I took a break from writing last year. I revamped my blog recently and resumed writing again. It seems like a steep mountain to climb after stopped writing for six months. I am losing my readers. What to do when you are losing your readers? The amount of effort I am spending in promoting my blog is just the tip of an iceberg. With Twitter gone replaced by X, my social landscape has changed too. I am restarting my social journey, widening my network and being a newbie to Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. But first thing first, addressing writing consistency is my key priority due to several reasons.
When I first started my blogging journey, I was adamant about management writing. I have worked in multinationals all my life, across different continents and various roles. The corporate life complexity is not easily deciphered by just studying theories written on books. Let alone completing MBA or professional courses. It is through years of cumulative on-job trainings that made me observe, network, learn and unlearn mistakes, overcome challenging problems, and seize opportunities when become available. While they seemed like all professional, there are roller coaster moments when emotional intelligence come to play. I aspire to blog about my professional journey with aim to benefit others who may find it valuable.
Keeping inspiration alive.
Having said that, my blogging goal didn’t materialise the way I want it to be due to irregular writing habit. I write whenever I can because I didn’t want writing to becoming a self-imposed pressure. Inspiration does occur frequently but due to lack of regular writing, I didn’t manage to capture and put them to good use. Whenever I’m in the right mood to write, nothing comes through my mind. Instead, I procrastinate thinking too deep into topics my audience would prefer. For instance, this post took me 3 drafts to get started. This is an outcome of a writer who doesn’t practise writing discipline.
Polishing writing skills.
Practice makes perfect, just as a pilot’s experience corresponds to total flight hours he or she accrues. When I resumed writing after six months of break, the first line was the hardest to punch. I didn’t know how to start; writing itself was unusual and it didn’t come at ease. Inspiration was running wild in my head, but I couldn’t seem to start even with just the first word. My writing skills have rusted because I haven’t been writing.
Finding my niche.
Clock is ticking and life moves on. My motivation started with management writing and now I am not quite sure where I am heading. Corporate is a part of my life. Then, I am married to a chef and became a mother of two beautiful children. My perspectives change alongside my phases of life. Corporate life isn’t the only chapter. Being a chef’s wife and a mother twice have become a part of my chapters too. I feel lost in juggling among these three roles. I read work from other writers. If only I have keep up with writing, I could have found my niche a long time ago.
Regaining audience.
“Your voice is what makes your writing relatable”. – Kevin Nokia
Because I am all over the place, I’ve lost a fair bit of readers. Does my blog content today focuses more on management, motherhood, or chef’s wife perspectives? I am confused, let alone my readers. My voice is what makes my writing relatable. Since it is a mess, finding audience who can relate to my stories can be tricky. By writing consistently, I could have built robust content around these 3 pillars, explore and amplify the synergy between them over time, and make it relatable to my target audience.
No doubt social networking seems to be the quick fix to driving blog attraction. Social media pressure explains it all. Simultaneously, readers will only grow when there is engaging content that is worth of their time. Only with writing commitment and practice we can produce great content. Consistency matters in writing. Anything else can only go that far, because a blog will still be an empty shell without a good content.
Photo by Markus Winkler