“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I’ve decided to take a break from blogging. 

Several events lead to this decision, most of which have been summed up beautifully in the Slate article “Why I Shut Down my Blog” by bloggger-turned-writer Sarah Hepola. 

Here’s an exert:

“Blogging had been the ideal run-up to a novel, but it had also become a major distraction. I would sit down to start on my novel only to come up with five different blog entries. I thought of them as a little something-something to whet the palate—because it was easier, more immediately satisfying, because I could write it, and post it, and people would say nice things about it, and I could go to bed feeling satisfied. But then I would wake feeling less than accomplished because a blog wasn’t a whole story told from beginning to end. I had shelves lined with other people’s prose while my best efforts were buried on a Web site somewhere, underneath a lot of blah-blah about American Idol and my kitty cat.

I suspect I’ll come back to blogging eventually. It will be something I quit on occasion, like whiskey and melted cheese, when the negative effects outweigh the benefits. Practically every blogger I know has taken their site down at some point—for personal reasons, for business reasons, for boredom reasons. It’s no different from the way we have to turn off our cell phones or stop checking e-mail so that we can actually focus on something.”

I’ve realized over the last month or so that so long as I continually distract myself with blogging (and Twittering, Facebooking) I’ll never finish my book.  And I’ve been wanting to write one since I was three-years-old.  I’ve wanted to write a book more than I’ve ever wanted to get married or fly to the moon or meet Johnny Depp.  This book has been on the back of my ‘to-do’ pile for the past five years and was one of the major factors behind my decision to move out to Vegas.  I need to finish it.  Even if I have to self-publish it on Amazon and the only people who read it are my dad and old babysitter, I don’t care.  At this point, just finishing it will be accomplishment enough.

Like Sarah (who’s now blogging again by the way) I’ll probably come back to the blog eventually.  I mean, I’ve quit this blog before (remember summer of ’09?).  I guess I love writing about myself too much to stay away forever.

I’ll be sure to give you an update from time to time (so please subscribe if you haven’t already) and I will of course, let ya know as soon as the book hits stores (how’s that for a positive affirmation?). 

Until then, you can always find me blabbing away in my weekly column on Rumbum or on Twitter.   : )

Ciao for now amigos,

Reannon

Reannon Muth

Reannon Muth is a full-time writer, social media consultant and owner and manager of the Taken by the Wind travel blog. Born in Hawaii, Reannon has lived in five countries, at Disney World and on a cruise ship. She currently lives in fabulous Las Vegas.