My blog’s a big old mess right now

What to do, what to do?

nearly 4 years, and almost 2000 posts ago, I started this blog. I have written books, short stories, limericks, haiku and poems. There were photos and tanka, posts on comic artwork, collectables and 3D modelling – and more recently more and more on dogs, diet and lifestyle.

I really have no idea what my blog is about anymore. I certainly post less than I used to, and there are many excuses I console myself with, but am currently trying to decide just what to do with this thing and how to do it. I continue to write outside of my blog (with my second book due as soon as I can get the editing done) but I still love opening up WordPress and seeing what ends up on the page…

Anyone else have this conundrum and what have you done about it?

Author: Michael

Husband, dad,(ex)programmer, comic collector and proud Yorkshireman. I have no idea why im here or why im writing but i rather enjoy it. no great fan of punctuation;

50 thoughts on “My blog’s a big old mess right now”

  2. I know our brains create “places” where particular things “happen”. So we always cook in the kitchen, brush our teeth in the bathroom, read a book in a particular room or chair. But our brain also does this with representative places too, like a diary or when we listen to a particular radio station. When our behaviour associates lots of occasions or actions with a particular “place” our brain isn’t sure entirely what the expectations are anymore. If you want to blog more, having particular blogs for specific “goals” or outcomes makes it easier for our brain to know what job it’s supposed to be focussing on and it can shut off the other stuff. I guess that’s why I got pissed off when the diet tea blogs started following my Quitter blog, because that was off topic for me. I felt like they were messing with my process and I knew I wasn’t going to learn or gain anything from them (and actually they were using me for their benefit, which makes me even more furious), whereas I do from real people commenting etc about my experience.

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  3. Hmm…you make some rather good points. I can feel especially cluttered at times and have no idea what room im in or what im doing there. Actually that’s really life too not just my blog. I was definitely more productive when i had less to say on multiple things…

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  5. Once I learned about that “place” thing with the brain, I even have specific chairs round the dining room table where only certain things happen. It seems incredible, but it works really well. I have a “work” chair, a “lunch” chair, a “chat with guests” chair. I’m like Alice in Wonderland at the tea party ha ha

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  7. A colleague many years ago made a comment (something she’d read) that we forget what we’re doing when we go upstairs because our brain has an idea of crossing thresholds as a trigger for the next thing it can expect to be doing. we go upstairs to look for our glasses, but we forget when we get there because normally we go upstairs during the day to do something else completely. So she was telling me about this idea of place being tied to regular activities. So I think it was maybe related to user experience with websites? The brain considers clicking a link on a website with a threshold, we’re going into the next room and it has expectations that something else will happen. It was something like that.

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  15. I also ove to write. I had the same probem. I tried many different things. It really does not matter what you write, as long as, you are writing something. Enjoy it. Don’t worry so much about it. That is how I delt with it. I stopped worrying so much.

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  18. I had this same problem once and so I started a new blog to split my poetry from everything else. Now when I feel like writing poetry it all goes on my new blog and my old blog is reserved for everything else. The problem I’m finding now, is that I don’t really like my old blog anymore. I think I’ve just outgrown it. Occasionally, I add short stories to my new blog, stepping away from my strict rule of only posting poems. Part of me just wants to delete my old blog, but it’s serving a purpose right now because it holds so many memories of things that have happened in my life and I’m not sure I want to delete all of that. I’d miss going back and finding things I’ve quoted from my girls, or seeing all the posts I’ve done about places I’ve visited. My first blog started off as a kind of diary and so I feel I should hold onto it for the purpose of having a keepsake.

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  21. I can’t offer much in the way of advice as I’m in no position to give it. You’ve already achieved more than I could ever dream of…

    All I will say is I hope you figure out an answer to your conundrum and that you continue to write and post here.

