Going Gray

Underwhelmed to Overwhelmed Blogging Experience

Shelley

Underwhelmed with writing a blog post lately? Underwhelmed with my silly posts of late? Now, that I’ve got us both nodding our heads, YES, I have the perfect cure to get us back to being overwhelmed with joy.

LOL. Just kidding. Maybe not kidding, we’ll see.

Seriously, though, I’ve been pondering those underwhelmed feelings.

I’ve been to the point of being frazzled and frizzed out on my blogging efforts. Many times in the last couple of years. I wonder why I’ve felt down?

A woman who lives with the stress of an overwhelmed schedule will often ache with the sadness of an underwhelmed soul.

Lisa TerKeurst

Oh, well, I must admit, not every day is a good hair day. The day is what it is, and feeling unmotivated even if I walked 3 miles in the humidity, I can still write something, right?

The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.

Hunter S. Thompson

When those feelings happen, I look back to find an underwhelming response to a post I wrote back in the day when I first started blogging about my going gray naturally journey. (Yeah, that WAS a run-on sentence!) Re-use or recycle or just read it for fun.

What? Why go back and look at lame attempts at your craft you ask? Because it’s fun.

No one read the post at the time. At least for me, that’s a fun fact to remember. I was all alone, clawing my way to the top of a wild and lonely blogging experience.

I remember being overwhelmed by my blogging experience back then, but it was dang fun to be in uncharted territories.

Some people are overwhelmed, some people are underwhelmed…why isn’t anyone ever just whelmed?

Author unknown

I wrote from the heart, maybe a bit more than I do now. When I looked back, it took me 38 revisions before I pressed publish. (I know you don’t want to click away yet, but when you’re ready to read it, click here.)

With passion, I poured my heart out in exposing myself to you the readers, the early stages of going gray, and the steps I took to spoil myself, aka, to pamper my insecure self. I didn’t have COVID as my excuse to go gray.

The post above was when I experimented with the shampoo routine that I wrote about last week. I can’t imagine why no one commented on the previous post. 🤣

I later uncovered the reason wasn’t just that no one saw the post, as I had assumed, it was that I had my comment settings wrong in WP and my theme. I had inexperience going for me in multiple ways. And, in case you did take the challenge to go back and read the post, you found that you still can’t comment on it. That’s because when I merged the two blogs together I had to choose the setting that leaves a post open for comments for only 30 days.

Back then, I couldn’t wait to write a post. I had so many thoughts to share and I craved to share the experiences with my readers. That consisted of maybe 2 people fighting over who could read it first.

I think the early posts were actually written under my original blog title of Good Graycious. I still own the URL, but I changed the name to Quaint Revival later. You’d think I’d remember the exact dates? Nope, I guess the experience of changing blog titles, and blog themes, and losing both in a WP upgrade was a lot to process. I survived the underwhelming experience of all of that by adopting a free theme from WP.

It was a hot mess to deal with for me at the time.

I persevered though, with the determination of a rogue wasp.

I’m thankful for the rough patches and the borderless freedoms of personal blogging that have kept me going.

With unlimited topics, it can feel overwhelming. It’s important to fine-tune the focus. Right?

I look for the ideas that survive the scoundrel thoughts that steal my writing spirit.

I wait patiently for the undercover moments to burst out and bloom with one beautiful idea that captures the attention of those that matter most. YOU!

I definitely learned to be okay with not being perfect. 38 revisions before publishing may or may not be a thing of the past.

Whether I’m feeling underwhelmed or overwhelmed, I choose to look both UP

and DOWN…to find something to write about. To this day, the #1 searched post of mine is this one about my favorite dew drop quotes. There is something intriguing about dew drops.

I welcome every sunrise

. . .and, of course, I welcome the chance to connect with you here in the blogosphere! Thank you for being here!

Now to all of us, go create something you enjoy writing about before the hammer falls on our creativity!

Let your ideas rise up and sparkle in the hearts and minds of your friends.

Post Inspiration: Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday starts with “u.” Find a word that starts with the letter “u” and use it however you’d like. Bonus points if it’s the first word in your post. Enjoy!

PS – Has anything underwhelmed or overwhelmed you lately? What is your favorite way to do a pick-me-up day? What is your favorite way to spark your writing moments? Have you ever been stung by a wasp? Don’t worry, I didn’t get stung, but that small nest was full of feisty wasps.

