On blogging apathy, or what to do when you just don't feel like blogging

Through the Blog Herald, a link to an article by Darren Rowse at Problogger. This article takes Mr. Rowse's earlier series and puts it all in one distilled page. It has some excellent suggestions for ideas and tips to get the creative juices flowing and keep bloggers motivated. Some are things I already do, but there are plenty others I can learn and try to implement. Some useful suggestions include:

• Starting a series where you can pick a larger topic and break it down to explore it over a week. For an example of this, take a look at the series on MLS success over at the Wanderings of a Student Librarian. This definitely looks like something I could experiment with sometime. I just have to avoid the excuse of "when will I have the time to put X or Y together."
  
• Revisit old posts. The author writes that a blogger can often update posts, revisit them, repost them with additional commentary, and come back to old stream thoughts, maybe with a new idea? I know this was always one of my reasons to keep a personal journal and now a blog, so I could back and look at things. At times, I may feel like "eww, I can't believe I wrote that," but other times I can say, "wow, that is great stuff, but now we need to look at such and such."
  
• Write posts ahead of time and keep an idea journal. Both of these are great ideas. One thing that works for me using Blogger is to save ideas as drafts. Having them on the cue reminds me that I need to finish them to post, plus, it allows me to make little notes to expand later. It's kind of like stocking up. As for the idea journal, that's what the personal journal is for.
  
• Develop a posting schedule. Now, here I have to admit that I have not put much thought. I just post as things catch my interest. I think my humble goal is one a day during the week. Weekends I see as a bonus. Now, I have days I put more than one item, and days I don't post, but I usually manage to do some posts (3 to 5) a week. I know, not big in the scheme of things, but a start. I may have to think over this suggestion some more.
  
• Read other's blogs. I think this goes without saying. One can learn a lot from seeing how other people do it. I would add to this read, read, read. Read books, magazines, online sources, etc. Anything to get the ideas rolling and to learn something new.
  

Mr. Rowse has more ideas, but I think these are some good examples. So, go over, read and make some notes, then get back to that blog. And yes, taking a break is ok as well. All writers should be able to step back and just enjoy the scenery.