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Sometimes, bloggers have slumps. Welcome to mine! I was going to post things. But I either thought they were dumb and uninspired, or actually decent, but my heart wasn’t in it and they were too important to half-ass. I have more reviews to do, but I don’t feel like it right now. Imagine me stomping my feet like a petulant child, and you’ll have a nice visual. 

Anyway. I feel like if I am going to be in a slump, I might as well do it right. So, I give you my steps to achieving your best slump! 

Step 1: Procrastinate Your Way into Slumphood

This one is so easy, guys. I know you can do it! If you are having problems fully procrastinating, here are some tips for great ways to waste time. Enlist the help of your friends- they will always know great new ways to slack off.

  • Find a Hamilton-loving sort. (I personally recommend Amber, but you can use your own specialist.) Get that friend to Hamilspam you until you just give in and listen to the damn thing to shut him or her up. Realize after about two songs that it is the coolest thing ever. Spend the remainder of the week listening while reading lyrics, Wikipedia-ing every person involved, and signing up for mailing lists for when (if, let’s be real) tickets ever are available again.
  • Pick a friend who is having an event. For this exercise, I picked Holly’s March Madness event, but that’s up to you. She had a lot of interviews and guest posts from authors. I spent an inordinate time googling Janet B. Taylor’s fascinating women of history, and leaving 30 comments trying to convince Kathryn Purdie that a trip to Russia could be deducted from her taxes as a business expense.
  • Have a friend share her mom’s latest internet obsession. Bonus points if it’s in a language you can’t understand, but you can’t stop looking anyway. Val’s mom and I are both now hooked on this Chinese dating show. Though I think for different reasons, because only one of us is trying to marry Val off to a nice Chinese fellow…
  • Shop for things you don’t need! My laptop skin in the picture above is from Cait’s Society6 shop. You probably need one too. And don’t forget about that throw pillow that you wanted from Evie’s shop. And you should probably shop for BEA even on sites you can’t afford for things you’d never wear again. And be sure that you pre-order all the books that won’t be out until 2017.
  • Twitter. That needs no further explanation, right?
Step 2: Take this time to remember all the tiny nuances that you’d like to improve about your site.

Remember that one font you were kind of iffy about in your footer that one day? Well, no time like the present! Mix it up! Try several (hundred) of them, before you find one that’s just right and looks exactly like the first one. Are you having a glitch with a plugin? Strip your site down to the bare bones, start fresh! Seriously, you cannot possibly be expected to post under these conditions.

Step 3: Give yourself a few ulcers playing Bookish Games until the rest of your life crumbles around you.

For reference, Bookish Games are hosted by Oh, the Books!, and they kind of consume your soul. I can’t talk about them- except you can totally go watch me unravel before your eyes, because the public stuff is, well, public. Please, let my suffering amuse you- one of us might as well laugh. Val had said that the game was stressful- and Val isn’t a particularly stressed person by nature. Which means that I should really have understood the ramifications for someone panicky and dysfunctional like myself. But it destroys you because it’s fun. Which is the real conundrum at hand.

Step 4: Lose control over your blog entirely. Let your comments eat you and your posts sit as drafts.

Look, what you’re going for here is a bit of a trifecta:

  1.  You’ll need many, many review books that have not been reviewed. Don’t worry, there’s help with that! Often, seemingly ALL the books publish on the same day, so you’ll need to figure out how to shove eight reviews into one week. It’s like a puzzle!
  2. Don’t even bother coming up with anything other than a review, either. A Top Ten Tuesday is taxing, so you might as well just forget about discussions. Find a tag, find a meme, find some old books to giveaway to fill airspace. I have no idea. If you figure something out, you let me know- for you’ll be the Slump Master!
  3. Have so many tabs open that your computer curses you out loud. This is a sign that A) You are way behind in reading your friends’ blogs, and B) You have clearly lost your mind because you think your computer is taunting you. This also applies to comments on your own post- good luck with those.
Step 5: Give it a really good try, until your body waves the white flag

You can’t really call it a slump unless you can declare the situation hopeless. So stay up all night making little-to-no progress. (See Step One for more help in that arena.) Hell, stay up for a few nights. Make it so that when you try to do the productive things, you keep typing the same word incorrectly over and over. Or try to do something… that you no longer remember. Let your eyes close and lose focus for ten minutes, only to return to something you don’t even remember starting.

