Please don't stop writing - how to keep the momentum going when life gets busy.

You love writing, we love reading, don't let your blog die.

Eighteen months ago when I set out about making Reconnect I had to scour the entire internet to find gaming blogs.

I searched google, I searched social media, stalked linkedIn’s, trawled through Medium, Blogger, and Substack.

My hit rate was low.

Whilst some didn’t meet my criteria, the blog had to mostly be about gaming, and not just reprinting the news, most I passed on due to the fact that the blog was effectively dead. I.e the blog hadn’t been touched in a 12 months or more.

Since then Reconnect has hit over 250 blogs, but a fun little feature I have in the back end tells me how many days it’s been since the last article, and some are already starting to drift into being categorised as dead.

Now, I’m not judging, in any way shape or form.

In my adult life I’ve had fifteen different blogging endeavours and plenty of other projects that I started with a heap of gusto and motivation only to abandon when life got tough.

However, now that I have the largest index of games writers across the entire internet, I still feel a bit sad when I notice some of these blogs hit triple digits since their last piece.

Again, no judgment. If life, genuinely, is preventing you from writing, then I understand. I’m someone who has a busy life, juggles several mental illness and other health conditions and I understand when there just isn’t the brain power, nor the time to sit down and write another article.

So I’m going to impart some wisdom, from someone who has been there done that, and also has his eye on the entire landscape.

Don’t overwhelm yourself

I commit to two things. A weekly newsletter recapping the week that’s been and every day I curate the articles on Reconnect. The former takes an hour, the latter takes a few minutes every morning.

And let’s face it, my newsletters aren’t pulitzer writing pieces, they are simple listicles where I simply look back at everything I’ve features in the past week and slam them into an article.

I even make the other parts of the newsletter easier for myself. As I come across fun gamer things to add to the end, I add them to my Reminders on my phone.

When weeks are truly busy, I phone in my newsletter even more than I already do.

The lack of over commitment and the creation of systems that make achieving these goals easier, keeps the process of maintaining this project easy.

In return my subscribers have exploded, my second hundred coming twice as fast as my first hundred and the site gets ~40,000 people a month. Costing me no more than four hours a week total.

From what I’ve seen, too many personal projects have too many moving parts. Three articles a week, a podcast, a personalised substack message everyday, audio narration, weekly Youtube video, and twenty social posts a week to seven different platforms.

I understand how this occurs, especially given something like Substack will nag you to engage in all of it’s features, and we’re all desperate to stand out amongst the ‘competition’.

But we know what happens when life gets busy, things start to suffer, the pace slows down, and you get overwhelmed by all the moving parts and the guilt that you are behind.

With any project, and I’ve learned this the hard way, start small and commit to that for a few months, only then once you’ve got that habit locked in consider adding something new.

And then, have a honest conversation with yourself about whether it’s worth it. More time on projects comes at a cost to family, hobbies, relaxation and downtime, if committing to one extra thing infringes on your quality of life, especially given it will take more time up front, really analyse what the cost benefit analysis is. I’d LOVE to have a podcast, but I simply don’t have time for it, and I’m not currently willing to sacrifice anything more in my life for that. So I go without

Pace yourself

Simply put, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

So many new writers burst out the gate and do so much for their blog, then a few months later run out of stamina.

Let’s step back a bit.

Why would you do the most amount of work when you have the least amount of readers?

It’s going to go unnoticed, it’s not going to be a good return on investment.

And I know the fallacy, that if you did more you may get readers faster.

You can never know that for sure. You can’t pop into an alternative timeline and A/B test this process.

Pace yourself.

What makes readers subscribe is who you are as a voice. It’s not the volume of that voice, or the variety of mediums that voice comes in, but the voice. If you started off with one solid article a week, hell a fortnight, you would still be hitting the same mark for your readers.

And readers don’t have infinite time either. They don’t actually want three articles a week. Each reader has their own threshold before your writing starts to feel like a chore to read. Especially seeming they will be subscribed to other people.

