This is an entry I originally wrote on June 15th. But I never was able to finish it, and instead went with Bad Monkey pooping in a diaper. Since then, I've changed, updated, and altered it a half-dozen times, but still ended up not publishing it for one reason or another. Then Hilly went and posted something along similar lines today, so I figured it was probably time I just went ahead and let it go (after cutting out several paragraphs of angst, then updating it again to be more current)...
I want to take a break from blogging, but I don't know how.
It's not that I don't have anything to blog about... I just don't have anything I can blog about. The only things going on in my life right now are work and personal stuff, neither of which I choose to talk about online. So instead I muddle through, posting even stupider crap than usual just to keep my blog going at a time when blogging is the last thing I want to be doing. It would be nice if this were a temporary situation, but right now there's no end in sight.
The obvious solution would be to go on hiatus. But I'm fairly certain that if I gave up blogging for any length of time, I would end up abandoning it all together. The only thing that keeps Blogography going is my habit to post every single day. The minute I start skipping days or filling in with guest-bloggers is when I might as well shut down altogether rather than spiral towards the inevitable.
But I'm not ready to say goodbye. At least not yet.
So I've been trying to renew my enthusiasm for blogging by doing a lot of guest-posting, taking part in Blogathon 2009, limiting my time on Twitter and FaceBook, meeting up with other bloggers, coming up with recurring content ideas, and trying to steer clear of memes and other "easy" filler.
I don't know if it's working just yet, but I certainly hope so.
Because blogging has come to mean an awful lot to me, and the thought of having something so important die off is painful. At first I thought it was because of the relationships with readers and fellow bloggers that I've been lucky enough to find... but ultimately I think it's the relationship I've built with myself here that's the most important. While not a personal blog by any means, Blogography has become an outlet for self-expression that would be very hard to replicate any place else. It's an opportunity to step outside the horrors of Real Life once each day and finding a part of my life I can share... even if it is just a drawing of a monkey.
My blog may just be a reflection of a small part of me, but it's still me.
And I think that's something worth saving.
So I'll keep trying.
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I’m glad you’re trying, I’d really miss Blogography if you shut down. And, sure, I see some of my favourite bloggers on Facebook, but it just isn’t the same. Facebook, as nice as it is for keeping in touch with friends through their updates and photo albums- just isn’t the same as the intimacy of reading a blog.
There seems to be this general malaise these days in blogland. I struggled with the same thoughts myself but in the end decided that I was always going to have the need to express myself even if it wasn’t with the frequency and enthusiasm I experienced in the early days.
The other driving force, and maybe not the best reason to blog- was that I wanted to write a sort of digital “Kilroy was here”. I probably won’t be alive forty years from now but I’m hoping that my blog will still exist somewhere on some dusty old server- a reflection of who I was and the difference I tried to make.
I don’t know if that’s a vain idea or not, but my blog is my message in a bottle, my wonder at the shortness of life in a big and beautiful world and I hope that it (the blog) survives for many years to come…
DUDE!…..Not you too! Not you, like all of the other wide variety of masses of bloggers flipping over to Facebook or Twitter or some other poor excuse for not blogging any more…..don’t do it! Reinvent yourself….make it different…. try it a different way….. but don’t stopp…
FWIW I’d miss you if you stopped blogging. This is one of my favourite blogs, and one I’ve been reading for one of the longest times.
As you know, I get it…I really really get it. However, I’m the dumbass who keeps writing about her personal life when she should just take it to a private blog or something else.
Blogging is like the best and worst drug in the world.
That about sums it up, yes…
If you have to post an illustration of Bad Monkey wearing a different colored diaper every other day, I say do it, just to keep the habit going. What would I do without my Blogography fix?
I am really glad you didn’t quit blogging.
I would totally understand, but I’d miss you like crazy. I have been feeling like closing down latey too. I have so much personal, but am not sure what is “too personal” to share. Illness blogging is tricky when the lines get so blurry.
I admire the fact that you manage to post every day, yet not succumb to the temptation to slip in more and more personal info.
My blog was so anonymous and fluffy in the beginning, and then I found myself writing more and more angsty content. I may as well put in my full name, address and employer at this point.
It’s obvs a personal choice you have to make, but I (like everyone above) would genuinely miss seeing bad monkey cartoons etc each day. 🙂
xo
I like my daily dose of blogography but do whatever you have to do to feel good!