This is the point where you yell back at your computer. It comes in handy to have a laptop, or at the very least a tablet or a phone, so you have something to slam down. In my case, my laptop lid suffices. If you’re working with something a bit more cumbersome… we can make it work.

Step 6: Write a tongue-in-cheek post about it.

Actually, maybe don’t, since I just did that? Fine, fine, go ahead, if you need to. I understand. Because really, what else is in your head other than the fact that nothing is in your head!? Just go on, make the most out of your slump!Look at you, already learning things from Step One!

Let’s talk blogging slumps (who am I kidding, life slumps): Do you have these? What do you do to get out of them? 

Posted March 19, 2016 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Discussion, Discussion Challenge / 64 Comments

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64 responses to “Step Up Your Slump

  1. I’m in one right now… and I don’t typically write book reviews so I’m pretty much dead. And nothing’s really going on in life, so I can’t blog about that.
    *realizes that something is indeed going on in life*
    *goes off to blog*

    ^^ demonstration of how to get out of blogging slump in real time.

  2. OMGGG SO SEEING MY DESIGN JUST WAS THE BEST THING OF EVER YOU COMPLETELY MADE MY DAY. LET ME HUG YOU NOW AND PERHAPS GIVE YOU A MILLION PERCENT OF CAKE. Ahem. okay, but what were we saying? OH YEAH. SLUMPS. ME TOO. Well. I haven’t been having a blogging slump per se, more like a “blogging is overwhelming omg let me dive under my bed and cry” and also a TBR overwhelm. Like I was feeling pretty bad about my TBR…not because I don’t like having lots of books, but just because I’m trying not to read so much this year AND DO OTHER STUFF and yet my TBR is building up and I hate it when things are out of control. So I actually had it at an acceptable height? And LOW AND BEHOLD a publisher randomly sent me 4 books I never asked for and aren’t even my thing. *cries* I mean, I could just not read them??? But. I want the publishers to love me???? *continues crying*
    SO I HEAR YA WITH THE SLUMP/OVERWHELM. *pets shoulder*
    I prescribe a nap. Honestly. My family just went away this weekend and left after lunch, and the #1 thing I did was just went and took a nap. HEH. I’m so mature. And then I’m getting caught up on comments. One thing at a time. :’) But nap first. Then cake. Then catching up.
    TAKE A BREAK IF YOU NEED, TO, OKAY?!?! We shall still be here to adore you when you get back. <3

    • YES, that sounds like ALL THE CAKE! I shall accept this cake as a sign of your love ♥

      Umm I maybe in a Blogging Overwhelm too. Actually, I would bet that is what it is. Because holy CRAP I am overwhelmed. And I haven’t even been posting much so what is my issue!? I don’t know!

      YES you can NOT read them. I have yet to successfully read and review a non-solicited book- for I solicit too many to read UNsolicited ones 😉 BUT I plan on reading some, soon, very soon!

      DUDE, a nap would be EPIC. I ended up getting sick right after I wrote this post- like, I had to go to the Urgent Care place, I was a mess. So a nap probably IS in order! MUAH!

  3. Ah, I’m in a bit of a content slump at the moment, as in, no inspiration and no want to write anything new, but that’s because of personal stuff attacking me right now. HOWEVER, I agree on the procrastination thing – I do that A LOT and it’s NOT GOOD. Gah, I liked this post, but you just reminded me that I need to DO things, so thanks and no thanks, I think 😉

  4. AHAHA Awesome post, Shannon! I especially love the last one – I see what you just did there 😉
    If You Are The One is such an awesome show haha – I always get sidetracked by it! xD
    I’m in a blogging slump of sorts, but what I’m doing to get out of it is just to do more tags. I really like writing them, because they’re fun little things to do! 😀

    • Hahhaha thanks! 😉 I LOVE THAT SHOW. Val hates it because her mom tries to give her “tips” from it, but I couldn’t stop watching it! And tags are SUCH a good plan! My problem is that I never remember that people have tagged me- oops!

