Burnout

I notice that I have only blogged one other time in the month of October.   I read that there is such a thing as blogger burnout.  I believe that I am suffering from that.  Blogging has been such a great 'writer's outlet'.   This December,  I will mark five years as a blogger,  assuming that I don't go up in flames completely before then.

I took a cursory look back and noticed that I have blogged anywhere from 2 to 25 times in a month.  The 25 times was in January 2010.  That was early on, and I was probably aiming for blogging every day.   It was also the dead of winter, and I was no doubt entertaining myself so that I would not be bored.

I don't quite know what to make of my blogger burnout.   Also,  I don't have any other writing project waiting to happen at the moment.  So maybe it is overall writer's burnout.  Maybe I have done everything I want to do,  am supposed to do, and my writing days are over.

Or else, I am in the waiting mode for the next project to present itself.   Ah, that's exactly what I'll say if anyone asks.   I am waiting for the next inspiration.

Another thing I have discovered is that I really like to write mostly for myself.  Opening myself up to public scrutiny is definitely not something I relish.   The one exception to that is with sermons. Those I DO relish opening myself up for publicly. I think that is because deep inside I don't think those are about me, but about the message.

With my second novel, the sequel Christina, the truth is that I have wanted to "keep that for myself".  I feel very protective about those characters.  I do not want them subject to criticism or being torn apart.  I have not really wanted to discuss that book with anyone.  I did it for me.

And how stupid is that?  What does that tell me?   Perhaps that being a writer is not for me!

So that's where I am---thinking that perhaps I am done with my writing thing.  It certainly has been a great run, though, I'll tell you that!   I won first place for writing in the community arts challenge I entered a few years back.   I gave six book talks in various places on In Its Time.   I wrote a sequel.

I have written an entire book of biblical monologues.  I have written poetry all my life.  In the past couple of years, I have written lyrics for two anthems, composed by an incredibly talented musician and performed by a marvelously talented choir.  In December,  an entire Christmas Cantata will be performed, to which I wrote the words.

Maybe that will be the absolute pinnacle and I simply cannot ever top that!

(Although I could blog about it!)