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Nothing could be more frustrating than trying to recapture the fire that started and died a long time ago. In my case, the sequel to the first novel was completed shortly after the first book. In those times, I was a hungry wolf pursuing a calling that only by doing 'it' could appease; I was full of adrenalin, writing every day for 5 hours, fearing the momentum might dwindle if I stopped for a day. The result is an astonishing 32 chapter novel. That's 12 more chapters than the first.
While I'm happy with the pace of the output (I finished the 2nd book in 11 months), I wasn't so happy with the quality. The book had a lot of inconsistencies, purple proses, and horrid conversations. I cannot decide what magical powers to give to the characters and the villains sounded like a rehashed play from the first book. Clearly, I was getting the 'real' hang of being a writer.
And then one day, my worst fear came to light: the muse wasn't there anymore. I am left with the feeling of responsibility rather than the adrenalin rush when I first started writing. I didn't give up of course, which resulted to the third book's completion. I forced the writing to come, and it did. The bad thing was, the story was lacking inspiration, it rehashed the second novel's plot (that's when I realized I was obsessed with blood), and the characters didn't grow (I still don't want them to get hurt).
I was a reader first before I was writing, and I'd hate the 2nd and 3rd books; they didn't come close to the 1st novel's uniqueness. Dilemma then came: Should I rest and wait for the muse to return but will be losing a precious lot of time, OR, force the writing and produce a so-so result but can be polished later on? Instinctively, I followed the first choice, but I lost 4 years waiting for the 4th book to get started (which to this day didn't happen. damn muse). While I was progressing with the pages very well when I did the second option, I was dismayed by the quality. So what did I do?
I mixed the two things. I reinforced a writing schedule in my head after a week's rest, completing one chapter every week. As I waited for next week, I polish the finished pages, getting excited for the next one. Soon, your body will get used to it, mixing responsibility and adrenalin in an artistic productive way.
I gotta admit making a post these days is as difficult as washing those dishes on the next morning after a party. One of the reasons is having to look at the PageRank bar devoid of any green lines, which means I have to endure with Zero. Now don't get me wrong if I may have sounded putting too much emphasis on PageRanks. When my blog was at its peak back in 2009, I managed to rank 3, until the penalization comes in, sending me back to zero.
After making amends with Google and coming up with a new theme and posting interesting posts (to say the least) for weeks, I woke up this morning to see a green line in my PageRank battery, and it's 2! I refreshed the browser, and it keeps on coming back.
Upon the news, I checked my adsense, but it's still under review. I gotta say I need to be patient as generating money through adsense wasn't the main reason I blog (me joining adsense was the influence of my blogmates saying why not earn while posting your interests?).
So, for those bloggers penalized by Google but wanted to start anew again, here are 4 things you should be doing to get those green lines appearing in your PR meter again.
1. Post well-written original content. After learning about Google Panda's nasty temper, I was careful not to copy from my sources and rewrite data in a completely Critic's Choice way. Also, keywords used need not be repeated over countless times.
2. Put a disclaimer in your blog. Announce you don't own the media used in your posts, may it be videos or photos. Putting one will save you from copyrights claims and other messes.
3. Use Social media's power. Post your posts into your FaceBook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts and get exposure in an instant.
4. You don't need to post everyday, as surely you'll run out of gas eventually. You'd rather write long posts on a 3 times weekly basis, than a short 100-word post everyday. Remember Google likes well-though quality posts than mindless shorties for update's sake.
Following these easy tips will lift your blog from the wasteland and put you in ranking places only quality could make possible.
Yeah, nobody said it would be this hard.