  5. As someone who writes posts about procrastinating to procrastinate, I approve of this post. I’ve probably done most of this other than the Chinese gaming show, but hey, who knows what lies in the future. I have to admit my blogging schedule has been abysmal lately. First, I didn’t really have the energy and then my head was too full of Other Things. I don’t worry about it too much, but I wish I had a little more time for it. Luckily, it’s not going anywhere!

  6. Dating show, I mean. How do you even watch it? Are there subtitles? (See, I’m already interested. Stop giving me more reasons to procrastinate, Shannon! :D)

  7. Ahahaha I love this post. XD Also… I don’t know what Hamilton is. *hides*

    But yes, I do get slumps and I usually turn to all the comfort things when that happens. I watch some of my favorite movies or TV shows or reread my favorite books.

    • GAH, well, I will say that it probably isn’t as appealing outside of the US, it’s a Broadway show based on this book about Alexander Hamilton’s life, and it’s just SO CATCHY and you kind of get lost in the history. And I feel like comfort things are the BEST- I kind of wish I turned to them more often! Need to start doing that!!

  8. I’ve got Step 4 down this month. Attempting to ‘Take Control of my TBR Pile’ has left me with a surplus of reviews to write and no time to write them. It doesn’t help that I have a 15 month old that won’t let me use my laptop without slamming her hands down on the keyboard and deleting everything I’ve written or stealing my tablet every time I pick it up to watch Elmo’s World. At least I’m getting more reading done than usual with all this electronic-free time! 🙂

    • GAH, yes, I feel your pain there! I am constantly behind! At one point, I had 14 unwritten reviews. I am pretty excited about the 7 I have now by comparison 😉

      And WHY will the small humans not let us touch a laptop!? WHY?! I hate to inform you, but this does not get better for… well, quite some time. My 4 year old *might* let me now, but no way would my 2.5 year old. But YAY for reading!!

  9. Oh dammit! I am bit superstitious. Every time I read about slumps it puts me into one. It seems that waves of slumps hit people and the best thing to do is actually to write about it. This creates a huge problem for me. GAH!
    When I feel like a slump is coming on, I just get really passionate about reading, commenting, and stalking other bloggers, while completely ignoring my own site. Since those people are NOT in a slump it usually inspires me to get back into blogging. If the slump is an “i feel inadequate” type of thing, I find blogs I don’t usually follow, maybe food or fashion blogs, and mentally critique them. I am narcissistic doing this makes me feel better about my site. Sometimes keeping a low profile, like blogging and then purposely exiting the community, will help me to feel like I am totally missing out. If I have X numbers of reviews that need to go up, I will mostly ignore the community until I get them done. Then I come back and find I have missed this or that and this will help inspire me to stay on track in the future.
    I mostly play games with myself to try to trick myself out of the slump. (since I am now admitting that TO myself right now, I am it sure it will work next time.)
    Everyone has slumps Shannon, it happens. I hope you snap out of it soon, I miss you. I have to admit I don’t know about any of the things you mentioned in this post. I don’t know if I should feel like I missed out, or just try to get into more stuff, (is everyone hanging out without me? I know exactly what Mindy was talking about). Its okay, maybe next time.

    • NOOO I am sorry! I really hope I did not jinx you!! My fingers are crossed! And it DOES seem like slumps happen in waves. If it helps, I think mine was slightly more “overwhelmed” than slump.

      I LOVE this idea of tricking yourself! Better than panicking and crying, which is what I am best at 😉 And if you do none of the rest of these, you NEED Hamilton in your life, I promise 😀

  10. AHAHAHAHA THIS IS THE BEST. For a moment I thought you were going to give tips about how to get out of a slump then I started frowning and remembered, “Oh wait. This is Shannon’s blog.” And proceeded to laugh through the entire post. I think social media is a TERRIBLE timesuck for me. And although I’m pretty happy with how my blog looks right now, I can (and have) spent entire afternoons looking for blogging tips.

    PS: I am sincerely reconsidering my decision to ignore the Hamilton hype.

