According to the common wisdom, blogging is something all writers should do often if they want to build a following, to establish themselves as persons who both have something of interest to say and who can say it in their own unique voices. The same wisdom says that “often” means at least three times per week, week in and week out.

If a writer has a book in the works, he must then steal time from his  writing project to rip off five hundred words or so for his blog.  Some writers cheat.  They post their book chapters as blogs so they don’t have to interrupt their book writing  mo-jo.

But the subject of this blog is: How do you blog when you don’t feel like it?

It’s not really a hard question.

When you don’t feel like writing, you write anyway. You don’t wait for your Muse to whisper sweet  nothings  in your ear.  You don’t sit and twiddle your thumbs, read a chapter in a favorite book, Google your name. No, you sit down and write.

What if garbage appears on the page? You fix it, turn it into something worth reading.

What if you have convinced yourself that no one will ever read what you write? You write anyway.

What if the only comments on your blog are something like: “Give it up and go back to your day job”? You write anyway.

What if your significant other asks: “You’re not blogging again are you?” You write anyway.

What if your page views for the week somehow slip into negative numbers? You write anyway.

I heard someone report that Hemingway said: “You can be sure if anything happens to you, it’s your own damned fault.” He wrote anyway.

What if you get discouraged about your ability to write? You write anyway.

I’m feeling better already. How about you, my fellow bloggers?

(see Stephen Woodfin’s blogs)