The Cure For Exhaustion Isn't to Stop Writing. Is it?

What if I switch the mood? Will my readers understand?

Author’s photo - I could have chosen something prettier, but I didn’t.

I’m in a funk today but I promised myself I’d get a piece out on Monday. It’s a dumb promise meaning absolutely nothing. None of you will care if I don’t write something today. I know that. You’re good people. We’re friends now. Yet here I am…

…thinking.

Yesterday I published a piece at my second newsletter, Constant Commoner, that took every bit of energy out of me. I’d worked on it for days and when it came time to publish it I held off for another day. I revised, I cut, I worried over words and phrases—because the subject matter means so much to me I couldn’t bear the thought of not getting it right, of sending it out with even a single word that might be out of place and ruin everything.

I do this to myself almost every time I write a piece that advocates instead of conversates. It may be why I don’t do them as often as I think I should. Those pieces are exhausting, and when it’s over and nothing much happens—the world doesn’t turn, the bad guys don’t suddenly become good—the funk shows up and I have to switch gears and think of other things to write.

I need that R&R.

I write opinions, but I write other things, too. So many other things it’s hard to pin down what kind of writer I am. At Constant Commoner I write about politics and grief and being a woman and being old and being alone and living up north and sometimes I just write about things that strike me as funny or odd or even just slightly interesting to me at least. Now and then I do pictorials because I love taking pictures and sharing the stories behind them—and because they’re easy and I’m feeling lazy.

Here at Writer Everlasting I write about writing and writers and words and books and reading and art and craft and inspiration. Sometimes I give advice. Sometimes I ask for it. Like now.

I’m writing this because the subject of building a brand came up again. Successful writers, meaning, I assume, those who make money at it, tend to focus on a single theme, knowing they’ll gain readers if they appear to be experts at whatever it is they’ve built their blog around.

That’s probably true. I do see it everywhere. I won’t name names but you know who they are. They’re the writers who are extremely clever and interesting, wringing out yet another gem from their chosen field, a field so precise they can describe it in a single sentence in their bios.

Then there are the rest of us. Next to them we’re flailing wildly, grabbing at straws and sticks and anything else we might use as material because, let’s face it, we can’t think like that.

It’s a gift they have. A skill. A discipline. And I’m extremely grateful whenever one of them comes over here and doesn’t turn up a nose at what must look to them like amateur hour. They’re not just gifted, they’re gracious.

I’m not saying I want to be like them. I couldn’t be, anyway. It isn’t just the skill and the discipline, it’s the knowledge. They’ve spent years acquiring it and it shows. I’ve spent years wishing I had that kind of knowledge. It’s not the same thing.

So here are my questions today: Are you okay with switching your theme or your mood? How often do you set aside your chosen interest and go for something else, just because you feel like it? Do you think about your readers when you go there or is it enough that you’re satisfied? Do you explain when you do it? Do you apologize? Is this even important?

SOME NEWS: I had a fun conversation with the incomparable

Holly Starley

and we’re going to share it with you, each on our own sites this coming Saturday and Sunday, January 27 and 28. Hold the dates!

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