    • BWHAHAHHAHAH so true, I have no tips. Just random weirdness. And that’s okay 😀 Social media is SUCH a time suck, because you don;t even realize! You think it’s been 20 minutes and 3 hours have gone by! Oops? As for blog design, I will spend entire nights looking for like, ONE STUPID LINE of CSS or something. It is so ridiculous.

      And Hamilton… well you must 😀

  11. Oh Shannon, is it wrong to laugh at your pain? 🙂 I swear, I do not mock your conundrum. (Really, pinky promise.) But it’s because I relate. Not so much with the blog (but I have never ever felt pressure to post daily or even several times a week) but my email inbox is *overflowing* with all the email and bloglovin notifications of blogs I follow. And I don’t even follow all that many (in comparison to others). But I was just too busy on Wednesday, and on Thursday I needed and nap, and yesterday I just wasn’t in the mood… and now here it is Saturday and my inbox has freaking exploded and I’m wondering how I let it get to this and how I’m going to get caught up because it looks/feels overwhelming. Gah! And – unfortunately – when I get overwhelmed I freeze and do nothing. So helpful. So very, very helpful…

    • Nah, laugh away 😀 Oh, the notifications and emails… I can’t even. What am I supposed to DO with those!? I mean, I guess I have to give up at some point, right? When I get overwhelmed I mostly just freak out, cry, and then stay up all night, resulting in big old messes. So yeah, I am helpful to myself too 😉

  12. YESS! Reading slumps, life slumps, and for sure blogging slumps. Honestly, I haven’t written a post in a couple *weeks*. I scheduled a ton of posts a while back because I knew I was in a blogging slump. UGH. Thanks for this hilarious post!

  13. LOL! Love this post and A+ gif usage XD

    I get in slumps too, I think we all do! I tend to turn to comfort things like favorite shows rewatches, movies, and reading old favorites. Whatever works right. *Shakes fist at Internet for being such an easy distraction*

  14. I am in SUCH a blogging slump too. Can I just roll around on the floor until I get over it? I just don’t feel like doing it right now!! I’m feeling like commenting back more than I want to write posts at the moment, so here I am blog-hopping 😀 I only have 12 scheduled posts, and IT IS FREAKING ME OUT SHANNON!! I usually have 20 :0 Great advice, I will definitely try some of this <33

  15. Urgh, these are the worst!!! Hamilton is my current obsession too and it has been helping me. Who needs to blog when you can learn over 46 songs from beginning to end… WORTH IT! If they bring it to the West End I will happily sell a kidney to get tickets.

    I am in one right now and trying to claw my way out. IT IS HARD WORK!!! My comments have built up to the hundreds of unanswered ones. I have so many posts ideas but no time or energy to write them. Honestly, I have zero idea how to get out of it.

  16. This blog post is so funny. 🙂 I’ve been in a slump since reading Winner’s Curse last year. I’m still reading but my heart isn’t as in it as usual.

  17. Hahahah oh man you mentioned the Chinese dating show. Ugh. I hate it. I HATE IT. But you already know that don’t you. Blerh.

    I hate slumps, because at the end of the day I don’t feel productive at all, but then I just don’t want to do anything! Especially write and blog, because it involves using my brain to put words and sentences together.

    I think you should slump more by talking to us more on Twitter. LIKE WHERE ARE YOU NOW??

  18. This post has made my week. I’ve not yet had an extreme case of the blogging slump and hopefully I won’t get one for a while. I have been noticing that I’ve been putting off writing posts but then I feel guilty and end up writing one by the end of the day because at least then I can say I did something productive haha.

    I’m slightly terrified of the bookish games. It looks very addictive but intense so I’d probably fail at the first step haha.

  19. This is great. 🙂 Well not that you’re in a slump, but even a slump can provide a fun post like this one! I hear you though, slumps are a pain but the happen. I think another commenter said something about reading or watching old favorites, and yeah that works for me sometimes. I don’t need much excuse to blow it all off and go watch Netflix for 32 hours haha.

