Why I Quit Blogging and Why I Started Again

This calendar month* marks seven years since I started this web log. This year marks a turning point in my life where I've thought about quitting blogging and even writing birthday.

Information technology seems my relationship with blogging has hit the seven twelvemonth itch.

Writing (1)

Over fourth dimension I've blogged less and less. When I started blogging, I blogged weekly. And so fortnightly. Over the last two years I've put up one post a month and scaled dorsum freelance writing work. That made me realise, the less time you spend on something, the more than fourth dimension you have for yourself and the more time to think.

Remembering why you blog

Recently I fell sick and that put into perspective the important things in life. As the season swept from wintertime to leap, i twenty-four hour period early in September I awoke with a painful pharynx. I went to piece of work business concern equally usual, business as usual for the next two weeks sounding like a frog. As the sun rose before and earlier with each passing day, the painful throat steamrolled into a bad common cold, nose running like Niagara Falls round the clock along with aquiver body temperatures.

Walking around was impossible. Scrolling through my phone was such an effort that I gave up. There was zero else to practise but sit at home and do nothing. In that location was no blogging. No reading other blogs. No writing new blog posts. No writing at all.

I didn't miss any of that.

Writing (ii)

In a world where success is constantly divers by popularity, what job yous have and how much you earn, many see a successful blog as a blog with hundreds if not thousands of views a solar day. Or a blog with a large post-obit and spruiking sponsorship deals. Through rose tinted spectacles, a successful blogger or writer is someone who sells millions of books or is a household name.

Many live with the idea you should be remunerated for everything you do. Some bloggers blog for views and recognition. They experience deflated when they don't become the readership they hoped for and quit. That'south non me.

It'south non that blogging is tough, like how some bloggers find the juggling act of blogging also hard and requite upwards. There's lots of piece of work behind-the-scenes: drafting web log posts, editing posts, optimising posts towards SEO if you want to reach an audition, marketing your blog, coordinating your web log's social media platforms and more. As someone who likes organised routine, I gladly stuck to a blogging routine.

It's not that I don't have anything to write and blog nearly anymore. Some bloggers get burnt out or bored of their content after a while and go out blogging at that. There are heaps of topics I want to write about: from means to stand to racism to why many of u.s. drink tea to reasons why EPL is and so popular all over the globe.

Information technology's not that I don't like writing anymore. I even so dear writing and it's the all-time way I limited my thoughts.

Writing (3)

Reasons to non blog

After seven years of blogging and a lifetime as a writer, I want to do other things.

That is, in that location are other things I want to practise and so much more than blogging and writing. Hobbies I've never had time for. Other interests which I want to swoop into. Going to places I've been planning for a while.

Writing and researching ane blog post takes me weeks. Information technology wasn't uncommon for me to spend 3 hours on a blog mail, five nights a week for a few weeks. And still non be happy with it. And spend more than time prepping the post.

Before this year I had a taste of non-blogging by not blogging for a calendar week here and there and went most a different normal. Different routines come up with different ways of getting effectually, different trains of thought, surprises and a newfound appreciation of what you lot oasis't done until you're doing information technology correct at present.

When y'all're downwards and out and things have a turn for the worse, routine tin go out the window. Being sick I felt that all too well: sitting in my room surrounded by four white walls, just sitting. Pharynx going from feeling like it was beingness stabbed with daggers to a burning raging fire. The chapter of being a author had come to a standstill. Outside tiny yellow delicious blooms sprouted amidst the parting winter arctic, their vibrant petals swaying with the blustery winds on summertime-similar September days.

Writing (4)

When you put aside something you lot've always done, there'south more time for things that brand life a comfortable one: doing chores, policing your health, spending fourth dimension with those you want to see. Less blogging, more time for things I have to do. That includes scrubbing my bathroom tiles clean with a toothbrush.

Beingness overly busy is not cute. The more than time you have for things you want and take to do, the more you do things with undivided attention. That brings a stronger sense of purpose for the things you do.

Less blogging also means less time spent online and more time offline in the private moments of reality. Often many of the states are extroverted when we're online, especially when we're on Facebook or Twitter or on our blogs sharing our personal lives.

