This is hard for me to write, mainly because I don’t want to admit to myself that I fell victim to this. But a few nights ago, when I sat down to write a few other posts and loaded up a video game instead, I realized that this was an actual problem.
The Book Deviant has been active since early-mid 2016, with a few breaks here and there due to schooling conflicts and the like. However, recently I’ve found that writing posts is a struggle.
As I write this, it’s the night of one of the days in my regular posting schedule when I normally have a post out. I’ve found myself preferring to play games or watch YouTube rather then read or write posts. I used to find so much joy out of writing these posts, so it really hurts me realizing that I would rather do so many other things over writing posts for this blog.
I’ve been in a reading slump for a long time, and while I think that’s contributing to my problem, I also believe that the expectations that I put on myself to meet a standard for this blog is what is truly killing my love for book blogging. I mentioned it above, but I try and stick to a strict schedule. That means filling up the schedule with pieces that I like to write but people will also find interesting. I’ve stopped writing so many discussion posts, and posts that take longer (quizzes, any posts with data collection needed, etc) get booted to the end of the list in order to fill up my schedule to keep it going.
Instead of doing the posts I want to, then, I’m doing posts that are easy and fast to write: reviews and memes. I rarely do lists anymore, and discussions are out of the question (I’m even finding this one a struggle, and it’s mostly just me ranting). When I’m struggling to read, I struggle to write.
My normal schedule was a post every three days, but I’m going to increase it to a post every four days, because not only does it allow me more time in between posts, but it also means that the less posts I’m able to write, the further I’ll make it before I have to start writing/reading again. With my work schedule, some days I have plenty of time to write, and other days I’m out of the house until bedtime. It’s very inconsistent, but good money, so I can’t quit. That’s another reason why I leave my ko-fi link at the bottom of my posts now: I need the money to continue running this blog. I have personal money, but I’m also a college student who pays for a lot of stuff out of pocket. Including books, shipping, and other equipment and programs to maintain my blog.
I realize that this post has been all over the place, but what I’m trying to say is this: I’ve been struggling with running this blog for more then a few months. I believe it’s because of expectations I put on myself to produce quality content fast and consistently when my personal life and mental health can’t keep up.
So if I want to continue producing quality content (which I do) I’ll have to slow down. Literally “quality over quantity”.
I’m sorry if my content recently hasn’t been up to expectations. I plan to do better, and I hope to come back strong. Thanks for sticking around, friends.
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I totally feel this. It’s a large part of why I did the Pride Library ’19 hashtag–because then I could pre-schedule and guarantee a post. And now July is here and I’m just staring at the calendar trying to figure out what I should do.
At the moment, I’ve been relying heavily on reviews–but that doesn’t work well when you’re in a reading slump. I can manage a book here and there, but rarely.
Yeah, I really, really hear that. 🙁
This post is so relatable. As someone who has just returned after a much longer than anticipated hiatus to have a very small schedule I get the need to revisit how you blog. No matter how many times someone writes about burnout it needs to be a continuing conversation because it’s gonna hit us all at some point.
Do whatever works for you. Love your posts no matter what they are.
Thank you <3<3
I completely support you, Avery. I’m also a university student with a lot of bills to pay that necessitates having two part-time jobs and honestly, like you said, I can either use my time to get more money to not be in debt or I can use it doing a hobby that, while I love it, doesn’t pay. More than that, I’ve also had the experience where I just won’t want to write posts (I’m actually in one of those phases right now and have been for several months), even though, if I watch three fewer YouTube videos or Netflix episodes a week, I would have more than enough time. It’s such a tough thing to find your way through and I’m sending you many virtual cookies which will hopefully help.
Laura @BlueEyeBooks
I’m right there with you. Thank you <3<3
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