I’ve seen a number of posts lately advising me where to find inspiration for blog posts if I don’t have any ideas of my own.
My thinking is that if you haven’t anything to write about, why push it?
Having said that, I confess this post is written because I haven’t posted in a while and feel I ought to register that I’m still here.
The blogging gurus tell me I should post regularly to stay on people’s radar – several times a day, according to one adviser.
And he does!
I skim over his alerts these days. His articles were helpful first time around, but I don’t need to read them again, whether or not they’ve been re-worded.
I know some people blog every day towards a target, while others would miss their daily writing if prevented – and that’s fair enough. I never have kept a journal of any kind.
I have trouble as it is keeping up with real life away from my laptop. (Or away from my notebook, if I’m brainstorming).
Much as I would like to think someone’s noticed that I haven’t blogged lately, I know nobody is going to miss my pearls of wisdom nuggets of nonsense. Just as I don’t notice when better bloggers than I haven’t posted for a while. (Unless they post to point out that they haven’t posted in a while.)
I no longer get email alerts for all the blogs I follow because my inbox was getting silly, but I do check through the WordPress Reader every day for new posts from my followed sites. So, to break my blogging silence, I thought I would share with you some reasons why I skim past those posts that I don’t open.
(Not that I’m suggesting such posts shouldn’t be blogged. These bloggers have volumes of followers I could only dream of. They are of interest to many; just not to me.)
I regularly pass over…
- “It’s Monday so it must be a prompt/song/photo/silly word…” unless there’s a reason why it might interest me. My week’s too short.
- Anything that begins with a number gets passed over – “5 reasons to get up in the morning”, “8 ways you can annoy your boss”, “Peter Rabbit’s 10 tips for scrumping lettuces…” The blogging gurus recommend lists, since bullet points aid clarity as a training tool, but they seem to aim their advice at bloggers marketing lifestyle books or monetising their blogs and I’m not selling anything. (Well… a book now and then would be nice. But unexpected and always celebrated.)
- Political rants – but now I’m straying into the realms of blogs I wouldn’t normally follow anyway. Politicians are a cross we all have to bear, and I get enough bad news on the TV.
To be honest, I am often surprised at the posts that I do find myself reading, or diverting to. Many of them I would never have gone searching for. I am also constantly surprised by the people who read mine.
Thank you for reading, and commenting, and for sending me – in your own blogs – down pathways I would never have travelled by myself.
Writing Wrinkles, and Random Ramblings 
There are lots of times when I need blogging inspiration. Sometimes I find it and sometimes I don’t. And you can rest assured, if you are not posting much, some people will notice. They might not send out a search and rescue party, but they notice.
I try not to skip over blogs that I am following. If I find that I am not really into the content any longer, I unfollow them. It sounds harsh but they need true followers. Besides, they might get recommended to me again and I might find the posts interesting again after a break from them.
I also don’t follow a lot of “list bloggers”. I don’t know why not. If follow a number of “list vloggers” on Youtube.
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I have unfollowed a few, but I’ve found a few bloggers who haven’t interested me for a while can still come up with some useful posts. Not every topic that interests one blogger will interest every follower.
I do admit though that it’s getting difficult to find a particular entry among my followed blogs when I want to change the settings for it.
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I’m with you on the “Certain Day of the Week” prompts. I don’t know why–maybe because it’s more forced than a random topic someone felt the urge to write about. I’m occasionally guilty of the other two. Ah, well. 🙂
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Sometimes it fits. After all, I had bullet points in that one, even though they weren’t actually numbered. 🙂
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I normally don’t get political. But I did in my essay that was inspired by George Floyd’s killing. Take care.
Neil Scheinin
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Some things you just can’t let go. I had a rant against someone who made a crass remark on another website and then thought I should have been more moderate. But an occasional rant lets the steam out for the next bout of restraint.
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I like your outlook, and this post is really timely. Blogging should be fun and comfortable. If you make it a chore, then I suppose the posts themselves could come to reflect that.
I try to catch something, that I think others might have an interest in. I’ll always do it at a relaxed pace.