As someone who reads a good hundred articles a week, its can be very overwhelming and sometimes I mark the entire inbox as read and delete the whole lot. This isn’t work, I don’t want to be bombarded by emails making me feel like I’m behind.

I want to be excited when I see that article come into my inbox.

Spread things out. I’ve got writers and YouTubers who only publish once a month, sure I’m begging for more content, but I don’t unsubscribe because I got less, why would I deprive myself of all of the thing when I can’t have the volume I want. No I’ll take my measly amount every month and be happy about it.

My rule, again after learning these things the hard way, has been to spread my work out. If I’m having a particularly productive week and I’ve got plenty of ideas to write, well good news, that’s the next five weeks of content scheduled. Which means I can take a break.

So use the scheduling feature to your advantage. Keep the cadence the same, and if your feeling productive, then your earning yourself a future holiday.

I’ve got a secret writing project i’m working on. It has nothing to do with gaming sadly, so none of you will be interested, but I’m not launching it until i’ve got three months of articles already banked, because I know I can't be juggling it on a week to week cadence. I may never launch it, because If I can’t get three months worth of work banked, then I don’t have any hope of keeping on top of it once it’s launched.

Growth comes with time, not speed

You can’t shortcut success. Look at every actor, every popular YouTuber, every popular writer. Time is the thing that got them where they are now.

For the most part, time can’t be sped up. We all want more readers, more reach, more influence, but you won’t get that over night.

Not to mention, growth has other factors. It’s not just subscriber growth. I can bang out a 2,000 word article in 25 mins if I’m on my game. That came from a decade of writing, not from my subscriber count. I still think my writing is shit and can’t believe you lot willingly read it, but I know that every year I get better.

Time is your friend, not your enemy. If I start going to the gym tomorrow, I know I’m not getting fit over night, I know that fitness comes from time, same here. Post 1 article a month, or two articles a week, the growth will not correlate with effort, it never does.

It’s the snowball effect. The more time passes the bigger the snowball gets.

Be kind to yourself

If you look after yourself and your well being, then the writing will come. Don’t beat yourself up because you’re behind, and don’t feel like your readers feelings are getting hurt because you’re not posting.

Fundamentally, if you like to write, and you must do to be here, then you don’t ever have to worry about the future of your blog, because you will always find a way to put words on paper.

If you miss a week, then that’s your brain saying you needed a break. And when you give your brain a break, then your art flows more freely.

Users are not going to unsubscribe en masse. We have billions of people still paying for subscriptions when they don’t need them, they have even less motivation to unsubscribe from a newsletter they might be getting for free.

Talking of payment, I know some people rely on writing to pay the bills, I’m privileged enough not to need my writing to earn me a living. Not to mention, what on earth would I charge people for?

But the added pressure of monetary return adds up. You’ve got more pressure than any of us free-bloggers have and that’s tough. But you won’t get anywhere by grinning and toughing through it.

Focus on the quality over the quantity, remember people have busy lives and they are just as likely to stop paying for reasons in their own life you don’t control, than they are because you missed a week.

Take the foot of the pedal, and be kind to your body and mind. Remove guilt, pressure and worry, and your writing will be much better for it. With better writing will come a user base that will want to stick around.

Please don’t stop writing

I love seeing people do what they love. If that’s writing then I want you to keep writing as long as you are happy. Your blog will die someday, they all do. Whether it’s life getting in the way or your writing elsewhere about something else.

What I care about is the blogs we loose too soon. Blogs that go untouched for months because the writer is burned out and is worrying. Don’t do that to yourself, you are an awesome person who has a life, we all have lives.

We get it, its a shit show out there, I don’t get how any of us are merrily typing away about video games when the boot of capitalism, climate change, and human rights are literally on our throats. But alas here we are.

So please, if your goal is to be still writing your amazing words this time next year, take it easy, look after yourself, and your art will flow freely.