i have been doing lots of thinking about this here blog lately. its purpose, its direction, how to make it better for my readers and for myself. i don't have solid answers yet, but i'm working on it, i promise. but i've noticed a few things recently. first, that i didn't participate in the things i'm afraid to tell you movement that started with jess and that ez of creature comforts continued, even though i was very moved by it, because i couldn't figure out what to say. not that i don't have things to share, but because i was afraid to say the things i'm afraid to tell you. isn't that something ;) another thing i've noticed: that i have gotten more and more caught up in other people's pretty and their projects and their good ideas, that i've shut down a lot of my own. i have so many half-finished creations and projects, i have had a projects to-do list for as long as i can remember, and instead of working on them and growing that list, i spend hours looking at others' fabulous ideas and blogging about them. instead of using a free saturday immersed in my own creativity, i have more frequently spent it lining up posts for the next week. i don't consider that wasted time at all, i created this blog to share all the fabulous, often whimsical, things i came across that i wanted to share, but somewhere i hit a tipping point and went too far into the observing rather than doing side of things. which brings me to the next thing i noticed: when my afternoon flight on memorial day was cancelled suddenly, my first thought was crap i don't have tomorrow's post done and i didn't bring my computer. not yay i get to spend another night with my family, which i realized immediately and corrected in my mind, but it still happened, and it still drives me nuts. stay with me, cause i have one more thing i've noticed recently: my sister's wedding is just over 2 months away. yes, the shower and bachelorette weekend are behind us, but i want to be super helpful in these last few months with interesting and unique ideas and making it as special as possible, and work is also going to be really busy this summer. i don't make money from a spot of whimsy, and i never really intended to, but i have limited free time right now and i want to be sure i have the time i want for that wedding planning, cause that's Important with a capital "I."
so what's the point? where's this all heading? my instinct is to say: i think i need to start doing 3-4 posts each week, rather than the current 5. it will keep me sane, but, more importantly, it will allow me more time per post and thus, and i hope you agree, increase the value to you all. of course, after reading the phenomenal feature on erin gates of elements of style on the everygirl yesterday (where the above image of fabulous organization and style derives), i doubted this instinct, because from day one of this blog i've agreed with erin's advice that, "Posting ever single day is something that I believe is a HUGE part of
making it in blogging. You need your readers to know that when they
check in every morning there will be something new." but sometimes you have to say, "but that's not working as smoothly for me as it should right now," and adjust accordingly. i hope to be back up to 5 posts/week in the future, but for right now, please forgive me for dipping below that average. thank you, as well, for reading this whole post and i'm sorry it got so long and overwhelming. i just got going and couldn't stop! if you have advice or suggestions for similar situations you've been through, i'd love to hear them. either way, i hope you guys understand and i love you for reading a spot of whimsy. in a way, i guess this was my things i'm afraid to tell you post.
happy weekend to you all!
xo. di.
*image via the everygirl
Great idea to slow it down a bit....you get to focus on whatever you want and need to without that nagging thought always in the back of your mind about your posts:) Just doing 3 posts a week is sometimes too much for me, although they are always fun once they're complete!!
ReplyDeleteRest, relax, be calm....I love your posts, but love you more:)
I will totally back you up on this one! We need to LIVE life in order to have things to share, in order to feel refreshed and excited to blog. Don't let a blogging schedule get in the way of real life :) I often feel guilty for not posting everyday or even every other day, so I understand... And I would LOVE to hear more about your projects and thoughts too, so don't be afraid to share more about YOU! Enoy the weekend!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you're saying, and I can tell you I've gone through this more times than naught in my years of blogging. I think I was a good six or seven months of posting pretty much every weekday before I stepped it down to three times a week. I was posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday and using the days between for reading and commenting on other blogs, responding to comments, etc. A lot of bloggers will also tell you that not posting every day gives your readers more time to leave comments. And now that I write two blogs one of the things I don't do as often as I'd like is visiting other blogs, so I tend to slack on leaving comments in the process. Which brings me to the next point: I absolutely caught myself living too much in the beauty and/or inspiration of other blogs and I felt that The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower started to become more of an emulation of everything I looked at, all the blogs I wanted it to be like. In that, it quickly got to be more methodical and systematic. Even now one of my goals is to try to find ways that I can create content for the blog without actually being on the computer. I'm having burnout from staring at the screen and fiddling in Photoshop! So I want to start getting more creative somehow; creative in a physical way, whether it's trying a new project and sharing the experience on the blog or redecorating a room and sharing my progress, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny: since starting Literary Inklings I'm back to writing one post per week - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower, then Tuesdays and Thursdays on Literary Inklings - and I still feel like it's not enough. Like you said, you want the people who visit your blog daily to know they'll find new content. My struggle right now is with the readers who aren't bloggers. A lot of them, if they come across a blog through a Facebook friend or word-of-mouth recommendation, might just bookmark the site to visit daily or type in the web address from memory rather than subscribing to updates (I've also heard that non-bloggers are inclined to think "subscribe" means they have to spend money, so they're less likely to get update notifications in any way). So it's easy to feel like you need to have daily content for those people that won't look for a schedule or subscribe to updates. On that I have no advice, except that blogging will be the most fun when you aren't stressing out over it. ;)
I just cut back myself and it's liberating. Good for you for realigning your priorities I say...We will all still be here because we love your blog be it 3 posts or 5!
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