Blogging fatigue affects us all… (©MRandin)

When this blog first went live I couldn’t contain the thrill of seeing my first post on line. And then later, I couldn’t stop beaming when I received my first positive comment from a blogger who lived on the other side of the world.  To use a colloquial expression I was ‘pumped’ and it was good to feel full of ideas and creativity.

For the first time in my life I found disparaging comments like ‘you must have too much free time on your hands to keep a blog’ of no concern. I also had high ambitions that this blog would win all sorts of travel writing awards and  it would be the upstart newcomer, breaking through the slew of well-established travel blogs.

Chickstravelflicks was my project – my baby if you will – and I took pride in ensuring that every phrase, word or photo posted here was of my best quality.

I’ve had many mentors in my professional life who have warned me about my excessive desire for perfection and the pitfalls of having overly high ambitions for myself. As with other projects in my lifetime, I let the best become the enemy of the good and this blog became more about crafting the perfect sentence and less about transmitting the joy of travel.

When the inevitable blogging fatigue set in, my ‘three times a week’ posting schedule dwindled down to the weekly post, then the odd post once every two weeks and then the words literally dried up.

Chickstravelflicks would have probably continued on its downward trajectory to oblivion if I hadn’t read Gretchen Rubin’s ‘The Happiness Project’, a memoir of her year spent “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture” on the subject of happiness.

In the third month of the project she launched her now highly successful blog. For someone who – in her own words – could barely ‘figure out how to use a TiVo’, this blog was a challenge to herself to “tackle a large, difficult, goal”. In doing so she claims that it increased her overall level of happiness and it was an excellent vehicle for her to share her ideas with the world.

I can’t say that the failure to blog has made me ‘unhappy’, though I do have a niggling feeling that there is a missing piece in my everyday life. This feeling made a sudden appearance when M. passed his pilot’s license this past June and I was made aware of the importance of having a ‘passion’ in life.

Whenever M. returns from a flight – even a short one – he seems exhilarated, joyful and yes, why not, happy. His joy has come from overcoming all the time and financial obstacles to achieving his boy hood dream of becoming a pilot.

Although I can’t really remember why I started blogging in the first place, I know that it gave me such an immense sense of pleasure and excitement. I am left wondering why I gave it up so quickly. I could blame my day job but as M. has showed me, it is possible to train as a pilot while having a demanding professional life!

So to ease back into blogging, I decided that it is necessary to note down a few reasons as to why I love to blog.

1) It’s about the process

For me, the fun of blogging is not so much in writing the story itself but finding a way to pitch a travel experience in a novel manner.  We travel primarily in Europe and after a while you do find yourself wondering how you can write about a visit to the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower for example, in a manner that is markedly different from the other million travel blog entries on the same subject.

However, when you do find ‘the angle’, there’s a sudden rush of adrenaline and a mad scramble to get all your ideas written down. I get great joy from letting these ideas slosh around in my head as I chew on lunch, walk to work or commute by train every morning and evening.

Then there’s the magic of having everything click together and seeing the words make their way onto your computer screen. I feel joy in then seeing the text come together in its final stages and a personal sense of satisfaction when it is complete.

2) It’s about the socialising

I don’t know what is more fascinating: the technology of the blog itself or sites like Facebook and Twitter, to help get your message across to an audience you could have never dreamed of reaching a decade ago. You realise the raw power of this technology when someone from Hong Kong comments on your photos, less than 24 hours after you’ve posted them. I find it completely and utterly awesome that this power is mine to use and the tools are all at my disposal.

Of course, it takes time to build trust with your readers and to understand the ways in which you can make your voice heard in these online communities.

Engaging in this form of ‘socialising’ is a challenge in itself, as it is a conscious decision to let the world into your life. It means that you are required to have a certain level of self confidence before going into the exercise, as the community will not hesitate to take you down a notch or two if necessary.

A few months after starting up Chickstravelflicks one reader had this to say about a post I had written on Goa: “Vanessa beyond the mild exaggeration and a hint of self importance, I must say, you write quite well.”

I once had what resembled a nervous breakdown because I received a B+ on an exam in high school. For all intents and purposes this was a B+ grade in blogging terms. But funnily enough I didn’t see it that way. I was so chuffed that a reader thought I wrote (well okay, he used the word ‘quite’) well! It meant that 1) people other than my parents were reading the blog 2) that my writing had some semblance of character and 3) the post had enough substance to criticise! I could have hugged the guy if he was closer. But as he wasn’t, I sent him a thank you email and cordially invited him to become a fan of the Chickstravelflicks page on Facebook, which he accepted a day later!

Sometime it takes a blog to show you how far you’ve come in life!

If happiness is a journey and not the destination, then maybe I should approach blogging in much the same way. So I’ve decided to start the month of October, with challenge number 1 of my Happiness Project:  to take time every day to enjoy the creative and social side of blogging.

If you’ve set a similar challenge for yourself, I would love to hear from you!