquence
Writing improves fluency, as it refines ideas and makes them coherent. I have observed that when I keep up my writing practice, I start to speak in complete paragraphs, and when the flow runs smoothly, essays entire.
6. Learn new things
Writing about something deepens your understanding of it. It’s inevitable that as I take on this challenge, gaps in my knowledge will become apparent. I welcome this.
7. Improve touch typing speed
I used to be a 4 finger typist until I decided to learn how to touch type in January 2023. I’m still a very slow typist for a touch typist at 35 wpm, as I temporarily gave up on the training. I am now returning to it and hoping to build my speed up to 75 wpm. Hopefully, having this space will help me put in yet more practice.
8. Have fun
I’d like to squeeze as much enjoyment as I can out of this process, and share that joy with you. At the very least I hope you find comfort in seeing someone else who is also trying to figure it out.
After 30 days of the daily blogging challenge
When I emerge from the other side of 30 posts in 30 days, I hope for bolstered trust in my own creative abilities.
I would like this challenge to positively change me so that:
- I develop comfortable faith in my writing
- it becomes easier to show up here than not to (create we must!)
- I learn how to manage my output better to avoid feeling tired and overworked
- open myself up to the unexpected
I will review after 30 days and see if I want to continue with a daily challenge. My hope is that I will.
Let us begin
It’s been a while since I published anything, so I’ve decided to blow off the cobwebs by writing a daily blog over the next 30 days.
I know from past experience that something wonderful happens when you show up on the page every day. James Gallant called it “the divine harmony of creativity”. I want to capture some of that magic and awe that comes with daring boldly into the unknown.
It’s true that unless you’re well-known and long-established, there’s not a fortune to be made from blogging in October 2024, when I am starting this challenge. But that’s OK, because the goal here is not fame or fortune. It is to create a public space to explore my thoughts.
Sometimes, fortune follows directly or indirectly, when you do something that you love. One idea connects to another, or you remove blockers that lead you down a new and lucrative path. I’m open to this. But for now, I am blogging for blogging’s sake.
For this reason, you won’t be seeing this blog promoted on any social media. I’m not chasing likes. So if you’ve found this, congratulations! You’ve beaten enormous odds to get here.
Welcome to my ludic space. C’est parti!