It’s Finally Happened: I’m Suffering From a Case of the Dreaded Blog Clog

Since I started this blog eight months ago, I have ALWAYS had something to write about.  I even wrote a post on how blogging had taken over my life… how every spare second and all free brain space were given over to blog composition.  Granted, there were posts now and then that needed a kick to get started, or a flash of inspiration to finish up and publish, but true writer’s block?  No, never.  After a while I even got on a once-a-week publishing schedule that I’ve kept up for months now, with nary a problem.

Blog clog, currently the fifth entry in my loosely alphabetized Dictionary of Blog Terms, is a term I coined back in my earliest days of blogging, but, naïvely, never thought would apply to me.

To be honest, it’s not that I don’t have things to write about.  There are currently 27 posts in my “drafts” file.  Some are mere titles – placeholders for ideas that had seemed like flashes of brilliance at the time.  Others are partly written – composed after being hit by a blog hammer (my take on the husband’s “I’ve been hit by a sleep hammer,” when he can’t get out of bed in the morning), fingers dancing furiously over the keyboard until I ran out of steam or had to stop to go to work.  Of those 27, only a few can’t be written right now because they are about some specific travel event that hasn’t yet occurred.  So as you can see, I have plenty of choices.  What I’m lacking is motivation.  I’m totally uninspired.  I’ve already sat here for two hours working on two different blog posts.  When the first one failed to excite me, I moved on to another one.  Same result: A “blah” feeling.  An “I don’t want to be doing this right now” feeling.  A “this is more work than fun” feeling.  Usually the search for a just-right word or a perfect turn-of-phrase gives me a thrill.  Today it just seems like a chore. What?!?!  These things have never happened to me before and it’s freaking me out!

I’m feeling like I want to blame someone or something, so here goes some finger-pointing:

Excuse #1: I’m sick.  As I pointed out in yesterday’s podcast, I started feeling under the weather on the first day of summer break (thank you, fate).  Illness seems like as good a scapegoat as anything.  However, I wrote my Arches National Park Photo Journey post while sick, so that excuse doesn’t really hold water.

Excuse #1b: It’s grey and rainy.  Paired with excuse #1, I just kind of want to curl up with a book until I fall asleep, or go read in the bath.

In case you can’t tell from this high quality camera phone photo, it’s been raining steadily for hours.

Excuse #2: I’m busy.  Getting ready to go on an 11-day trip is stressful enough.  Now I’m finding out just how much more stressful it is when a petsitter is coming.  I actually feel like I have to clean the house.  Naturally, we never want to leave the house looking like a pigsty when we travel, because who wants to come home to a pigsty?  But still, I rarely give the whole house a top-to-bottom pre-vacation cleaning because, c’mon, who has the time??  Now though, someone is going to be living in my house.  And on our homeowner profile page, it says (as most do) something akin to “we’re looking for someone who will keep the house as clean as they found it.”  Thus, I feel like it has to be pretty clean.

Excuse #3: The podcast.  It used to be that I spent my entire work commute writing blog posts in my head (while simultaneously paying very close attention to my driving, of course).  Now that time is spent generating ideas for the podcast.  Is this like when people have a child and suddenly their once-beloved dog becomes a neglected afterthought??  I don’t want my blog to be a neglected afterthought!

Excuse #4: Summer break.  While having close to three months off may seem like a dream (and it is), a weird shift occurs at the very beginning of each summer break.  You’re out of sync, things are “off,” you don’t quite know what to do with yourself, even if you have a to-do list as long as your arm.  You’ve lost touch with the days.  Is it Tuesday?  Is it Friday?  The husband and I usually have one good early summer shouting match – always over something dumb, as most marital spats are – as we adjust to our new reality. Maybe this transition from full-time work to full-time leisure is responsible for this uncomfortable blocked state I’m in.

I’ll admit that it feels somewhat satisfying to assign blame, but are these really the reasons for my blog clog?  I don’t know.  All I do know is that I am about to take a trip that will prevent me from blogging for a little while, and maybe that’s good.  Maybe my brain – my creativity factory, my wordsmithing workshop – needs to temporarily shut down for cleaning and maintenance.  Yeah… a break, a rest, a hiatus might be just the thing.

So there.  I’ve just written all about how I have nothing to write about.  How do you like that for irony?

Now I need your help.  Has this happened to you?  What did you do?  Did you take a break?  Write your way through it?  Consult an astrologer?  Advice needed stat!