How to keep balance in your blogging and writing life
There are many occasions in the writer’s life and in the blogger’s life when things go wrong. This can take many forms:
- Writer’s (or blogger’s) block – when the words just will not come.
- Rejection from publishers – far too frequent I’m afraid; it’s a very competitive world.
- Your server goes down – or your computer crashes (ouch).
- You suffer an illness – who wants to write when your nose is running and the throat is as rough as sandpaper.
- A family crisis suddenly slaps you in the face – family members can be very persuasive and persistent.
- Any number of crises, interruptions, problems or disasters can get in the way of your writing and blogging.
We’ve all had times like that. Lately for me it’s been a combination of demands on my time from others together with personal illness. On another occasion I have written about my BADDs (Beastly Awful Diabetic Days) and how they can slow down the writing process.
Let’s get practical. How does one keep balance in your writing and blogging life? Here are some simple suggestions I found work for me:
Keeping balance
- Crises: let’s face it – dealing with a personal or family crisis needs to have top priority. Deal with it and then you can get back to the writing.
- Writer’s block: do something else for a short while, like going for a walk, watching a movie, reading a book. Recharge the batteries and then get back to the writing.
- Rejection: whether this is in the form of abusive comments or a rejection letter from a publisher, it still hurts. Get over it; they are rejecting your writing, not you.
- Illness: give yourself some sick leave. You cannot be fully productive when you are ill. Pretending you can soldier on through the illness is counter-productive; it could worsen your condition or at best lengthen the condition. Take a break. Go to bed with a book.
Whatever you do, don’t be like me and become a grumpy old blogger. When things get on top of me, I can easily slip into a state of depression, and that makes me grumpy. In this I am not alone. Even professionals like Darren Rowse on ProBlogger must have grumpy days. He has written an excellent article called How Not to become a Grumpy Old Blogger. He takes a completely different approach to the one I’ve taken in this post, so it’s well worth reading.
Improve your writing: useful articles for writers
I’ve been searching through the enormous list of articles entered in Darren Rowse’s Group Writing Project held over this last week. I particularly looked for posts dealing with helping writers to improve their writing skills.
I’ve listed here a few of them:
- The Top 5 Free Software Programs every writer should have (go on, admit it – you can’t resist a freebie)
- Top 5 Free ways to promote your writing business (we all need to promote our writing, right? And all the suggestions are free too!)
- Top 5 reasons you should stop calling yourself a writer, right now (If you call yourself a writer but don’t actually do much writing then this article will be challenging).
- Top 5 reasons why writers should procrastinate (if you get actually get around to reading it).
- Top 5 Author Blogs (read how some popular and well read authors write on their blogs)
- When it’s time to stop writing (we’ve all been there – but do we recognise the signs?)
How to be more successful in blogging
There are probably thousands of articles published every week about how to be a successful writer or blogger. I have written on this or similar topics on a number of occasions. Just scan through the contents section or the categories or even the archives (found on the side bar) and you will find many such articles I’ve published over the last year and a half.
Every so often, however, I come across another little gem that takes a new look at the same topic: how to be a more successful writer or blogger. I’ve just read Five Essential Skills for Blogging Success. Take to time to read it a bookmark it. Not only does the author make some very pertinent points, she has included many very useful resources and reference works relevant to both writing and blogging.
Taking a short break from writing
I have had an enforced break from writing over the last two weeks. I sometimes do some relief driving for a friend who runs a courier business in our city. Whenever he needs a short holiday or he needs to attend a meeting (as a member of the local council) he asks me to fill in for him. This work has several benefits for me, including:
- plenty of extra exercise – it’s demanding physically
- it gives me plenty of fresh air
- it forces me away from the computer to rest the eyes
- it gives a modest amount of extra income.
Injury
Two weeks ago my friend rang me early one morning to say he’d injured his back and could hardly walk, let alone lift parcels. Within twenty minutes I was ready to take over for the rest of the day. I ended up doing the rest of that week and all of the next week. He is now on the road to recovery, taking each day carefully. He is so pleased that does not need a repeat of an operation he had twenty years ago. So am I – I’m not sure I could have coped with running his business for 2-3 months while he recovered.
Emergency articles on my blog
I didn’t have much of a gap in the posts that appeared on this blog during my enforced absence from the computer. This was because I usually work ahead with my articles, setting them to appear one a day over the coming week or weeks. On occasions I have worked up to four weeks ahead, especially when I know I will be busy on other matters or away from home for a period.