Taking A Step Back: A Blogging Perspective

When I first started my blog I had my reasons. Mostly, it was my own attempt at daily writing. I wanted to challenge myself to write beyond just prompts. Whether they were reviews or opinion pieces or parts of my own personal story. Writing is a muscle and I wanted a lot of flex time.

So I challenged myself to write four blogs per week, or at least average that. For the first year I did and then I broke my blog into two after a lot of introspection. My original blog would stay as is, but the new blog would feature all of my reviews. I still planned to do an average of four posts per week, but now they were divided between two different blogs. I didn’t care if this meant each blog would have two posts per week or one would have three and the other just one. As long as it all came out to four, I was fine.

But now I am reevaluating again.

I don’t doubt that blogging has done wonders for me. I am flexing my muscles and between this writing and my attention and focus on craft and workshops and classes, I have grown exponentially as a writer. Blogging is a part of that. And should I ever publish a book (God, I hope so) blogging will be important. I’m not walking away or even taking a giant step back. In fact, I’m not doing anything officially… But unofficially I have decided to give myself permission to step back. To cool it, just a little.

See, I really want to write. Not write blogs, but books and even a bunch of shorter pieces. But time, concentration and others things are an issue. Blogging isn’t preventing me from writing, but it makes for a decent excuse at times.

Whether it is a novel or a YA series or my “I don’t want to talk about it” memoir – these are the things I should be focusing on. As well as shorter pieces like essays and short stories. These are what I need to focus on. Even the things I want to focus on.

To be honest, blogging is not standing in my way – not even at the rate of four posts per week. I need to find my groove, I need to learn how to write in my home, or go somewhere else. I need to commit and focus. So I am trying to do just that. And part of that means giving myself permission to focus less on a lot of other stuff.

So I may start posting less to my blogs. People may not notice. I might post three things instead of four (between my two blogs), or I might alternate between three and four. I might even get as low as two posts per week, though I don’t see that as a regular thing, and I certainly don’t see myself dipping below that.

But this permission, which essentially demolishes any set expectations I have of myself or that I put out there for others, is liberating. It doesn’t mean anything is going to change soon, but it does mean that it might, without warning. And I give myself permission to back off, take a breath and not lose the point of why I started these blogs in the first place.

I have a lot of stories that need to be told. And it’s time that I tell them. How that need or execution affects my blogging, time will tell. But after a little more than two years, I am freeing myself of any kind of schedule or expectations in terms of frequency.

For my regular blog, the content will not change. If I have a burning opinion or personal story to share, or something about writing and craft, or sharing a personal experience like a holiday or vacation – I’ll still write it and post it. And for my reviews, I’ll keep writing and posting reviews from the things I love to the things I think I should love but fall short. I’ll keep reviewing books, TV shows and living in my own land of nostalgia in my Guilty Pleasure posts.

So if you are reading this, don’t worry about me going away any time soon. Don’t worry that my focus or voice will change. Just know that I may be here a little less. I know that that is okay. For once I am happy just taking it week by week and seeing what comes or what doesn’t.

I hereby, give myself permission, to take a step back and breathe, and tell all of those other stories that need to be told.

-DMW