Blogger Block: The Four-Step Program
Hi – my name is Annie Binns and I have Blogger Block. Blogger Block is typically associated with older, seasoned blogs that have spent a year or more churning out brilliant content, only to be blindsided by this keyboard-silencing monster. However, recent reports have confirmed that this phenomenon has crept its way into newer blogs. It found me in less than 60 days. Please keep reading – you could be next!
Unlike more pleasant diseases (chickenpox comes to mind), Blogger Block can recur throughout the lifetime of the blog. It shows up without warning and leaves its telltale trail of destruction on your workday. Some of the most common symptoms are listed here:
- You wonder if you have enough plug-ins and start surfing the web for more.
- You Google everyone who leaves a comment on your blog to see if they are incarcerated.
- You read your spam folder. Twice.
- You Google relatives you haven’t heard from in a while to see if they are incarcerated.
- You follow every Twitter link
- You subscribe to more RSS feeds than your total number of blog posts.
- You hand-write encouraging letters to your incarcerated friends and relatives.
For those suffering like I am, there is some good news. A recently-developed Four-Step Program has been proven effective in reducing or eliminating the symptoms of Blogger Block. If these steps don’t work for you, do them again. And again. Studies have shown that 99% of Blogger Block sufferers resolve their symptoms within 72 hours.
Step 1: Admit you are powerless and that your life has become unmanageable.
If you have any questions about this, review the symptoms listed earlier. You are out of control. Face it and embrace it.
Step 2: Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself.
If this doesn’t give you a long list of things to blog about, you aren’t doing it right.
Step 3: Admit to God, ourselves and the blogging community the general nature of our wrongs.
No need to include pictures. God told me She reads blogs. All of them.
Step 4: Having had relief as the result of these steps, carry this message to other bloggers.
You know what that means – Digg, Stumble and trackback this post or you’ll have to start over.
Tweet This Post!
June 30th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Is Twitterblock a related disease? It’s possibly more virulent.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I posted a link to this in Linkedin BLoggers, a Yahoo! Group.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Another symptom is tinkering with the site. Re-doing an image for the 10. time because “that bloody drop-shadow just isn’t right!”
PS This post made my day. Just can’t get the grin off my face
June 30th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
good insight and great humor, too, thanks!
June 30th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I’m looking for the 12 step program.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:05 am
Annie -
I like this statement, “Unlike more pleasant diseases (chickenpox comes to mind), Blogger Block can recur throughout the lifetime of the blog.” Just hilarious.
Shilpan
July 1st, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Blogger Block: The Four-Step Program…
A humorous write-up describing the symptoms of Blogger Block and the Four-Step Program that you can follow to “cure” it….
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I’d like to add a symptom: Stat rage.
They tell you that you’ll become obsessed with your stats at the beginning. That’s true. They tell you that you’ll get over it. Also true. They don’t tell you about step three, the fury.
You log into your statistics program and see a number. You come back ten minutes later and get angry when the number only went up by 8. This is especially prominent at 2 o’clock in the morning when you really should be writing a blog post.
Naomi Dunford’s last blog post..How To Suck At Affiliate Marketing
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
@Doug – Twitterblock is exacerbated by the fact that Twitter goes down right when you want to Tweet something brilliant – the best 140 characters of your life and WHAMO – Twitter says “oops”. OOPS? OMG. That’s a whole new post.
@Mary – Ahhh, images. Don’t get me started.
@Jim – I was going to use the whole 12 steps but was afraid of copyright laws.
@Naomi – Your numbers go up by 8 in 10 minutes? The only thing I have that goes up by 8 in 10 minutes is my diastolic blood pressure number.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:20 am
This is a big one. Sometimes I think, “I honestly don’t know what to say!” but then i allow myself to just write badly and not think about stats or titles or being anything. I focus on the goal of doing a post – and something usually comes. Walking in the woods helps too! (so does napping with the cats!)
Christine Kane’s last blog post..If Bloggers Wrote Song Titles…
July 13th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Featured on Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle. http://tinyurl.com/5p8q7b
Jenny, Bloggess’s last blog post..Thanks for the zombies, Jesus!
July 14th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Annie Binns,
I am “solving” the problem with blogger block by writing a post with a link to your program (with a “TGIF” note regarding step 3) and then taking a summer break from blogging…
All the Best,
Martin Lindeskog – American in Spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.
Martin Lindeskog’s last blog post..SUMMER TIME OFF
November 12th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
ifwb1wfxt2r59euy