I’m glad you posted this to give us a little window to how you’re feeling. The day you posted Bad Monkey pooping, I think we knew something was up. When I was in Japan and my stupid fucking job was going to shit and my personal life was difficult, I had ZERO to say. Once I said I was going to quit, and came back a month later, and another time I wanted to quit but didn’t say it, I just stopped posting, and I came back a month later. Both times (a year apart, I think?) I had a lot to say when I came back. And I haven’t shut up since. I know it’s a lot different for you because you do post daily and because you have a big following, but I just wanted to say that everyone is supporting you and we’d all be here if you took an break. I love reading you every day, but we don’t want you to feel stress about it. Maybe it’s just a season/phase/cycle. Jesus, I tend to ramble. Hang in there, Dave!
I seldom comment, but yours is one of the few blogs that I read every single day. I feel it’s definitely worth saving, too.
Your daily blogging habit is like my approach to working out. It’s hard for me to skip one day without then skipping more, so I get it. I do find I can take a break without breaking the habit if it’s part of the schedule. If I fall off the wagon for a few days, then I just begin yet again. But starting again takes wanting to do it…
I would miss you if you quit. Without you and your DaveToons, I doubt I’d ever have attempted to draw my bear toons. Your art inspires me, and I continue to learn from it.
I also enjoy the Dave I’ve gotten to know virtually through travels, photos, and anecdotes.
Thanks for the inspiration, the how you designed things mini-courses, the drawings, photos, and varied tales of adventure: from bluetooth rants to world travel. I hope you find the inspiration to continue joyfully.
How sad the blogosphere would be without Blogography. I’m glad you are staying around.
Save the Daves!!
seriously this place needs saving, it offers a unique perspective even if its just Dave’s perspective from the pacific northwest.
this is the only blog i read on a daily basis and the only one i have commented on all because the Dave and his unique way of saying things and well bad monkey helps a lot too…
whatever your choice will be Dave, know that a bunch of strangers care what you think and you mean something to them. be true to yourself and you will do the right thing whatever that may be..
It would be very sad for me if you stopped blogging. Yours was the blog that inspired me to start my blog.
I don’t have much of a following, and I don’t post every day, but I do enjoy making myself write a few times a week.
I also don’t write about work (often) or very personal things either – so I know that fact cuts down on available material to write about. I wish I could make drawings like you do.
I understand that there’s real world out there and people have to do what they have to do. I know it’s probably selfish to say, but your blog would be very much missed by me. I sincerely hope that things get better for you whether you decide to keep blogging or not.
Sometimes something so simple as picture of a monkey pooping can make a difference.
Sometimes the only time I smile during a day is when I read a blog entry by you.
Know that you are appreciated.
No, no, no! please?
I too understand where you’re coming from. I love Blogography and Lil Dave and Bad Monkey (even though I don’t comment much), but you have to make yourself happy. I walked away once, but ended up missing it too much. Now I just post when I want to without a feeling of obligation and it works better for me. FWIW, there would be a big hole in the internet if you left. I hope you find what works for you.
I don’t comment often, but I’m glad you haven’t quit and that you’re going to keep trying. I don’t know that the internets would be the same without you.
Hi Dave, I think what you have here is wonderful, please don’t stop blogging, because I’ve seen that being able to express yourself can be unlearned! I’ve been reading your blog since winter of 2005 (I even tried blogging for some time!), and I always refer to it as this awesome blog by this guy who draws his own cartoons in conversation. So please don’t stop blogging if you can help it and trust me you won’t miss the luxury of checking out your tongue in the mirror for 20 minutes or whatever else you would do instead :p.
I gotta tell you, the thought of you quitting is painful for me too.
I think you just gave me the answer to my own questions about why I blog… it’s the relationship I’ve built towards and into myself that I want to keep going. 🙂 Glad you did finally share this.
Do what makes you feel best! I feel weird when I don’t blog, but sometimes the thoughts in my head are so messed up, they shouldn’t be shared under any circumstances 😉
You know what, it’s a summer thing. While I know you are busy with work and other projects, the summer seems to affect blogging very much like TV shows slow down during the summer. People are outside more (I know I am) and I tend not to be online as much.
I certainly hope you never call it quits, even if you only blog once or twice a week (which seems to be the summer mode my blog is in).
Even if it’s just a shot of Bad Monkey, it’s all good from this reader’s view.
Your recurring content themes are the reason I wake up everyday to a clear blue screen. I mean a clear blue sky.
I imagine this is a sentiment that many long term bloggers share. I know when I get quiet it’s because one of two things are happening – Nothing or Something that I don’t feel I can share online. This happens a lot more often since I got married and moved to Canada to become the worlds laziest, isolated, housewife. 🙂
It’s definitely good stuff and I’m glad you’re not ready to up and quit on us, but I also wish you’d share more of yourself here because… Well, you’re awesome.