I started writing this entry Saturday evening wile sitting outside on the terrace, enjoying the last glass of bourbon from a Buffalo Trace bottle. Anniken asked me what I was doing, and I told her what I was writing. The natural follow up question would be what I was writing about, but she already knew: “Are you writing one of those lame stories every blogger writes; about how they have not been writing for a while? If you’re going to write something, find something to actually write about, nobody cares about the “I haven’t written anything for a while because of work”-stories”.

Little did I know my girlfriend was an authority in the this-is-what-people-want-to-read-on-the-internet-department, but I learn something new every day. Personally, I tend to semi-regularly check blogs I’ve been reading that has disappeared off the grid to see if they are back and kicking. One example is Daniel Bogan’s waferbaby, which surfaces now and then, only to slowly wither away again and disappear into the abyss once more. Another example is Whence who went offline years ago. But I still check every now and then to see if she’s back.

But Anniken might have a point, though. Maybe people don’t give a rats ass about what I’m about to write. Or anything I write, for that matter. If that’s the case, you can safely stop reading right now. If not, your’re more that welcome to read on.

It’s been awfully quiet around here for a while now. A writing hiatus is not a unusual thing for me to have, I’ve had one pretty much every year since I started to write back in 2002. But the length of the hiatus varies a lot, from a couple of weeks to a month or two. And this time it feels like I’m heading for a long break. The main reason for this is the usual hiatus excuse: I’m not motivated to write anything, and if I sit down to force myself to write it reads just like that: Unmotivated. Uninteresting. Unimaginative. And who wants to read something written by someone who has to force it? Not me. And even though the number of readers here are low and ever decreasing, I’m sure the few of you who actually pop in from time to time don’t enjoy reading forced, apathetic and stale writing.

I’m usually going on a literary break for a mix of many reasons, ranging from the lack of time to write to me just generally having a bad time. Over the years I’ve also gone from writing small entries to walls of text (at least by comparison) and sitting down for an hour or two to write something that’s supposed to be entertaining takes its toll. This year, I think one of two main reasons for the hiatus is work. I’m far, far away from the crazy work hours back in the Rubberduck Media Lab days, but I’m still putting in a few hours overtime and a lot of mental effort at the farm and that effectively kills my desire to crack out paragraph after paragraph of what I try to make compelling and enjoying material.

The other main reason is the A Picture A Day project. There are a few things happening that I could write about, but I feel that when I’ve posted the picture, the story is told. And the picture more often than not is the most intriguing thing that happened today. Some of you will probably find that outright sad, but when I post a picture of a cup of coffee or worn out bike breaks, that usually is the most interesting thing that happened that day. Let’s just say things are rather ordinary around here.

But all that said, though, me writing about taking a break often results in the break being over. We’ll see how that works out this year.