It’s no secret that I’ve been in a blogging slump lately. Where I used to post every day of the week, I’m lucky now if I post a measly three times a week. And opening my Google Reader? A daunting task that makes me sigh and close my computer. So. many. posts.
I think every blogger goes through this at some point in their blogging careers. I’ve been book blogging for close to two years now. The honeymoon phase is clearly over and has been for awhile. Like many bloggers, I go through spurts. Times where I’m full of creative post ideas and can’t churn them out fast enough, and times like now where I struggle to write a simple review.
I know many people will say that when this happens to them, they take a break, or slow down. I’ve done all those things though. What I’m really looking to find out is where you find your inspiration. Does it come from reading other blogs? From browsing book news? Obviously there is no one catch all solution. Inspiration comes from many places, but I still want to know…
Where do you find your blogging ideas or inspiration for writing? And how do you deal with the inevitable blog slump?
I have found series and memes to be really helpful in getting me going. Knowing that I have particular topics that I set aside for different days of the weeks have kept me going when I don’t have anything to write about. It’s also helped me prepare in advance. Maybe you could develop a variety of series, like Tales from My Childhood, where instead of talking about your own childhood, you write about your fave books from childhood. Or maybe “Character Profiles” where you write about your favorite characters in literature. I’m just thinking of different things that could provide you regular content, but then still give you flexibility to be like “Inspiration!” and move things around.
It helps if you love what you are reading. Then, I feel like I can’t wait to tell everyone how great this is, hence, a blog post! I do enjoy reading others reviews — it gets me excited about reading too. But maybe that doesn’t translate to excitement about blogging …..
I’m really new at book blogging, but the reason I started doing it was because I was reading all these wonderful and interesting things and wanted to share them. The books themselves are really my inspiration to write posts. I also don’t do official reviews of books, though, I just talk about different themes and such that come out in the book. I enjoy the posts you do put up – so don’t give up! 🙂
When I get in a blogging slump, or I just get too busy, I stop worrying about it. If I can’t easily write a review, then maybe I wasn’t meant to write it. Your blog is your personal space, so you shouldn’t feel required to do anything. Do what makes you happy and isn’t stressful. Post when you can and when you feel up to it 😀
Step away from the computer, my friend! (She says, while typing at her computer… 🙂 )
When I get burned out, taking time not just away from the computer, but doing things that open up my world, help tremendously. Connecting with other people is a big part of that: going out for hikes, seeing movies, trying new restaurants or events… all these things fill me with ideas that I’m suddenly eager to blog about.
Also, I keep a post on my blog that’s just a slush pile of ideas. Sometimes I’ll sit down and draw a blank, but I have a whole backlog of ideas I can pull from to get re-inspired.
xo,
E
I normally just do reviews, more reviews, memes, and the occassional post about something else. I need to work on creating more variety on my blog. How I deal with the blogging slump is that when I’m in the mood to write posts, I write a few, and then set them for the upcoming days. If you want to post more, maybe you could do that!
-Laurel
Oh, girl, you know I go through this ALL THE TIME. My best advice would be to slow down, but what actually works for me is to A.) be on a schedule. It’s nice to have weekly memes that you KNOW you’re going to participate in (and are easy to crank out) and that keeps you current then to B.) remind yourself that you’ll never regret posting, but you will probably regret NOT posting. The blog world almost always cheers me up when I’m feeling down or boosts me up even higher when I’m feeling extra happy about something!
Hang in there! You better not disappear on us! 🙂
I’ve been feeling like I’m in a bit of a slump lately. I’ve been blogging for about 2 and half years now, and I feel like I go through them about every 6 months or so. There’s times when I feel like I have no idea what to write about, or I can’t really even remember what I used to write about. For a while I’d write down the random ideas that came to me, that way when I was lacking inspiration I could refer to them for ideas. Although I haven’t done it in a while, but I think it might be about time to start a list of ideas again