BOOK THOUGHTS ON THURSDAY | BLOGGER’S BLOCK

This week you’re getting a post in GIFs because I’m a serious blogger but everyone needs to have fun sometimes, and also nothing else is working for me right now. #sorrynotsorry

So as you all know, I’ve got a sparkly new blog. But it hasn’t been an easy transition. I’ll write about it (probably in greater detail than any of you need) another time, but for now, let’s just say it has been a bit of a fiasco. So I’ve basically spent the past couple of months like this:

On top of that, now that I’ve got the blog set up, I need to scour every post and page to update every internal link and replace all the broken images. Not to mention sorting and re-categorizing, setting featured images, organizing comments… Yeah, this is going to take a while, folks.

Of course, this is the time my computer picks to start randomly blue screening all over the place like a flailing flamingo. Usually right after I’ve completed something tedious and detailed, but before I’ve hit save.

As a consequence of my various difficulties, further exacerbated by getting used to the WP platform that has plenty of “quirks” and “personality” (i.e. it is driving me INSANE), I still don’t feel like my old blogging self. I used to write nearly daily posts. I didn’t really put any conscious effort into sitting down and doing this – it was just part of my routine, and it really wasn’t that difficult.

But those carefree days seem to be over – at least temporarily. My  blogging persona has been replaced by someone who has trouble sitting down to start writing and will procrastinate in any way possible.

(Short of this, because this would kill the entire interwebs and that’s where my funny cat videos live. Priorities. I gots ’em.)

When I do finally sit down and try to write, because I feel so out of practice and intimidated by the new screen that confronts me, nothing comes out right. Or at all.

Even this post just isn’t… comfortable. It feels like the words are battling with me and with one another and rolling about the house, breaking all the lamps and getting mud everywhere rather than harmoniously falling into place and conveying the ideas I want to convey. See what I mean? TERRIBLE.

I’ve done some research into how famous authors have dealt with writer’s block, and the general advice seems to be that in order to begin writing again, one must first start to write. Of course, I imagine that when the greats sat down in front of a blank page and “just wrote,” the result was remarkably more readable than the word soup I seem to come up with.

I’m always incredibly disappointed when I read back what I’ve written and the words I spewed out at random have not magically metamorphosed into the most brilliant and insightful literary post that has ever graced the bookish internet.  Fixing the drivel I’ve managed to compose seems even more daunting than writing it in the first place…. so I just don’t.

This might be a good time to mention that I have a real problem with procrastination. Usually this doesn’t impact my blogging, because in the good old days blogging wasn’t something that took a lot of arm-twisting. But after a few failed attempts at writing new posts, that procrastination gene starts to really kick in.

Pretty much everything else I could be doing suddenly seems to be more important than blogging. Vacuuming is important. Sorting my books alphabetically then by genre then chronologically then back to how they were to begin with is important. Twitter is important. Cleaning out lint from under the dryer is important. Finding the exact right proportion of salt to butter on my popcorn is important. Blogging? Not so important.

Touché, Winston.  Touché.

So, most nights, I either give up before I start or I give up after I start – but either way the result is the same: No new posts for you. Sorry, dude. I have important drinking to do now that I’ve eaten all the popcorn. And all the chocolate. And possibly the peanut butter and the crumbs in the bottom of the cornflake box.

Which brings me to my next and final point: If there are typos in this post, they are not my fault; the booze is responsible. But hey, at least you’re getting words, even if they are mostly in GIFs. So that’s one step up from last week.

Over to you guys – do you ever experience blogger’s block? What causes it, and more to the point, how do you fix it? Any pro tips on WordPress you’d like to share that might help me feel at home here? Please share in the comments!

The world of books is never boring. Every week (well, most weeks) I’ll discuss a different topic related to books, often inspired by or in response to what’s going on in the online book community (or something I’ve seen another blogger talk about). I call this Book Thoughts on Thursday. Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments, or even write your own post on the topic and share the link with me!