    I, for one, would miss you if you went away 👍🖤🖤

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  23. I hope I am not too late for the conversation. Um… you can completely reorganize your blog, write what you feel like writing, and end it there. It’s not like we are building a career or a business here. I find blogging good for my soul, and keep my sanity in check, since I can write anything I want, unburden myself, or express myself in a creative way. Your limericks crack me up, and I find your occasional posts about your life quite entertaining. However, if you don’t have energy for it, and everything seems so dull and out of energy, perhaps taking a pause, recollecting your thoughts, and creating a new path is recommendable. There are no real rules on what you have to, need to, must do when it comes to blogging. I cheer for you, my friend. I salute you, Commander, my brother in Quill.

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  25. It’s a free spirit blog … I don’t run out of things to write about, but I’ve kind of created a niche blog if you think about it. But you forget that you have branched out and with a second book to be published shortly, it’s not as though you’ve abandoned the blog and been slacking off. It is diverse … you could split it up into categories of what you’ve done to date … separate your monthly pictures, haiku, beautiful poetry, stories of camping with the boys and last but not least, Theo. Then do a blog post welcoming people to look at the different categories. I like how you have it now – life is not all neat and tied up in bundle, why should a blog?

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  27. I hope you don’t have categories already – I was suggesting it if you wanted to subdivide your blog up. I’ve never done that with mine, but I’ve got to sit down and revamp my blog a little. Unbelievably, I have a Windows 10 laptop sitting on my stovetop … sitting there since June 2019, as I have nowhere else to plug it in. If I want to cook, I have to find a place to store it … this is why I got the crockpot. It is a PIA. The computer guy ordered the server, two Win 10 desktops, two Dell Win 10 laptops in March 2019 (yes 2019, not a typo). My boss got on him about the server/desktops, so he configured that, but never did the laptops with Office 365 or anything else and we are still on Windows 7. I don’t use it as I don’t have room to have two laptops on the go at the same time, plus I have two other Windows 7 laptops (a spare in case my primary one breaks and a 2009 one I just use for pictures). So I don’t want to tweak my blog until I am on a higher Windows OS.

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  28. Ooh embrace that win 10 machine they’re fabulous things indeed! So much better for productivity … weirdky since i busted my ankle iVe been having my laptop on my…wait for it…lap.

    Feels,weird tbh.. usually its plugged into my various,setups and i use the attached peripherals and screens and never actually use the machine itself…

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  31. Don’t burn yourself. 🙂 I had a problem with my shoulder about three years ago. It was frozen shoulder, though I never went to a doctor nor was treated for it. My mom had frozen shoulder and I took her to PT and she had cold packs, hot packs, TENS units … nothing helped. I researched and saw to elevate the laptop about a foot and get a wireless keyboard, so I did that – it helped. It took about eight months but no treatments. The new laptop is a bigger screen … I’m more excited for that than the Windows 10 bells and whistles!

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  32. Am I remembering wrong or did you have another blog for a while with your Judge Dredd stuff (among other comics)? I have just used categories to separate different types of writing. I would hate to think about having to revamp my blog…. there are over 2000 post and about 6 years of steady blogging. I agree with the others who said not to worry about it…. just keep doing what make YOU happy! That is what is important in the end.

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  35. I can’t seem to stop writing and creating, I was held back for too long. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t feel a burn out if I don’t learn to manage my time and creativity better. That is my main struggle currently, sorting out proper time management (because the act of posting itself has become a challenge overall). I need a vaca. Where I actually unplug…

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  39. That is exactly what happens Michael … it takes that long for it to stop and just like that … over. That Winter that I had it, I could not even pull a blanket over that shoulder, nor pull anything over my head as I couldn’t reach up. Nor wear a heavy coat – it was too painful. Your wife said nothing helped either. I sit too many hours and try to move during the day, but invariably my left arm is pretty immobile most of the day while sitting here at work, then at night on social media, blogging, etc.

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  41. I am not a fan of doctors Michael; quite simply, I don’t trust most of them. My mom was hit by a car at age 11 and had 42 orthopedic operations over the course of her lifetime. I don’t fault the doctors who treated her back at the time of the accident (1937), but the complications she suffered later in life, to me were often what I refer to as a “money grab” for her to keep returning and/or tests, PT, etc. etc. but not really helping her. Fortunately I am healthy so I see as few docs as possible. As to the frozen shoulder, it went away, without a doc’s help and no meds either. I am glad it is over.

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