In which I reflect on my 52 Blogs efforts so far, and try and come up with convincing excuses for being so generally slack with it all lately.
It probably says a lot that this post is almost a month later than it should have been. Then again, it says equal amounts that I’m writing it regardless.
I started the 52 Blogs project as a means to motivate myself into writing more: specifically into writing at least one blog post a week. I also wanted to help one or two other people back into regular blogging too. The idea of an easygoing, one-post-per-week challenge seemed the best way to go: there was no word count limit (you could write as little as one sentence) and there was very little pressure (you just write the post at any convenient time during the week). Having come up with the concept I tweeted about it and asked if anyone else fancied joining in: turned out there were quite a few other people up for it. Which was nice.
Half a year on and there’s about five of us still sticking with it, some more promptly than others. Because life often gets in the way many other people dropped out and, for the same reason, I don’t think the rest of us can claim to have written a blog post each and every week. Nevertheless, we’re still writing.
So what have I learned?
Well, I’ve learned a lot about some of the other people doing 52 Blogs, which has been an unexpected and wonderful benefit. I’ve also learned that I’m not the only one who struggles with writing regularly, nor am I the only one who gets stressed about leaving something undone; even something as small as a blog post.
Because it’s not been easy and because it’s been stressful at times (not overwhelmingly so, it’s only a blog after all, but sometimes you don’t want to add any unnecessary stress to your day) I admit I considered throwing in the towel. Ultimately I decided to persist. I’m looking forward to going back through these posts at the end of the year and seeing what I wrote, wondering whether I would have written anything different in retrospect, or seeing if my writing has improved. I’m looking forward to celebrating the fact that I did write at least 52 Blogs in one year (even if it wasn’t one every week in the end).
I have wondered if my other blogging has suffered. With the exception of my Licence To Watch reviews I’ve done very little additional blogging this year. Then again, I do very little blogging most years, so it’s likely that I’m simply making excuses. Over the last month my creative writing seems to have picked up the pace quite dramatically. I have no idea if it’s 52 Blogs related or not, but the very fact of writing more regularly seems to make it easier to write more regularly. If this is truly a thing then the 52 Blogs will have been well worth the effort.
So, keep reading and let’s see where things are in another 26 weeks.
Oops, I mean 22 weeks 😉