Four Books I made while I haven't been blogging

Forced Break From Blogging

I took a forced break from blogging for a month. It wasn’t consensual! I decided to clean up some of my data files on my host server, and got a little too adventurous and I wiped out all of my websites, as I didn’t have any backups – I think I’d deleted those as well.

The Relief and Regrets of not having a Blog

On one hand I felt a bit of relief.

Writing a blog is a bit like having a hungry baby bird in a nest. It’s constantly calling to be fed, and it a continuous cycle of commitment. So the thought of not feeling the pressure of creating content and blogging on a regular basis was very appealing.

But over the next few weeks, I lost count of the amount of times I thought to myself – I’m going to blog about this.

I didn’t so much as miss having a blog, but I missed the process of writing. I toyed with the idea of writing another book instead. Maybe a travel guide now that my Turkey Travel Guides are out of print, or a book about sketching or creating. But I love short-form content. My URL was active until the first week in November, so the clock was ticking on making a decision.

Researching Hosted Blogging Alternatives

I did a little research about starting a new blog on a free host server, but knew I’d miss the flexibility of being able to adjust and adapt my website at will on a premium host server. So I finally came to the conclusion that I needed my old blog back.

The final straw was I needed to refer to a blog post I wrote about different bookbinding stitches, which is a post I created more for my own reference than to share my knowledge of bookbinding experience. I really regretted not having access to it.

So I contacted up my web host and got them to reinstate my blog from their last saved version. Which as it turns out, was probably at the point where I blew my site up – so I’ve been able to start off from where I left off a month ago.

It cost money to get them to do this. But I feel good. It was money well spent to get my blog back, with the help of some excellent customer service.

I’m Back … but it’s a slow burn

I have had my blog back for about two weeks, but oddly enough, I just couldn’t get into the right head-space to start blogging. How ironic!

Instead I’ve been wrist-deep in making handmade books, and creating collage ephemera, and I’ve drifted away from my daily sketching habit.

I’m an all or nothing creative. When I’m in the mood to create, I cling onto that injection of motivation with both hands, and ride it until my creative tank goes dry!

At the moment I’ve been so obsessed with hand making books that I didn’t want to get distracted by the cerebral activity of creating blog content. But now I can hear that annoying squark of my chick in its nest, and it’s time to start feeding it again.