Well it has officially been more than a week since Rhett or I have posted on Epiblogger. Not that we have not intended to post. There are several posts from both Rhett and I sitting in the drafts folder in various states of completion. Epiblogger opened on January 1st, 2008 and after five months I think both Rhett and I have hit the “blogging wall”. The blogging wall is similar to the wall that marathon runners experience.
The Wall is a legendary thing. Usually encountered around mile 20, it’s the point where the flesh weakens, the spirit sags and the will drains away into a little puddle on the ground. Legs turn to melting Jell-O and breath comes in short, gasping gulps. In all of sports, there is probably nothing as feared, or misunderstood, as this inner barrier where the unprepared run out of steam and can go no further.
From: Breaking through the wall - marathon running techniques
While I am not a runner by an stretch of the imagination, the blogging wall is as real as the wall that marathon runners experience. Bloggers put great amounts of energy into writing and creating posts week after week, day after day and at some point the energy just seems to dry up. It is at this point that many bloggers will stop posting on their blogs altogether. They seem to disappear off of the blogosphere, and sometimes even the Internet.
I could make a long list of things that you as a blogger could do to make it through the blogging wall, but there is only one thing you need to do. Just keep going! Keep writing, keep posting, keep participating in the community that you have started and in the blogging communities that you are a part of. To quote Dory from Finding Nemo:
Dory: [singing] Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.
What helps you as a blogger to keep going when you have hit the “blogging wall”?
Photo by Paul Keleher
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via Email
4 Comments
Thanks for the post. I’ve hit my blogging wall, but you’re kick-in-the-pants has overcome my inherent laziness. Is the ebb an flow unavoidable? It seems to be so.
“Is the ebb and flow unavoidable?”
I think it is a part of being human and since blogs are about showing a personal side, even if they are a corporate or professional blog, it shows the people behind them are, well people. A lot, if not all, of the a-list bloggers will say how important posting frequency is, and how you need to post on a set schedule. Are they wrong? I would say no, but some a-list bloggers post to often during the day and I usually just don’t even bother to read the third or fourth post of that day. People need to find a schedule that fits them and try to stick to it.
I give myself permission to take a break…and sometimes make certain that I consciously think about my blog prior to falling asleep. Quite often, I’ll wake up with fresh new ideas I can use. It’s the power of the unconscious mind.
Btw, what plugin do you use to add your comment response? Does it automatically email the commenter as well?
Thanks!
Barbara
That is a good idea, now if I could only sleep! Been having some insomnia lately. I would often do that when I was working on a problem for a client. I would wake up and have a couple new ideas on how to solve it in the morning.
Comment response? The threaded comments? The threaded comments is Brian’s Threaded Comments and Better Comments Manager in the admin. The plugin to subscribe by email to new comments is called Subscribe to Comments I believe.
One Trackback
[...] I read a post on Epiblogger about The Blogging Wall, which is like the wall a marathon runner encounters (except you can still sip coffee, check email, [...]