31 Aug 2014

On not blogging and pleasure in failing.

Despite preaching about the importance of consistency in blogging eg: blogging regularly, to those who ask my advice on blogging, I obviously do not take my own advice. Well, in fairness I do blog consistently - but very sporadically. (Any Clueless fans, great word usage huh?)

But  it's not that I don't have ideas, and it's not that I don't have time - although I have a lot less time than pre-baby45. I just struggle to actually write. And when I do write, I'm just thinking of all the mistakes I'm making. Like:

  • too many adverbs (4 alone in the above paragraphs)
  • terrible punctuation and grammar (let's not even go there)
  • boring topics (I'm in that no man's land of not A.N.Other Mummy Blogger but not a subject specialist)See, current events, mental health, parenting, social media. I flit, like a badly written butterfly.
  • lack of multimedia (it's a pain in the ass to find pictures to illustrate concepts sometimes and then also, if I do design my own jpeg, it takes forever and then I just ....oh you get the picture right?!)
  • Waffling. Not the belgian edible kind. The going off on random tangents and forgetting the original point of the - Oh wait, where was i again?
  • Lack of lists, snappy titles, not writing huge blocks of text. But also, I don't have a sub-editor so.....
So does any of this matter? How do I get the ideas for blogposts out of my head and onto my screen? 


To give you an idea of the gestation length of some posts, this post on depression was THREE YEARS in the percolating around my head before making it on to my screen.

And I keep promising posts and not writing them. The thing is I often get my best thoughts and opening sentences when I'm in the shower. Which is not a great place to write. By the time I'm in a place to write (child free, semi-distraction free, time + laptop present) the spark has gone and I'm just doubting again.

If only I didn't have stats on my blog. Then I wouldn't measure my success/achievements as a blogger by that. I'm not sure what I should measure it by but number of views/RTs by Mumsnet/freebies from brands weren't what I got into this for, so why am I only measuring myself by that?

I started blogging in 2011 to give myself more confidence to write a book. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh about that. Not happened. Did have a baby though. And he can say fart and boobies. So my parenting job is totally done. 

But back to the writing, Nanowrimo is coming up and yet again, it's an opportunity for a fresh writing start. Maybe this year, it'll be my year.



Thank you and goodnight,

Stupidgirl has left the building

PS This blog is not sponsored by Grumpy Cat. I just like Grumpy Cat. A lot. Sorry about that. (Not sorry)

PPS Also, in the writing of this post, I had a lengthy discussion about usage of the word cunt. On twitter. With my mother. Thank you social media for enabling that 


3 comments:

  1. I blog with TV on...don't steal ideas but often hear a sentence or phrase that sparks idea and gives me an 'in'.. or set it up so you can blog with a partner.. Two heads come up with three times the ideas..and sometimes I eat cookies/biscuits before I blog...sugar rush helps make everything I type look good and once it's down on the screen I don't care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am pretty new to blogging, start it as a way to talk about things I love that no-one else around me is bothered about like my obsession with a certain band.

    I started a new post this morning and have already stalled after my second paragraph with the thoughts of "Am I interesting?", "Am I waffling?" and other similar things going through my mind.

    I just need to remember that I am doing this for me, if others read then that is great.

    Remember why you started and keep aiming for that.

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