I don’t know about you but in spite of it having been used for 1,9287,832 movies and commercials Gimme Shelter is still among my favorite songs. If I feel like writing fiction it is a tune I can use to help me set a scene, except they always seem to be violent.
Want an example? Ok, I am going to start the song and write for the entire time. Let’s see what we come up with.
“Some men argue about whether it is better to be feared or respected, but I don’t waste time worrying about such things. Talk is cheap and I don’t have time for it. Action is what I want and it is the only tool I have found for impressing upon people sincerity of my desire.
When Jimmy Thompson spit in my face I didn’t react. It wasn’t because of fear or an unwillingness to respond. Those who know me best will tell you I am a guy who isn’t afraid to get hit, but when I hit back I like to hit hard.
I let him walk away thinking he had scared me. I let him walk away without fear or wonder about what I might do. Six hours later I walked through the screen door of his house and showed him a paper bag.
He told me I was stupid and then explained how he was going to teach me manners. I laughed and dumped the contents of the bag on the floor.
I am not Don Corleone but I never forgot that scene where the guy wakes up with a horse’s head in his bed. I didn’t have access to a horse but Jimmy’s dog was another story.
Those puppy dog eyes got his attention, especially when I picked up the head and hit him with it. I don’t think Jimmy will spit in my face again and not because his lips are a bruised…”
Your Blog Is Killing Your Love For Writing
Some of you are suffering because your blog is killing your love for writing. I see your posts and read your words and I wonder how long you can keep running on the hamster wheel.
Your blog isn’t just boring your reader, it is boring you. That is a sin. That is the fastest way to kill your blog and your dreams for it. There is a reason why most blogs don’t last beyond 90 days.
Some of it is because you don’t know why you are in this space and without an answer to that question you can’t develop a plan. I see you talking about your goal to take the blog to the next level but I don’t understand how you intend to get there.
That old saw about failing to plan being the equivalent of planning to fail is true in this arena. Without a commitment to work hard for an extended period of time you are going to have a hell of time not being lost among the clutter and noise.
You need to find a way to keep your blog from killing you love for writing.
There Are Many Solutions
There are many solutions to your particular challenge. Your job is to figure out which one works for you and how to implement it.
I like to let my words run free and take a chance here and there.
This a business blog and it is a tool for generating more writing/marketing jobs. Some people have suggested it might be prudent to tone some of it down and that including lines of fiction like the ones above might create issues.
I disagree.
That fiction serves several purposes. It helps keep my love for writing alive and it shows I can do more than discuss analytics, social media, marketing and business objectives.
It helps me point out that I have transferable skills.
This blog works for me. It brings in business and that is enough proof for me that what I am doing is working.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If my system works for you there is no reason not to adopt it, but you don’t have to.
The Most Important Thing
The most important thing you can do is figure out what works for you and then do that. Don’t let your blog kill your love for writing.
Your passion and personality are of paramount importance because when you instill them in your words it comes through for the reader. It is part of what makes your content interesting, exciting and worth reading.
The hardest part about blogging isn’t writing, it is sustaining your effort. Find your solution, sustain your effort- good things will come from that.
Hey Josh
I really enjoy blogging but I don’t find it comes naturally.
I’ve been focusing more and more on things that are happening in my life and then relating this to blogging and marketing. That is working for me because I know what I want to write.
If I let things get a little too formal then it becomes boring to me and then I end up giving up writing for the day.
Adrienne makes a good point about letting your hair down. I try to do that more and more these days. It is my blog though so if I bore you or anyone else by writing the way I write I apologise.
I’m fed up of trying to conform to writing in a particular style, not being able to broaden what I write about or changing when and how often I blog. That’s mainly because of what others have written about how to do things. So, I’m going with my own way.
You are absolutely right Josh!
We do visit several blogs in a week and some of them make us wonder as to what they really want to convey. I guess the lack focus and direction and this often leads them to wind up things sooner than they thought.
Perhaps they don’t really know why they started blogging in the first place or what they want out of it now. I was in this category a few years back when I had my blogs on Bloggers because I started blogging as a hobby. Being a freelance writer, blogs aren’t really my way of making money. But when I realized the traffic I was getting and people were liking what I shared, I shifted to WordPress and things have been going on well thereafter.
I do agree that what might be working for you, might not work for another person and each one of us has the freedom to share what we like on our blog.
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Harleena,
I think about it because I want to make sure I am here for the long haul. Some of the challenges we face as bloggers are uniform and that is one of them.
I liked Blogger and thought it was a decent platform. Typepad had my attention for a while. but none of them were as good as WordPress.
WP is simply better.
Anyway, it sounds like blogging has really been beneficial for you. I think that is great. It is always nice to hear positive stories about it.
I loved the bit of fiction.
Admittedly, I’m very easy to entertain when it comes to blogs. It isn’t in my nature to say negative things about posts. There is one exception, that is prose, in which I have a very low tolerance for schlock. Being an indie author, I read the beginnings of a lot of books, but rarely make it past the first page. Most people don’t have a feel for telling a story.
You are not most people. This is the first post I’ve read here and I get the impression that fiction is the exception, not the rule, but I’d imagine your other posts are pretty good, too.
I guess I better go check a few out.
Hi Brian,
I share most of my fiction elsewhere but I do enjoy writing it. I haven’t managed to make my own Henry Wood come to life yet, but I hope to do so soon. Of course I have been saying that for a while so…
Haha. I listened to 1:14 of that song and just couldn’t take anymore, she says, she of the 60s Stones era.
My takeaway here is that if we are bored by what we write, how can we expect someone else to get excited? In my opinion, writers who blog rarely have a problem sustaining their love for writing but bloggers who want to write? Yeah, blogging can be an obstacle.
Oh, and that decapitated dog part in your scene? Memorable, but very very icky. : )
Hi Judy,
Emotional Rescue isn’t my favorite Stones song, but it was appropriate for this post. What sort of music do you listen to?
There is a lot of truth in your comment about writers who blog and bloggers who write. There is a real distinction.
That dog bit was a little uncomfortable, but…
Hey Josh,
This is the topic of my post on Thursday, about how some of these blog posts are boring me to tears. I think a lot of people don’t know how to put them in their posts or they are afraid to let their hair down. Wondering what people will think you know.
I think some people start their blog in one direction and then realize their heart just isn’t in it and then they struggle to either find topics to write about or or how to stay interested themselves in what they share.
Either way, you are so right. It will definitely kill your love for writing.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
I suspect many people are afraid to say what they really think because they don’t want to offend anyone. In concept it is a good idea. People remember how you make them feel, but in practice it makes for bad business.
It is especially bad in this medium. When there is so much competition you have to find a way to break through the clutter and your opinion is part of what helps make that happen.
I also think you are exactly right about how people are sometimes surprised by their blog. It is not always easy to do this. It is a grind at times and you have to be tough to get through it.
I am very interested in your Thursday post. I bet it will be very good.