Day 3, #SOL15: on writing, blogs, blogging & bloggers' block

…About writing and blogging. Yeah, it's so very meta but so what? This blog's name, Work and Life, is not without irony. Although still alive, I am retired in a culture that defines and values individuals occupationally, by their work. In a sense, blogging and social media extensions, albeit uncompensated, have become my work or work-equivalent (which like being female, invites patronizing attitudes). But which define me, my digital media or the interests they explore?

So I keep asking myself why I have a selective blogging block over Precarious Faculty blog. Telling myself -- or being told -- to "keep writing" is obvious but not much help. I do keep writing, just not there. Why not?



There is no clear answer -- or answers -- and so many possibilities. Too many other blogs? Too many other blogs on same topic/related themes? Is this a blog specific aversion? In that case, the aversion might not be to blogging itself but to what the blog represents -- or at least ambivalence if not outright aversion. Is the blog aging out, needs to retire?

The average life span of a blog is three years. Precarious Faculty is in its seventh year and coming out of a turbulent period -- recovered or so I though.t Relapse? I have another, even older and also neglected blog relevant to this line of thought, but I'm taking this one blog at a time.

More considerations: time constraints and overload; lack of discipline (no effing time); re-tool or face lift time (not necessarily cosmetic); priorities put blog temporarily on the back burner (in this case commitment to National Adjunct Walkout Day and its Tumblr; potential conflict of interest arising from preceding; unpleasantness not occasioned by but associated with a particular blog

What is this, blog therapy, counseling? It's starting to sound a lot like a bloggers' version of the Ladies' Home Journal standby, "Can this marriage be saved?"

A fistful of links tripped over while looking for an image (welcome to the list genre):

• http://www.achimom.com/2014/02/are-you-having-bloglife-crisis-tips-to.html

• http://www.problogger.net/battling-bloggers-block/

• http://www.writermag.com/2014/05/13/banish-bloggers-block/

• http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/bloggers-counter-writers-block/

Maybe tomorrow (unless something else occurs): how many damn blogs do I have anyway and what's the difference between them -- or the point (if any) ... and on different platforms....and now to churn a few ideas for PF...or just procrastinate..