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Yes – I’m with you. If it’s hard work, then what’s the point? Trouble is, I’ve been finding more posts from other bloggers that interest me lately than I can think up of my own (hence the proportion of reblogs). When it rains again I’ll find more time for online. (We’ve a rare spell of good weather in the UK – too hot to think.)
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uh-oh; I’m guilty on a few of these items you mention. Some days I struggle to come up with a topic, but I want to stick to my daily writing goal, so I eventually come up with something, usually nonsensical. I also publish a Music Monday. This serves a couple of purposes – it narrows my focus for one day of the week, usually making it easier to find something to blog about. Plus, it’s a chance to discover new artists. And I have done the rare list blog, mainly to see if it would lead to an increase in views, and from my limited sample, it did. For a while, I was having trouble keeping up with people who post multiple times per day; I then decided to just pick one and read it. Made my life a bit easier…
And by the way, I had noticed that you had not blogged in about 10 days…
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I am touched that you noticed. 🙂
I can understand the need to maintain a target if you have one, because once you slip… why bother? (eexactly my problem with exercise.) I did set myself a target of once a week at one point but I’ve been busy lately.
I can also see that setting one topic per weekday helps focus on finding material for that day (and there are some highly respected bloggers and authors who do this – often story prompts and suchlike). It’s actually helpful because it helps me eliminate some of the alerts from my daily pile.
The blogging gurus do say that lists and titles that include numbers increase your reads, and I don’t disbelieve them but I don’t often find they list anything I want to read about.. (I have used lists myself too)
I found the easiest way to keep up my blog posts was when I serialised the Pond People, when I could schedule weeks in advance, so I may do that again with a story or two – except I don’t have any ready right now…
The trouble is, when the sun’s out, the weeds grow so quickly… I feel guilty at letting them take over the garden.
Normal service will be resumed when it rains again.
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I agree that once you stop your routine, it is often hard to get back into it. luckily, I’m not into gardening, so the weeds don’t bother me 🙂
And I’ve checked in on a couple of bloggers when it’s been quite a while since their last post; usually 30 days or so. You hadn’t reached that level yet!
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I was just thinking of you last evening and wondering about your daughter. I avoid blogs that tell me how and what to write. I avoid the dreary whining of young adults. I was a whining young adult myself and have thankfully grown out of it. I avoid blogs that turn out to be poorly disguised advertisements. I enjoy the prompts that others use, particularly the song prompts because they remind me of so much music. I am glad you are writing and especially glad that you leave such thoughtful comments for me.
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And thank you for that boost 🙂
I’m with you about the thinly disguised adverts, but I do read a lot of writing and publishing advice (if I haven’t read them before). I too tend to avoid the overly-negative, where possible.
And on that point, I can report that Jenny is continuing to hold stable with optimism about new treatments being trialled (and thank heavens she’s in NZ where hospitals are back to normal and she’s being properly monitored). She continues to work from home because of her former chemo which is supposed to compromise the immune system and has been promoted (! go figure!) Being at home, she has bought a dog, who is being looked after by his breeder while they are away skiing (something she’s hopeless at but enjoys trying). I can tell she’s doing well, because we don’t see so much of her on Facebook lately, apart from the odd smiling photo. Thanks for asking.
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That is good news indeed. It is a treacherous illness, striking young women unawares. I love that they are continuing to seek treatments.
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Blogs to be avoided – ‘The 20 books I am aiming to read this week. The 30 books ( with full description ) I have read this week.’
‘How many words I have written today and how many I plan to write tomorrow compared with how many words I wrote this time last year.’
‘How I am getting on with my Covid diet.’
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Yes, yes and yes! But I tend not to be following those.
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Life gets in the way sometimes and blogging slips down the priority list.
Since the Virus I try and write at least one post a week for our local U3A Facebook page. This saps a lot of my creativity.
I too am pleased that Jenny is better.
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She’s a very determined cookie.
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Oh yeah I agree not to push it if you’ve nothing to say. I steer clear of political rants and a lot of monday memes as well.
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