Image by Alun Salt
It happens to the best of us, and often at the worst times. Writer’s block. A creative loss. Disenchantment with blogging. When you start blogging, the world is fresh and new– you are a fountain of ideas and everything is an inspiration.
The longer you stay in blogging, the more hurdles and obstacles you encounter. Maybe you get married. Switch jobs. Have a child. Start school. Major life decisions, and the minor ones too, can have a crazy impact on your ability to blog. Add on top of it the desire to continue blogging through all the hardships– and you’re quickly on your way to burning out. IFB has some great posts on beating burnout– such as Beating Blogger Burnout from Vahni and Burnout Aversion Tips from Bloggers from Jennine.
But what about when you become just a bit disenchanted with blogging? When you feel uninspired to write and uninspired by what you’re reading in the community? Maybe you’ve been blogging a long time at this point, and you feel that you’ve said all you have to say.
- Stop Reading Fashion Blogs. Crazy, right? Recently Grechen wrote an amazing post, “Why I Stopped Reading Fashion Blogs,” and the response of those in agreement was staggering. The fact is, the more fashion blogs you read, the more saturated you become with the same information. Reading the same content over and over won’t inspire you. If you find you’re uninspired by the blogs you’re reading, take a step back. Unsubscribe from them all. Go back to those you miss. You’ll thank yourself for it.
- Find Inspiration Elsewhere. I’m not just talking about going to the mall or reading fashion magazines. Or maybe I am saying to read a fashion magazine or go to the mall. Look at your life. How do you shop? (I shop online.) If you shop online, GO to the mall. See what people are wearing, how they interact with products. Do you spend all of your time watching sci-fi? Watch a historical romance. Do the costumes move you? Find a new genre of blogs to read. Check out mommy blogs or tech blogs for inspiration on how to write about products. Visit lifestyle & positive thinking sites for new ways to energize yourself. Jump outside of your comfort zones.
- Challenge Your Writing Skills. Sign up to take a writing class, or a poetry class. Pick up copies of Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit
or Writing Down the Bones
. Look up writing challenges and force yourself to do one daily. Improving your writing skills can always challenge your mind and style as a writer.
- Experiment with Post Formats. Whenever I’m in a rut, I turn back to my Problogger 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook. Like challenging my writing skills, I find that shaking up the ways I write my posts helps significantly challenge the way I’m thinking.
- Write Something Else. I doubt any member of IFB is solely and exclusively interested in fashion and fashion alone. If you’re disenchanted with writing for your own blog, write for someone else. Write about local events for that hip local blog. Write about the films you recently watched for a film blog. I know that, when I’m down and out on Dramatis Personae, my weekly post at IFB can be the break and change my mind needs.
If all else fails, and you’re feeling more disenchanted than ever… ask yourself if blogging is what you really want. Ask yourself why you keep blogging. Are you hoping for a six figure salary from blogging? Do you want to be the next Rumi Neely? Is it the community (which is a fab one)? You can interact with the community still, even without a blog. If you’re holding on to unrealistic goals, then maybe it’s time to let go. If there’s a burning desire in your stomach that you can’t quench, then you should push forward.
Being disenchanted with blogging is hard for those who have just started. How can you write something interesting if you feel that no one reads your blog? I find inspiration everywhere but it becomes difficult to express it in words. I hope to work hard on that. Interesting how one should stop reading fashion blogs. Overload of information is a bad thing for creative writing I suppose