The top 5 reasons I’ve been blogging less (and one way I plan to change that)

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It used to be that I was putting up stuff here constantly. Between regular weekly Six on the brain posts and reviews for the books I was reading, I’d sometimes get several things per week up on the ol’ blog.

Then things slowed down a little before finally coming to just a trickle.

Not that many of you care. I’m one of thousands—if not millions—of aspiring full-time novelists who decided a blog is a great way to build a brand, pass along some well-earned wisdom, and maybe scream to the world that they’ve landed an agent or sold their first book.

I hear you all yawning now.

It’s okay. I get it. I, too, read lots of blogs about the thing I’m supposed to be doing instead of, you know, actually doing it.

But it seems forever ago that I wrote I was resurrecting the aforementioned Six on the brain… just in a different format. It used to be that the series was just six things I was thinking about that week. It didn’t matter that the six things had nothing to with books or writing. I just churned ‘em out, mostly for sake of writing something and posting it.

Yawn, again.

Trust me, I’m feeling you.

This is where the re-tooling comes into play. This site is, essentially, a legacy… my legacy. If I never sell a book, this will be here on the Web for all to see. It should matter. Sorry, I know, self-importance is tiresome. It’s tiresome even for me.

So, cutting the crap, I figured the majority of the words I write here should be consistent with the freaking blog’s premise.

That said, every week, the Six on the brain post will have something to do with the blog’s mission. Plus, it’ll still be wrapped inside the nifty list of six things like it was thirteen times before. What they hey, people still like list posts.

And I figured the best way to start it off is by talking about why I’ve been so scarce these days.^†

I’ve been busy at my day job

I know, I know… we’re all busy. Maybe it’s just an excuse for not doing something. But the truth is, I have been busy at work. I’m a technical writer who bangs out software instruction books. The company I work for actually makes stuff and then sells it to customers. Nifty concept, huh?

As a result, I have periods of work where lots of documentation needs to be wrapped up in a super-short time frame. In the last six months or so, we’ve released about a half-dozen products (upgrades, add-ons, hot fixes, etc). It’s a lot of stuff. Really.

When all is accounted for, what’s the easiest thing to let slide?

I’ve got a side business I’m trying to grow

In addition to the hours I spend at the bills-payin’ job, I sometimes spend a lot of free time getting the someday job up to speed. I once figured I could fire my boss and work for myself within 18 months. That was a year ago. I’m nowhere near that close.

If there’s a lesson I’ve learned from starting a business, it’s that developing it is expensive—in time, effort, and money. It’s damned hard work, yo.

I was on vacation

Like this one needs explaining. July was a busy month for me—my wife’s cousin got married at the beginning of the month. Then my dad got married at the end of the month. Frankly, it was nice to be away from the computer for a while.

My confidence has been wavering

What can I say? I’m a writer and this seems to come with the territory… even for best sellers.

I haven’t been happy with most of the fiction I’ve written lately. (And by “lately” I mean “pretty much all year.”) I’ve convinced myself that none of it’s very good. This shouldn’t affect what I write here. But it does. If I think I stink, what right do I have to write about writing? What can others take from me?

The good news is that I’m getting over it. And I’ve definitely stopped being so hard on myself.

I’ve realized that, while some of what I’ve done IS crap, there’s other stuff that isn’t. In fact, I’ve got a short story that I think can be a novel. It’s my next project.

My motivation has been foundering

See number 4 above.

On the one hand, confidence and motivation are like Romeo and Juliet. They love each other passionately. But when one eats a bullet, the other one does the same soon after.

On the other hand, they’re also like oatmeal cookies and ice cream. Really good all by themselves, but fucking fantastic when they’re paired up.

And one more makes six…

I’ve planned ahead

Like the saying goes, “When you fail to plan, plan on failing.”

I’ve got about six months worth of stuff mapped out in my idea book. It’s the same book where I jot down snippets of conversations I hear when I’m out and about, rockin’ snippets of dialog from TV shows and movies, or other brain farts that strike me as particularly keep-worthy.The thing goes with me just about everywhere I go. I open it and scribble something inside at least three times a day. It’s as top-of-mind as anything else I own.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m positive that the ideas I’ve got for this column are nothing more than a few rough gems augured inside a shitload of pea gravel. But it was important for me to have them at the ready. I figure many of them will trigger other ideas, and things I discover independently will likely replace most of the originals.

For now, though, I’ve got a good basis for the next several weeks.

And that’s a heck of a lot better than it was before.

^†Yes, I realize this post flies in the face of the “make the thing relevant” theme. Gotta start somewhere. Might as well be with a mea culpa and some self-inflicted TLC.

Tags: On writing, Six on the brain