Still Struggling To Write Consistently...

As a writer, it is incredibly frustrating when you find yourself NOT writing. It's hard to explain, but there's a kind of pressure that builds up inside you. It keeps building and building and building and BUILDING... and if the pressure is not released through writing then it comes out in other ways. The way you treat others. Your health. Depression. Frustration.

I'm in that state today - if you look at my danyork.me site pulling together all my writing and audio, the number of days I've been actually writing or creating audio is a bit sparse:

This post will only be my second post - in the entire 18 days of October!

Across all my blog sites, including my work sites... where I am paid to write!

And yet... I have no one to blame but myself.

I have a loooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggggg list of topics I want to write about. There is no end. In fact there are several series of posts I want to get underway.

But it's that effort of putting words on the screen. It is starting the writing - and not being distracted. By appointments. By meetings. By email. By social media. By… life.

It’s also the finishing of the writing. I have all sorts of blog posts that I have started, but I haven’t made the time to go back and actually finish the posts. (And sometimes that means just saying they are “good enough” and hitting the publish button.)

It is the act of focusing. Of being present.

If writing is to be a priority for me, by my own choice - then it is the act of prioritizing writing.

This is not a new problem for me. I've in fact been writing about this issue for many years. Here's a sample:

• July 2016 - 

  Trying a New Rule - No Social Media Usage Until I Have Created Something New

• February 2016 - 

  The First Step To Successful Writing/Blogging Is To Put Words On The Screen

• April 2015 - 

  The Tension Between Consumption and Creation of Content (a.k.a. spending time reading Facebook doesn't help with writing)

• March 2015 - 

  Every Minute You Spend Consuming Content Is A Minute You Are Not Creating Content

• November 2012 (first of a 4-part series) - 

  Barriers to Blogging - #1 - Distraction By Facebook, Twitter, News, Internet

• September 2008 - 

  Paying Yourself First - Starting the day with blogging... 

And even though I write those “self-help” posts, primarily as a reminder to ME, if I’m honest about it… I’m still struggling with it.

We’ll see.  And hey… with this post at least I’ve written something today!