Keeping the Momentum Going
I love blogging but I have to confess, sometimes I really do not feel like sitting down at the computer to write a blog post. Do you ever feel like that? Usually it’s because I am too tired or I have spent the whole day at work sitting at the computer and I just don’t feel like staring at pixels anymore. Or I just don’t feel very inspired at all. So what is to be done to keep the momentum going?
Regular commitment
It can be very tempting to say, I’ll just skip it this week — maybe next week I’ll be more inspired or I’ll have more energy or I’ll have more time: then I will blog, I’ll blog next week. But I know myself too well — next week will come along and I will feel the same way and say to myself: next week, next week. So I try and make a commitment to myself to blog at least once a week — that’s manageable for me as a minimum and if the spirit moves me to blog more than that, then that’s a bonus. I also think of it as a commitment to my readers — rather like any relationship, it’s all about making a connection regularly. So I decide on a day each week that will be my “blog publication day” and I try to stick to that schedule. So far, it seems to be working.
Jot down ideas
I also keep a notebook to hand — or at least a scrap of paper or a post-it note — so that whenever I have an idea that would make a good blog post, I jot it down immediately. Even if I have an idea that is not so great, I jot it down. Keeping all these blog post ideas together in one place means that when I am not feeling very inspired, I can look through them - and more often than not, these notes can prompt me to explore more deeply something that inspired me some time ago. This means that even though I may be feeling a bit flat at that very moment, my old inspirations can still spark and rekindle my energy for blogging.
Try a different way of doing it
I have also been trying alternative methods of blogging. As you can see from my efforts over the last year, I have tried audio blogging and video blogging as well as the usual written texts. Occasionally, I write a blog post on my mobile phone while I am at a cafe waiting for a friend or sitting out in the garden so that blogging does not trap me at my computer. My latest experiment is with speech-to-text technology (I have recently installed Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 10) so that I can dictate e-mails, letters, blog posts and — who knows — maybe even my next novel or book project. I am dictating this blog post while standing at the window in my living room, looking out at the autumn colours in my garden!
How do you keep the momentum going when it comes to blogging? I hope you will add a comment and share your tips and tricks as well!
Photo: Death Valley Marathon - thanks to El Hombre on flickr.com (CCL)
- Posted on
Thu, October 16th, 2008 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 8 responses
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October 16th, 2008 at 4:34 am
I know exactly what you mean, Yang-May. I find the jotting down of ideas do not work for me though, as something spontaneous is lost when the idea is not acted upon immediately. Instead, I allow myself a relaxed schedule of blogging when I am free and relaxed as that enables me to pump out a post faster and in a far less forced manner.
That, and you know you have to blog when your readers start leaving comments/send text messages/emails/even call you to remind you to blog! :D
October 16th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Hi Kenny, nothing like some nagging to get one motivated - great incentive!
October 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Aaah, exactly what I am feeling now. I type, delete, type - and i end up with a blank screen. I will think of an idea, and decide against it.
I think its autumn. I just want to go outside and enjoy the colour before it turns gloomy and grey.
October 18th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Hi, Yang-May. Real life should take precedence over blogging, methinks. Still, it’s admirable that you strive to nurture your relationship with your readers. Kak Teh, don’t feel guilty about going outside, for goodness’s sake. :-)
I read in your comment in Kak Teh’s Choc-a-Bloc blog that you’re from Taiping. Hey, me too! Which school did you go to? I still love the Taiping lake gardens and the zoo, which has a lovely, natural-looking night safari now.
October 18th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hi Argus - I’m actually from KL but my mum’s family is from Taiping and we used to visit my grandparents there. It’s a lovely town and I set my first novel The Flame Tree in Taiping as a tribute to the town.
You’re right that real life is more important than blogging. It’s great though to be able to integrate both - I find blogging is a great way to create an archive of my thoughts and what’s been happening in my life.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Personally, I think treating blogging as a commitment to the readers as one would in a relationship is being too harsh on oneself. As it were we are already committed to our day work, our families and personal friends around us as well as to other worthy causes and adding one that seems like a hobby, pastime, though one with good intention to share, borders on over-commitment. That would run the risk of exposing blogging to the unnecessary afflictions such as dread, burnout, and the like when it becomes forced, thereby stifling the free flow of ideas that propels the blogging in the first place. But that’s just the view of an amateurish blogger who derives joy from just being able to put thoughts into words and share them online, and treating any comments that the blog elicits as bonus.
This way, I think one would be able to reap the therapeutic benefits of blogging as expounded in a recent article in Scientific American (May, 2008) entitled Blogging – It’s Good for You.
October 19th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Blogs must be of sufficient outsider interests to elicit a response.
October 19th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Say Lee - thanks for the link to the scientific American article. Very interesting. By “commitment” I mean a commitment in the same way that one has a commitment to friends etc — hopefully, it isn’t a chore but an enjoyable way of regularly connecting.
YeeTon - yes, I always find it interesting to see which blog posts elicit a response and which ones don’t. Sometimes the ones that I expect would stir up some comments received only silence where is others unexpectedly draw a lot of sponsors!
kak teh - it looks like it’s time for you to take a break from the blank screen and just go out and enjoy the real world! cCome back to blogging when your energy has been replenished