    The comment about tabs was funny too, the other day I had a zillion tabs open and I was like, what am I doing? If my computer were to die right now I would never remember half of all this crap I was doing. That was a scary thought. And trying to put a Top Ten post together can be enough for me to cause a slump… just too much work! 🙂

  20. Haha oh my goodness this is perfect! I’ve sort of got to a point with reviewing where I don’t think I’m ever going to catch up EVER AGAIN. So the only solution to read more books to escalate this problem. Slumps of any kind are just THE WORST. Great discussion post!

  21. Heyyy, I didn’t know I was mentioned! But YES, Hamilton is a great way to procrastinate. You can listen to it, memorize it, read up all the lyrical notes about it,, then look up all the real life people then re-listen and put it context and then cry about never seeing it. It’s like a great procrastinator.

    Friends with events are great! Especially with educational posts because then you want to know everything.

    Foreign language distractions are the greatest.

    Buying things you don’t need! That is me! Only sometimes though because lack of money, sigh. But that’s not the case right now, so I do all the BEA shopping (and okay, maybe a few albums…).

    Gosh Shannon, always so panicky with the BG. 😉

    Hahaha, the trifecta, omg. “It’s like a puzzle!”.

    Omgomgomg, I loveeee this. God knows a blogging slump is the story of my life. I get them a lot! I don’t do too much to get out of them, I just wait, possibly mention a hiatus and read for a bit.

  22. Oh slumps are quite annoying! I’ve read three consecutive meh books and that’s been painful. I love your shopping idea! He he. The demise of my motivation means the demise of my finances. Works for me. 😀

  23. LOL this post was hilarious. I especially loved the shopping for things I don’t need. I SOOOOO want a Cait’s laptop skin they are gorgeous! I kinda resign to the fact I live in a perpetual Slump now 🙂

  24. Ahh love this. But honestly, how did you have the energy to write this? and be funny? and find gifs? wonderful, perfect gifs, I tell you! haha When I’m feeling slumpy (yes, slumpy), I can’t usually muster the energy to do any type of post unless it’s something really quick and easy. haha I have so many things I need to review and discuss and DO! Sigh. I’ll get there. We’ll all get there…someday…*watches british soap operas for hours* what’s this about blogging again? 😉

    -Lauren

  25. ♥ this post because slumps do happen — reading slumps, blogging slumps, life slumps and the best thing to help any of them is to talk about them (I think)! I know what to do in a reading slump but I’m not 100% sure what to do for a blogging slump. A few idea I have are:

    1. Read some new blogs that remind you why you starting blogging in the first place;
    2. Read a new books, preferably one that is awesome so that you WANT to blog about it;
    3. Re-read a favorite book and don’t worry about reviewing or blogging. Go back to what you love: just reading;
    4. Eat some ice cream, drink some coffee and don’t worry about the blogging slump, there will come a day when you want to blog again

    all my ♥

  26. I love this post, I am a chronic procrastinator and am currently in a blogging/book reading slump, I generally use the “promote other people and hope they don’t notice I’m not making any new content” approach (it generally works with the exception of one or two people who know me well). My dealing techniques tend to be “make a huge pile of work for myself, then have a nap right before it’s due”, I don’t meant to, but the nap-rays are just too hard to fight around deadline time (“I sleep hard, I dream harder!”). Hopefully, you’ll get out of it soon 🙂

  27. This post further proves why I love both you and your blog, Shannon! XD You are seriously killing me here with all that hilarity and relatability! LEGIT. (Chinese dating show? HAHAHAHAHA SERIOUSLY STHAP.) Step 4 is totally where I’m at right now, but mostly because I AM BUSY AS HECK LIKE WHAT THE CRAP EVEN HAPPENED TO FREE TIME!? T_T I miss wasting time reading 21930812309128 blog posts and leaving long-ass comments because dude I need to prepare for a 2 month trip to freaking China (and hey maybe be part of that dating show… I KID!) where I will be homesick and will probably cry for the first week or so. TOTAL LIFE SLUMP RIGHT NOW SOMEONE SAVE ME!

