It's so easy to stop. You skip a day. Then a couple of days. Then a week. It stops being part of your routine, you stop thinking about it when you're not doing it, and soon enough, it's been a month and you feel like you've stopped altogether.

No, not sex when you're married: I'm talking about blogging. And I'm guilty enough of the accidental blog hiatus myself. In fact, it seems to me that guilt is the primary emotion felt by those who haven't written in a while. "Oh, I should blog something," they tell me, "I feel bad I haven't written in so long."

Guilt is a pretty pointless emotion at the best of times, but with regard to blogging, it's just unnecessary. There isn't some Deity of Blogging who'll smite you with a copy of the Problogger book and cast you down to Blogspot if you haven't accessed your WordPress dashboard in a week. It's all a matter of getting into the habit again.

1. Make a committment
Don't just sit around, watching your page views and your RSS subscribers decline. Decide you're going to get going again. Decide you're going to write, and be specific: how often?
2. ...but not one you can't stick to
At this point, deciding you're going to write three posts a day is unrealistic. Make a committment you know you can stick to. One post a week, maybe. Increasing post frequency is easier later, when you're back in the habit of writing *something*.
3. Make a list
One of the biggest problems bloggers seem to have is feeling that they should be writing something, but having nothing particular to say. Create yourself a list of topics or titles, things you know you've got something to say about and that will be exciting to write.
4. Get some posts half-drafted
I love having a stock of posts mapped out, that can be finished off in less than an hour. It's been a life-saver for me when I'm writing on someone else's schedule, and really helps you keep going when you feel like your pen is broken and you'll never write so much as a cheque again. And working on more than one post at a time can help distract you: if *this* one isn't working, then *that* one might.
5. Don't, whatever you do, write an apology for not blogging
"Sorry I haven't blogged for a while but..." Yuck. My readers aren't sitting around wondering why I haven't written, and I'd hazard a quid or two that yours aren't either. If you're starting up your blog again, make sure you're saying something useful.

Posted by Sue on February 2, 2010 in Blogging.