November 29, 2003
Rayne Today
When I first started blogging, I thought it was just me, that I was the only one with the problem. All these thousands and thousands of bloggers appeared to be oozing with creative energy all the time, able to produce posts on demand every day. Here I was, writing in fits and spurts, some days yielding far better than others. Some days were just horrible; not a squib would come out. Was I cut out for this medium after all, I'd wonder?
After a while, it became apparent I wasn't the only blogger who suffered from periodic dry spells. It's been blog fodder when things get slow, a good topic for sharing and collaboration between bloggers who've been there and fought their way through writer's block.
Tom Coates of Plasticbag asks this week whether other bloggers notice a cycle or pattern in these infertile periods, when writing anything becomes a challenge. I hadn't noticed a pattern per se, but the cycle is familiar to me. There are periods when I can't write enough fast enough, and others when I really should just stay well away from the idea of writing since it's an exercise in futility. At the moment I'm struggling to put together a single post each day although my normal output is closer to three posts a day. My mind is working overtime on a rather large topic that isn't coalescing smoothly. It seems that periods requiring high effort to organize intense and diverse material reduce my writing output as much as periods of stress and fatigue.
What about you, fellow blogger? Or fellow writer - blogger or not; is there a pattern or cycle to your creativity? What seems to trigger your creativity or dry spells?
Posted by rayne at November 29, 2003 6:13 PM
I've definitely noticed a pattern (mainly related to the amount of work I have on at the time and my mood). Since I installed Moveable Type, and have listed the number of comments posted next to each month in the archive, it becomes even easier to see.
Thanks for the feedback, Dan. Do you find it's your line of work that cuts into the brain-power needed to prepare a post to a blog, or is it just that blogging competes for time? Funny, I seem to have more to say when I'm busy; it's only when I can't physically get to my PC that the blogging slows down.
I think it's like writing a column. Columnists will tell you it's always a chore, but depending on how beholden they are to the day's news, it can be a particular chore when the news is all 'more of the same'. It's also true that conflicting writing demands (work, and/or a novel) can really tax the creative energy. I always try to bank a few articles that are not time-sensitive, but I rarely succeed. I think the discipline of writing for a certain length of time at the same time every day is useful for honing writing skills, but some days it produces a deluge and other days not even a trickle.
I've got lots of stuff in my weblog backlog. Just don't feel like posting any of it...
Dave, I concur, I've noticed I do better with consistency in output if I keep myself on a tight regimen; my rule of thumb is a post near completion by 10:00 am each day. Do I make it? not always, but you can bet I'm at my desk typing away by that time.
Harald, you're holding out on us, buddy. I suspected as much. Cough up!! It doesn't really satisfy your oeuvre for your writing to be locked away in the dark, does it? ;-)
"Do you find it's your line of work that cuts into the brain-power needed to prepare a post to a blog, or is it just that blogging competes for time?"
It's not really a simple one-way relationship. I do find that when I need to do lots of work, it starts sparking off ideas which I then start blogging about. And blogging becomes a displacement activity. And then I realise that deadlines are approaching - and have to reluctantly stop myself from compulsively blogging everything just so that I can get a moment's work done.
Also on occasions where I'm mind-deep in a job that I really enjoy, then I do feel less real need to blog.
Or if I need to do things away from the computer - like remind the family that I exist, clean the house up, breathe some fresh air, then of course the blog can get neglected.
But the biggest influence of all has to be depression. Hence when I compare late 2002: September (3 entries), October (1 entry) and November (2 entries) with 2003: September (59 entries), October (40 entries), November (47 entries) then it really comes home to me how bad my mental state was back then. (Although those 2003 figures are a little skewed - since working out how to follow RSS feeds this September, I keep finding myself re-posting snippets from around the web, hugely increasing my blog-load).
Dan: I think you're right on both counts. Because one 'category' of my blog is work-related, when there is congruence between what I'm doing at work and what I'm writing about at home, it helps improve both quality and quantity of my blog articles. But when they're at cross-purposes they can be a real impediment, since they consume a lot of time and put your head in a different, often unproductive space. And no question mental state has a lot to do with it, although on occasion I've found blogging about my periods of mild depression somewhat cathartic, and my readers wonderfully sympathetic. Doesn't work for more serious depression though, I know.
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