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

60 thoughts on “Underwhelmed to Overwhelmed Blogging Experience”

  1. I like your line: “It’s important to fine-tune the focus.” Lately, as in the last month when I wasn’t here, that’s what I’ve been attempting to do with my blog, my time, my expectations. Focus on what, and who, matters.

    I’ve wondered about that “whelm” question, too, btw. I certainly go back and forth between over and under, just looking for your basic “whelm.” Why are they so difficult to find.

    1. Hi Ally – it’s great to see you back blogging. I’m always impressed by how those breaks help you fine-tune your blog. Your comeback post was fun to read – I love how you gather data about your readers.
      I often wonder if we bloggers know we’ve written about things before and then think we can’t reuse that information for fear of boring our followers? I feel as though I miss a nugget or two that could become a whelm to use? LOL.
      As always, I appreciate your comments, they make me think and SMILE!

      1. Years ago there was a popular blogger, whose name I’ve forgotten, who stated in her sidebar that she repeated herself. Her point was that she knew this, so don’t point it out to me. Liked her attitude. 😁

        1. Thanks for sharing – I’m smiling, that’s a clever idea. Repeats happen. Too bad she’s no longer blogging.

  2. Enjoyed your recap kind of post – and so many little takeaways about creative flow and inspiration and the way it can wane, get fed, lift us, leave us, come in back – etc!
    And your photos were placed so nicely within the text – which is likely a mark of your experience now and seems a comfort zone for you
    –
    And wondering how you knew it was 38 revisions? My posts stop counting at 25…. ?

    1. Hi Yvette! Thank you, I’m glad you found nuggets in this post to consider.
      I enjoy using photos – I couldn’t figure out what I’d use those beetle photos for, they seemed to fit, so I ran with them.
      Silly, isn’t it, but my older posts in my paid version of WP (i.e., WP.org) does keep count of the revisions, no matter how many. I used to challenge myself to do it in less revisions as time went on, now I don’t do that so much. I just go until I feel like it’s good enough. 😉
      Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hope you have a great week.

  3. It’s always fun to tag along as your mind wanders, Shelley. I don’t often get under/overwhelmed with/by things. Life is too short, and things seem to always work themselves out. The worst encounter I had with wasps was when I disturbed a next while on a ladder. It’s hard to fun. I was stung several times.

    1. Thanks, Dan. Excellent advise about balance and not getting too stressed about things.
      Yikes – wasp encounter on a ladder, not a good mix. I’m glad you survived the encounter so you could write another book in your series!!

      1. They actually got in behind my safety glasses. I was stung just under my right eye. Quick thinking by my wife helped immensely. She plastered me (literally) with some clay-based drawing mask material used for facials. It kept the swelling down and in about 30 minutes, it was like I hadn’t been stung.

        1. Yikes – that’s a scary place to get stung! Whew for the quick thinking of the Editor. Glad you she had access to the mask material and that it worked so well and so fast!

    2. Wasps encounters are numerous nowadays.
      Some are friendly, others worse.
      I like wasps that lives in the ground.
      I don’t want to bother or kill them, They are living with or without us, so …

      1. I’ve heard several people in our area that have been stung by the wasps lately. My friend sent a picture of her swollen hand. And one of my co-workers ended up in the ER because her EPI pen had expired. We’ve been lucky. When we first moved into our house, or maybe the second year, we had a colony of very large hornets move into the tunnel system of the ground squirrels. They were vicious to us as we’d walk across the yard. We had to call an exterminator because the hive was so dangerous to us. Normally, we like to take the ‘if you leave us alone and do your own thing’ to critters/bugs, we’re happy to let them live and thrive.

        1. Not being allergic is a blessing. Last month, I had swollen hand too. Harmest at work when I could only be left-handed. After 3 sick days, betamethasone ointment and prednisolone tablets saved me.

  4. I think all of us that have been blogging a long time have had periods when we wonder if there’s a point to it all. I go back and read some of my first posts and I like most of them and am sort of sad I had so few (1) readers back then. But of course I really blog for me. And that’s enough.

    1. You know exactly what we’re feeling! And…I see you’re off taking a fun break, I can’t wait to read/see the reveal of the fun you had. 😁

  5. Shelley, you are not alone with the underwhelming blogging feeling. I’ve had that before, when I feel I don’t have anything to write about. Cats again? Biking again? Are my readers rolling their eyes? This past spring and summer, I haven’t been blogging regularly due to my busy-ness and I finally decided that was okay. Sometimes it’s good to step back and revive the writing mojo by doing other things.

