Reasons for pausing

Blogs, podcasts and TV series have reasons for pausing. Bloggers should have Seasons too. Then they could pause without anxiety or guilt.

Pretty often one of the personal bloggers I follow (hello you!) writes about their reasons for pausing their blog. Everyone has their reasons and they are all utterly understandable and — well— reasonable. For example:

• your circumstances change
• your reason for blogging changes and you need to rethink
• you have a health thing (not necessarily a crisis)
• there’s a technical hitch
• or it just stops being fun.

If it stops being fun for you, it stops being fun for others, too.

So take a break!

If you need one, take one. The moment you notice that blogging feels more like a duty than a pleasure.

It’s not a crime, it’s not a failure, it’s a break.

Audiences also need a break

Nobody expects podcasts and television series to carry on forever without pausing. That’s why they have seasons.

I think audiences also need a break. I can love a situation comedy or a Netflix show to bits — and still just stop watching at some point. It’s quite strange. I sit there and think, But I love this show! Why am I leaving it?

And you know what happens? Nothing. Time passes. You either go back to the show or you don’t. Does it matter? No. Is it funny? Not really. It’s not important enough to be funny.

Hey blogger! You can have seasons too

We don’t need to explain ourselves. Our reasons for pausing are valid, and while some people are happy to explain, we’re not obliged to do so.

I wish seasons were a thing for bloggers. I see people torturing themselves with guilt — just for being human. For setting impossible standards of regularity and quality. Everyone needs a holiday. Everyone gets tired of meeting deadlines they have set themselves.

Hey, you with a personal blog! You are amazing. You have been doing this brave, expressive, creative thing, month after month. You have been working very hard.

You don’t need a reason for pausing. Be kind to yourself. We will see you when you reappear.

That was me talking to myself about my podcast

I wonder if you noticed. I have retrospectively divided it into Seasons after realising I was treating my podcast like a blog, which goes on forever.

Season 1 consists of the first 50 episodes! (In case you wondered, that is a lot.) That was when I was just riffing on my own poems, for my own amusement. Then came a long break, more than a year.

Season 2 consists of the 16 episodes I have done this year. I’ve loved doing it!!! It’s exciting!!! (You know the feeling.) And then I found myself getting anxious, partly because of my self-imposed deadlines.

Then I remembered that most of the podcasts I follow have seasons. (Not all of them.) And I can too.

You don’t need any reason
for leaving your achieving.
If time is a-squeezing
don’t start appeasing
think about completion
and later later later
start another season

Are you the boss of your blog?

If not, you probably have a regular performance review.

If you are the boss of your own blog, you might want to stop and ask some questions about your blog. Because now’s a chance to look back at your goals. Are you still doing what you want to do? Now you can get back on course, or change course! Anything is possible. And interesting.

Now I’m pausing my typing

End of blog post! Reasons: I don’t need any. Except it’s time for lunch and I’m done.

It’s a blog. No sweating over every word. It was fun. Thanks for reading!

FInd my podcast, Learning How to Be Old, on Apple or Spotify or wherever. In today’s episode, I do that who-why-what thing — about the podcast. But there’s not much about my reasons for pausing, because we don’t need any, right?