There’s always that time in your blogging that you aren’t able to write. For whatever reason, you may need a few weeks off or even a month. Either way you’ll eventually need or want to return to blogging.
This post is about my recent hiatus and with this article I break my posting hiatus and explain how to return to blogging after a break. At least from my perspective.
What Happened
For me, I was just on a vacation then had a hard time returning to writing after that. My last post was over a month ago and this is my welcome back. This also goes for my learning blog about my day job (Learning & Development), I took over a month off and recently made my first post.
The challenge is to figure out where to start and how to break the ice after losing touch with your audience and writing. Sometimes things like guilt stop you from picking back up when you want, sometimes you’ve lost motivation. For me it was a bit of both, and the fact that I couldn’t get my ideas together to write.
Late last week was the time I finally got back to writing. This article is following soon after and I feel motivated now to keep writing.
Here’s how I did it.
How To Get Back
The most important thing I did to get back to writing was not to write a list of topics to write about. It also wasn’t to research topics to write about. I didn’t want anything overly complex or difficult that could present obstacles to me writing and publishing.
I didn’t have any requirements for how long my post had to be and there’s definitely no expectations for it to be my best post.
Over my vacation cobwebs built up in my brain and I wasn’t thinking clearly. An activity that could clear those cobwebs was essentially to getting back to normal.
So here’s what I did to clear those cobwebs:
I just wrote. Don’t let anything stop you. Your article doesn’t need to be high quality, it’s probably not going to be your best one. You just need to write something.
I couldn’t think of where to start so I picked a topic that I thought would be easy and close at mind. It was. I chose to write about how I slowly made my wake, my path to writing again. Sort of my personal analysis of how it all went.
This article is another in the similar fashion where I chose a topic that is related to my blog, but was of direct interest to me having not written.
This has helped me get back into writing and has sparked inspiration to write more ideas and now start my regular posting.
I feel like the cobwebs are cleared from my mind and now my blogs can go back to a normal posting schedule, or close. I won’t beat myself up if I’m not able to keep up 100% but I’m going to try. If I don’t continue on my first try then I’ll keep going when I can, and I’ll do the best I can!
Keep Writing
Hopefully you never experience the drop in motivation to post, or an extended break that breaks your motivation. I don’t think that’s possible though, you will experience it.
When you do, just remember: keep on writing. The more you write, the easier it is to write. Even if you’re not publishing what you write sometimes, it’s nice to keep writing and keep those brain cogs turning.
While this might not be my best post ever, I’m glad I write it and published it. I hope it encourages someone to keep going even if they’ve run into a brick wall.
When you’re building your personal brand online there’s nothing better than to show that you’re relevant. The best way to keep up relevance and continue to be important in your field of work is to write. You may not publish all your writing, but it’s important to continue to write.
Your Take
That’s what I do to start up again.
What do you do to start up again after taking a blogging break?
Leave a comment in the comments section.