No more words.

There are times, an increasing number of times it seems, when at the end of the day, after talking, and talking, and talking some more to students, parents, administrators, husband, kids, that I have no words left. No voice to speak, no brain cells to rub together for thought, nothing to put fingers to keyboard to write or blog. You're just empty, empty, empty. Burn out, balance, call it what you will, it seems an occupational hazard for bloggers and writers. And it seems to be running rampant through the blogosphere.

Copyblogger has a great post about what you can do when you run out of content, words, knowledge. Check it out and tell me: Has this ever happened to you? Where do you get your inspiration, knowledge, words, content, ideas, whatever you call it, to write and/or blog? What do you do when they don’t come?

Rewind

Summer presents unique opportunities and stresses for me. Every summer I tell myself I’ll take the time to write. And I do. I write curriculum. I design online courses. I attend seminars, take courses, create documents I’ll need for classes along with all the normal running around with loved ones that is normal for this time of year. We all have these kinds of obligations that take precious time. And we all make decisions about how to parcel our time out. I’m in the process of trying to figure out how I’ll find the time and the energy and the brain power to finish my WIP this summer.

And if you look around the blogosphere you’ll see a whole host of others who are trying to deal with the whole time management strain balancing blogging, writing, real life, and the very real issue that the more followers one has the less time one has to comment and maintain the online relationships one had when starting to blog in the first place. Faced with all that and burnout, bloggers are starting to unplug more regularly, for longer periods of time, or in some cases closing their blogs all together. I’m thinking myself of how I’m going to schedule my blogging this summer as well.

Write It Sideways has an interesting post here about the reasons writers should blog. Check it out and then tell me: What are your blogging plans for this summer? In general? What stressors help you decide? Does where you are in your writing journey play a role in your decision? Or are other considerations more important?

Feeling groovy

Anybody remember that song? The one that went Slow down, you move too fast? Ah, well, I'm old and that's not the point of this post. The point is that there’s no end of demand on our time. Jobs that pay the bills, loved ones who well, love us, school, writing, blogging all demand time and attention. And it’s all a balancing act. A lot of us were conditioned to believe that if we just ran faster, worked harder, smarter, better, we could have it all. Do it all. Be it all.

And when we’ve run flat out for far too long, the inevitable happens. We crash and burn. We see plenty of evidence of that around, too. Plot This had a really interesting post here that I thought was really good advice. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Do you rush? Do you freak out and compare yourself to others? Do you think you can slow down? Do you think slowing down will help your writing?

Happy Hump Day

Whether it’s Wednesday or the muddle in the middle that we’re slogging through as writers, we all know that feeling of burnout. We see it all around us here in the blogosphere, feel it in the crush of real life. Copyblogger has a great post here you should check out and then tell me:

Do you take time for yourself? Book time for yourself? How?

Fear of Falling

Even a cursory spin around the blogosphere shows us to be tired, torn and blocked. I feel the pull of other commitments, the tug of things undone at work, at home, as time seems to spin wildly out of control.

I feel the push to get kids to where they need to be before we break for Spring, the unrelenting pressure of that final, mad dash to the end of the year dragging those kids kicking and screaming every inch along the way.

I feel the pressure to write courses and curriculum for next year. And I’m already behind on that. How the hell can that be? I have my own kids who still have wants and needs, like being fed every freaking night, and a house that mocks my feeble attempts to keep the chaos at bay. We all have these things and more.

It’s guilt and shame and the ever present sense of epic fail that haunts us and I would kill for a break, a little balance in my life. Ann over at Procrastinating Writers has a lovely little post here that you might want to check out.

And after you do, here are my questions to you. What do you do to find balance in your life? Not time to write, not time to wrestle with your writer's block, not time to cram more things into your overcrowded schedule, but balance in your daily life.

An even bigger question I have is this. Now that there’s more sunshine, shouldn’t I (we) be feeling better?