    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Mary. Your idea of not being regular sounds pretty good to me. Cats and biking and the fun that goes with both are great topics that never tire.
      Writing every day was ‘easier’ in a sense, as it took less time to write a post. I think? I can’t remember. LOL.
      I appreciate your advice to step back and revive by doing other things. Especially for us here in WI – we know that white stuff isn’t that far off and then we’ll be back to wishing for warmer weather.
      Enjoy your week, I have a hunch Hoshi will provide you with a laugh or two and some blogworthy material. I love that her and Gibbs are getting along and napping together!

  6. Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed with the feeling that I need to post more (my brother just emailed me to tell me to get going) and underwhelmed with ideas. Oh well… I wrote quite a few posts at the beginning that almost no one read. I was over-the-moon when I got my first comment and follower. I love the title of your old blog (Good Graycious) but I can see where you might have thought it too limiting.

    1. Hi Janis, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’ve always admired your thoughts about personally blogging and not putting too many restrictions on your posting schedule. When the family emails us, that’s a gentle nudge to post, right? 😉
      I think those early posts are to get us into the groove. I remember that feeling of, “Really, I got a comment, oh, my, I’m so excited, now what do I do…that’s awesome, I’m scared, what do I do?”
      Thanks, at the time I loved the title, it came to me on a brainstorming walk. I have to still own it and own the current blog url at the same time through my current hosting company. It’s part of the original purchase so at least I own it in my heart for as long as I keep paying the blog hosting fees 🙂
      Hmm…you sparked an idea, maybe I need to do an occasional Good Graycious type of post?! 😉
      Happy Blogging to you – I look forward to your next post.

  7. A blog is a blog is a blog, just do it and who cares. Just write and have a diary of what happens. Are you over that shed across the road yet?

    1. Yes, you’re wise and right! I do like the diary part of blogging. And seeing how life has changed over the years.
      Aw, I love that you remember the lack of love for the shed across the road. They’re trying to clean up the lot so it looks less rough around the edges, but I definitely miss the better looking sunrises when it wasn’t there! 😍

  8. Ecrire pour partager c’est mon credo. Si personne me lit, je me suis exprimée malgré tout.
    Si je ne vois rien d’intéressant à partager, je me tiens au bord de la route.
    Pouvoir s’exprimer librement est un luxe de nos jours.

    1. Hi Anne, thank you for sharing your inspiring thoughts. You’re right, it is a luxury to be able to express ourselves freely. I translated to share here: Writing to share is my credo. If no one reads me, I have spoken out anyway. If I don’t see anything interesting to share, I stand by the side of the road. Being able to express oneself freely is a luxury these days.

  9. There’s so much to learn when you first start blogging and since they are always changing things, you have to keep learning. ‘ haven’t been very inspired for the past few days. Bleh. I hate August! Love the photos!

    1. Your comment made me chuckle…I remember watching a few videos back when I started, “You can set up a blog in 10 minutes!” LOL – yeah, that’s not true at all.
      August blues…is it because it’s so hot in August for you? I hope you find your way back to writing again. It’s okay to take breaks that’s for sure.
      Thank you for sharing your thoughts!!

  10. Hmm – I think of you as an old pro Shelley – no offense re: the word “old” as I have quite a few years more on earth than you do. I do not feel your posts are underwhelming … to the contrary, as I like to see where your prompts take you. I have never used the prompts, but that is because my blog is mostly about walking so the post kind of writes itself based on the experience that day. Quite honestly, will I still be blogging about walks at 90? What will I write about then? Maybe I should say “100” not “90” as Joanne, the woman on the walker that rolls along the Bishop Park boardwalk every day, is doing her miles from her senior complex apartment building and along the Detroit River. If I did not have walks with photos to spin into posts, or certain life events or holidays which I reflect/write about, I’m quite sure I’d be at a loss to come up with constant fodder to sustain a blog. Case in point: I wrote my initial, very long post, on 02/11/13, then two posts of quotations only, then a post to say I didn’t walk as it snowed. Heady stuff! And in the past I wrote more about squirrels, but have tried to stray from them as I will photograph them and write more about them freezing their bums off in the Winter months when I don’t get to big parks as often as I do in the nicer weather.