As you get older, you lot tend to go more introverted. The older yous get the more y'all capeesh the modest things. The quiet moments of waking up without pain and a day out go so much more special. Covert solitude becomes so much more special and something you want and need in the nowadays.

The September days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into October. Trees adorned with green leaves dotted the streets exterior, the leaves swaying in the sometimes warm, sometimes chilly Melbourne springtime air. Losing rails of the days and timeline of 2019, the congested passages of heart and life inside me eased. Waking upwards at present feeling a chip less in pain and other affections less amplified was such a wonderful feeling.

With life changing moments surrounding illness, in that location'due south no returning to what you called normal. As Ana Harris writes on re-inbound life after chronic affliction, 'everything that should feel familiar feels new, scary and overwhelming' such as swiping a credit carte du jour at the store. After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, Angie Ebba reflects on going through phases of grieving and acceptance of your 'new' body; y'all learn new ways to experience the parts of yourself each passing mean solar day.

Writing (5)

Time for change

Life is a serial of seasons where change is the only abiding. At that place are times where you'll feel stuck trying to figure things out or wondering why everyone and everything is confronting you. Other times, you accept things into your ain hands and exercise what you want to practice.

A clearer mind doesn't necessarily mean you've found what yous want to practice. It could mean you can finally manifest so many more options and possibilities ahead of you.

I approximate that'south why some bloggers finish blogging ane day: there'due south more to life than blogging.

Y'all might avidly follow a blogger whom you are a big fan of, be it for their work or personality. Then one day, they stop posting. However, they might occasionally pop up and read and comment on your blog – similar how friends we've never seen in a while come up around and say hi 1 mean solar day.

More often than not, these bloggers respect the time they put into blogging, respect the community within blogging and most chiefly, respect their life and the things in life they relish. They don't need to announce or explain themselves if they decide to stop blogging or put their blog on extended pause.

Writing (half dozen)

On a cool-again mid-leap twenty-four hour period, I flipped the pages of my planner. Empty pages adorned the sections September and October. No blogging schedules. No book writing time. No grocery shopping lists. No practise time. No normal everyday routine. None of information technology bothered me.

Posting online never appealed to me in the first place. My family and friends have to beg me to post on my individual social accounts and nonetheless, I don't really. Funnily plenty this free-for-all blog kept going for so long and it'south been quite a ride with these opportunities:

• Being featured on Freshly Pressed (now WordPress Discover).
• Invitations to guest post on other blogs.
• Freelance writing gigs.
• Speaking at conferences, mag and radio interviews.
• Contributing to a book (Lady Past The River) with fellow bloggers.
• Getting automatic emails from marketing companies wanting to guest post on my blog and willing to pay me (Just no).
• Getting sponsorship deals and free stuff to review and promote (Never taken up).
• Having something foreign to say in job interviews.
• Getting fan mail.

Having people read my weblog means the world to me. The all-time part is when I get to talk to bloggers on here and on their blogs too. People are fascinated by what's popular and 'in', and I'grand non one to follow trends. Think online trends such as Nanowrimo, tag questions, room tours, what I consume in a day diaries and and so much more. Nonetheless people notwithstanding follow along this blog – giving up their time to be hither. Thank yous.

Writing (vii)

The dark-green leaves on the trees outside swayed in the fresh winter-like cakewalk. Sitting back in my chair and mustering every ounce of energy from within a body dilapidated and wild, I turned the pages of the planner towards the months ahead. While writing volition still be a part of what I do, blogging here will exist unlike. Life will never be the same once again.

When y'all're passionate almost something, it doesn't mean you lot'll want to do information technology all the fourth dimension. Life is a season of changes where we all motility on to different things to detect what makes usa happy in a season. At some betoken, some things end, some things are put on pause.

Some things you just never know how they'll plow out.

Have you thought about leaving blogging behind?

*written October 2019

jenkinscansid.blogspot.com

Source: https://mabelkwong.com/2019/12/05/why-i-feel-like-quitting-after-7-years-of-blogging/