Let's Talk: How to Beat a Blogging Slump

Let's Talk is a new weekly feature here at i swim for oceans. I think it's important that we all have our say, and there's something to be said for raising our voices. Simply put, here on the little old blog, I like to host some of my very own discussion posts because, well, I like to converse with you all.

And so, Let's Talk will feature questions or prompts, which I will answer, too. Love it or hate it, weigh in or don't, it's my hope that Let's Talk will at least get you thinking...and maybe even get you discussing with the rest of us!

Question: How do you beat a (book) blogging slump?

Ha. I actually found this to be the most appropriate topic with which to resume the Let's Talk feature, namely because I've been absent from the book blogosphere for almost 8 months. I'm not going to dance around the issue. I've been blogging for 3 years now. That's a flippin' long time and, as I'm sure many of you know and understand, it can be difficult and daunting to keep it up regularly at times. I've said it once (or a million times), and I'll say it again...2012 was not a good year for me. I needed a break, and when I closed shop for a bit, it was necessary. 

Frankly, I wasn't sure I was going to  be able to come back. Colour it a pride thing. I felt stupid for not being able to keep it up while other bloggers seem to do so with ease. I felt bummed, tired, burned out and a bit overwhelmed by just how dang competitive the blogosphere had become. I forgot why I'd started in the first place...simply because I love books.

Deciding to come back wasn't really all that difficult, but I definitely had to be in the right frame of mine. I learned a lot with the long hiatus. For me, I need to enjoy what I do. If I don't enjoy it, I won't do it well, and I'll probably start to resent it. Who wants a hobby that they absolutely resent doing? Nobody. Unless you're insane. The point is, however, I learned a lot about what I need to do to keep motivated to keep blogging, and I sure hope these "guidelines," if you will, will help others beat future potential book blogging slumps (or ANY blogging slumps, for that matter) in the future.

1. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. It's great to take it seriously. I do. I pour my heart and soul into every review I do, and heck, I spend a lot of time on them. If you're overwhelmed, give yourself a break, step back and read something that you don't have to review. Take the pressure off.

2. Ask others for help. This is something I failed to do the first time around. I was feeling stressed, exhausted and otherwise completely inundated by everything, but I didn't ask anyone to help me out. A kind friend pointed that out to me recently, and she was so right. Maybe I should have asked someone to guest blog. Maybe I should have just seen what advice other people had for me. The point is - it's not a bad thing to ask for help.

3. Give yourself a day off. For the longest time, I was so obsessed with my blog numbers that I was terrified to take a day off from blogging because God forbid my numbers drop just a wee bit for one day. Honestly, yes, numbers are gold in the blogosphere when interacting with my publishers, but they don't define my blog, or my love of blogging. I can take a day off to recoup, and dang it, I will.

4. Have fun. Honestly, this is the biggest one for me, and it's also probably the most obvious. If you're not having fun anymore, you probably need to take a step back and figure out why. I started this because I love it, and I will keep doing it until I absolutely hate it.