    1. Aw, Linda, thank you for your words of encouragement. I’ve always been impressed that you’ve found your blogging groove and that you’ve been growing your blog by means other than prompts. Prompts are fun, but, like you stated, they may take us on a route contrary to what we may have wanted to write about that day.
      I think you’ve continued to grow in your writing and photography, that’s a good thing. Plus your blog gets you out walking which is as healthy for you as being creative!

      1. You are welcome Shelley … taking one word and spinning out a blog post is not easy I wouldn’t think. I’ve never done it before. Yes, the walks are good and as I near end of Summer, I feel sad, despite all my complaints about the heat and humidity, because down the long road that lies ahead, are even less desirable days.

        1. The prompts come in handy when other ideas are absent from my brain 🤣😂
          Yeah, we’ve been talking about the fall feel to the mornings, we are NOT ready for winter yet. We’ll have to encourage each other to enjoy the fall as much as possible!

          1. I believe that … they make you have use your brain to respond to the prompt. Wednesday morning it was a little misty and I always wear a mask to the park and my glasses were fogging up and this morning I walked one mile at the Park, then went grocery shopping. Between the angle of the sun now and the mistiness from last night’s rain, my glasses were fogging up something fierce this morning … walking I couldn’t see anything and driving was no picnic either. Good thing I was only going 1 1/2 miles to the grocery store. The store had all their Fall plantings out … lots of mums. Next it will be scarecrows. We’re doomed.

          2. Yes, they do. Linda had a repeat prompt, and I was surprised to look back to see I wrote about the same topic for the same prompt. LOL!
            Yikes, the foggy glasses mode is not fun. Do you still have mask mandates in MI?
            I know…it’s hard to believe the fall stuff is already out in the stores. Mr. went to pick up a couple of things and the store was packed with school supply shoppers.
            Fall is hear sooner than we hoped!

          3. That’s funny – sometimes I think I have a fun title for a new post and search for it and see I’ve already used it and once I used it multiple times – oops!

            I was surprised about the foggy glasses already and that sun was strong that day – made it 10X worse. We don’t have a mask mandate right now, but it is suggested you wear a mask in a crowded indoor setting, especially stores – outside venues it is not necessary. I always wear a light surgical mask to anywhere I’m going except the store, then I wear an N-95 masks. Our stats are high for COVID – one day last week there were a lot of deaths … can’t recall the stat and I want to say 100 (though that sounds too high). I am just being very careful but I was always really careful in the Winter during flu season as well.

          4. LOL – great ideas and titles linger because they’re good!

            Foggy glasses are no fun. I’m happy to read you’re being careful and taking care of yourself 🤗🤗🤗

  11. P.S. – I loved all the photos, but the dewy grass the best – it reminded me a little of the year-long badge you had for Stream-of-Consciousness Saturday.

      1. That is exciting Shelley – you should be proud of that fact. I thought it was just for a year when you wrote about it, so Linda really liked it!

        1. While I appreciate the compliment. I have a hunch that she does like the badge, however, with all the pandemic stuff and her writing it was too busy of a time to host a challenge to change up the badge. 🙂

  12. Are you a mind reader? Or maybe just a mood reader? I have sort of the opposite “problem.” Too much to write about if I ever put in the effort to buckle down and apply myself and actually do it!
    In my own defense, though, and based on our shared early WP experiences, it takes so much time and effort to get a post to look and read “just right”. I get so mentally exhausted in the process that I end up with nothing to show for it!

    1. Aw, I know those feelings as well. I appreciate you sharing them, thank you.
      I have found a simple groove on writing a post on Sundays. I sometimes start the post on Saturday and wait until Sunday to publish. Sometimes I just write it Sunday morning. It’s hard for me to imagine writing a blog post everyday now.
      Happy writing to you – hang in there and write from the heart!

    1. Hi Jaya, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Yes, blogging is a pretty wavy ride!

      On a side note, I tried to comment on your blog but it didn’t work. Here’s what I tried to share:

      Hi Jaya – thank you for sharing this heart-warming review. I’ll have to add this book to my TBR list I have growing for the winter months. Thanks too for stopping by to read my blog post about the ups and downs of blogging. Happy writing to you, it looks like words come easily to you :-). Oh, and in case you’ve yet to meet Rebecca, I’m thinking you two would hit it off on the literary front. Check her out at https://rustbeltgirlblog.wordpress.com/

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