  28. Oh you are too much!! I was in a slump. Reading, blogging, life. I just stopped. I took time off. I feel so much better now. Hopefully no more slumps for a while. Still I wish I would have gotten an awesome post out of my slump like you did 😉

  29. Blanca MR

    This post means so much to me right now, I am currently going through a big life slump, the past 21 days have been difficult for me because I got a new job -I’ve got 2 jobs- so I’ve been doing some training and my mom hurt her back so I’ve been assisting her, that means little to no free time for me; I stopped working out and taking care of my online store, not to say reading. It is interesting cause reading usually helps me to deal with stress, but the last book I read (A darker shade of magic) gave me a book hangover, so right now I am just taking a small break hopefully April will be better.

  30. Ugh, I’ve been in a terrible, terrible blogging slump. I haven’t posted since the middle of February. I also haven’t been visiting/commenting on blogs as much, either. It’s strange because I miss it, but I just can’t give myself the push to do anything about it. FIX ME! 😛

  31. SLUMPS ARE EVIL. I feel like I’m kinda in one, but slowly getting out of it? *wishful thinking haha* I’m just sort of behind on my NetGalley books and I finished one like over a week ago but I still haven’t written the review yet (because I just don’t really feel like it). Also, since I blog from my tablet, I can’t make graphics when I need to and it truly bothers me because I cannot write a post without the having the graphic first. I JUST CAN’T. Basically I’m just very OCD and I feel like I put myself in slumps all the time. Whoops? 😉

  32. Ahhhhaha!!! Shannon, seriously, you never cease to make me smile with your posts. Those gifs!!!!! LOL BUT now to the point… Yes, I’ve been there. Honestly, right now, I’m not really in a “slump” per say… More of a “holy crap, my TBR is INSANE!!!!!” overwhelm. It’s hindering my enjoyment of books I’m reading because I’m too worried about finishing the book to start the next one ASAP. >.< So not good!! Bad, Lisa!!! 🙁 Anyway, great post!! Thanks for the giggles!! ♥

  33. Oh YES, I can so relate to this! I have felt like this for the past few months. I have so many great ideas, but when I go to write the posts, I have no clue what to say and I lose all interest. I have been known to write a line, surf Facebook, write another line, check for blog comments, etc., etc. So one post can take me approximately six hours to write. Oy.

  34. LOL this is so much fun Shannon, particularly Bookish Games! (I’m so glad you’ve joined us this round)! And yes, so many great fonts and little web things that we can try out, not according to plan lol. BLOODYDAMN TABS kind of make me feel productive but then I shy away in fear and close all of them and start again. Way too ambitious there LOL! Very fun post Shannon, I hope you get out of your slump soon!

  35. I didn’t think life slumps existed until I had one. Right before Christmas I got burnt out on reading. I was struggling to even START a book! After a while I decided it wasn’t a reading slump; it was a genuine full-blown life slump. Stress at work and stress from the man’s ex’s mess made things so complicated. It was utterly draining. I’m only now recovering. I tried not to let my blog suffer, but I wasn’t reading like normal.

  36. I’ve kinda of been in a slump for awhile but i listen to enough audiobooks to have a consistent schedule on my blog that you can’t really tell. I decided to get out of it by just reading a ton of comic books and reviewing them in April.

  37. I am bookmarking this post to return to it every time I feel too tired to do the things I should be doing (*ahem*everyweekend). Thanks!
    As for the Bookish Games….yes. Exactly. I had NO idea they would be so all-consuming. My poor fiance has tried not to lose his patience with me, as I spend every Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (er, morning) furiously typing away notes, spending hours cataloging every player’s move, talking through if/then scenarios. It’s probably good I just died on there, to save our relationship. But then, it’s so addictive, I can’t stop visiting the new posts and seeing what people think. Gah!

  38. “Let your comments eat you and your posts sit as drafts”. That has basically been me these last couple of weeks. I’ve been in both a book and a blogging slump lately and it’s been weird to say the least. I ended up getting the entire series of Goosebumps on Kindle ’cause weirdly enough, that seemed to be the only thing I could read. Well that and some beat up children books I dug out of my room XD.

  39. I only got a teensy bit through this post at first because I stopped to finally listen to this Hamilton thing everyone’s been talking about – darn you for giving me a new obsession!!!

    I’ve been in a slump lately as well. Just got back from vacation, so hopefully I’m refreshed!

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