This past week
I’ve been out of town, driving all over the Midwest, seeing old friends and visiting my parents at their cabin and coming back to work again. It’s been a busy week, a good week.
Last night and today, I caught up on all your blogs and our terrible economy and what everyone thinks about the bailout and the election and the plunging stock market.
And I’m worn out, honestly. Wondering how in the world I can ever get back into the PF-blogging I love, that’s about real people with real budgets and dreams and financial struggles. I’m wondering how I can make things a little less like “12 Tips” and “4 Steps” and “6 Easy Secrets” and a little more like something I enjoy. I don’t blog for money (I make very little). I don’t blog for prestige (I’m anonymous). I [thought i] blog for fun. But somewhere along the line, blogging has become something I should do, something I feel like everyone else is doing better, something I can’t catch up with. And I don’t like it.
So I’m making a command decision. I am only going to blog here when I have something to say and when I want to. Enjoyment is, really, the only thing I’ve got going for this whole blog thing. So I’m going to start working towards it again.
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8 Responses to “This past week”
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Sing it. I like your writing, so I’m glad you’re going to recommit to enjoying yourself. But I hear you on feeling like you’re not at the top of your game. That’s part of the reason I’ve been sparse lately.
Tell me about it, sister. I’ve been there too. Take a few days off of not blogging even though you’re home and have access to your computer. If you don’t get the itch after a week, it’s a good thing. It means you haven’t been hooked yet. I’ve tried posting only when I have something “really important” to say, but I eventually fall into the trap of feeling like I have to post once a day. It’s awful because I should be writing more instead of blogging, but that’s the struggle right now.
It’s complicated, isn’t it? The steady stream of posts and the habit of commenting are both key to keeping readers coming by, and having readers coming by is a the great incentiive to keep posting…
Oh, well, don’t worry about it– it’ll settle in to a rhythm that works for you.
Amen to that!
I feel the same way. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I get more or less readers depending on the frequency of posts…
So I figure, why force myself to post? I’ve got plenty of stuff people can go back and read if they’re waiting for a new post and really interested.
But I do try to keep the articles coming, it’s good to keep the creative juices flowing. I just don’t want to feel obligated.
I’ll miss your daily posts and unique voice, but I totally understand where you’re coming from. It’s rough out there right now.
I totally blog for fun. And the key to getting less than “10 tips to…” is just not to write those types of posts. I know that personally, I could care less about writing (or reading) a post that teaches me 10 easy ways to save 50 cents on breakfast - it’s the posts that connect the PERSONAL with the finance that are most interesting to me. Most of the time, I just write what I think - it’s worked out pretty well for me.
Best of luck, and looking forward to reading more of your stuff!
amen to more personal writing and less the 10 tips. feeling uninspired lately even though lots to say. so for now i’ll just wait until the right moment sparks my creativity. keep the personal stuff coming along!
You’re all very kind and encouraging. Thanks for listening to my little rant here and for understanding.
Most of all, it’s nice to know I’m not alone, and it’s also nice to hear how some of you face this feeling: waiting for the right moment like SFordinarygirl or just writing what you think like WellHeeled.
FF and Young Money, you’re sweet, thanks for the nice things you said. WC, I’ve read your posts about similar feelings, and I get what you’re saying about the battle between real writing and this perceived “popular blog” writing. FGS, exactly: comments are always nice and a big incentive.
I think I really need to stop paying so much attention to StumbleUpon and Digg and such, and instead I need to just not care about stats.
Ginger, you hit the nail on the head, I just don’t want to feel obligated. So I’m unobligating myself, and I like the feel of that.