Hello!

In January last year, I knew I’d planned a big year on my YouTube channel – in 2015 I’d blogged every day for a year and in 2016 I was going to film my life every day and then edit it into these huge monthly vlogs and it was going to be a huge challenge but I was really excited for it. At that point, I had no intention of taking a year off from making any other kind of content on my channel.

Then I uploaded a video that I was ashamed to upload – it was how to make this pasta bake that I used to make all the time and I think I might try to remake that video sometime because I can definitely do it so much better than I did but I uploaded that one video and I hated it. The next Sunday, when it came to making another video, I just didn’t. And the next Sunday the same.

All of a sudden I decided I wasn’t making any videos outside the monthly vlogs in 2016.

And it was the best decision I could have made.

In the two years before that, I’d had no trouble coming up with video ideas – when I was away in Ecuador, I had 9 videos scheduled and I had no problem thinking of ideas or motivating myself to make or edit them. But uni made it more difficult to make videos and I just slumped.

I wasn’t too worried about my channel dying because I was still uploading the monthly vlogs and I was very lucky that I didn’t actually loose too many subscribers in the process.

By June or July in 2016, I was ready to start making videos again. I didn’t at that point because I didn’t want to interrupt the nice pattern of the months I had on my channel so I didn’t rush it. Around August, after I attended Summer in the City (the UK’s biggest YouTube convention!) and at that point I was so ready to start creating again.

I picked up my little YouTube notebook – the same one that I planned my very first video in back in 2013, and I wrote down January 1st ‘why I had a year off YouTube’. Over the rest of 2016, I planned six months of videos, uploading one a week and I’m actually really excited.

I uploaded my first video on January 1st and now I have an upload day and an upload time and it literally makes my tummy do excited flips whenever I think about making more videos over the rest of the year.

One of the biggest announcements from YouTubers I watch last year was Shay Carl announcing he’s taking a year off YouTube – the family vlogger and his wife sat down in their car in the twenty minute announcement video and he said the reason he started was because he wanted to see if he could keep it up for a week, then a month then a year. Now the challenge for him is going to be not doing it for a year.

This announcement really stuck with me, I’m not sure why because it’s the opposite of what I want to do but it really inspired me to be proud of what I make, because I don’t want to upload content I’m ashamed of ever again.

Sometimes forcing yourself to make stuff can really help kickstart creativity but sometimes a break is really what you need.

My new video for this week went up today at 6pm and, as long as I keep on top of things, videos will be going up every Friday for the considerable future!

If you wanted to go over to my channel and subscribe that would mean an awful lot to me, give the video a like and leave a comment to let me know you came over from my blog too!

Comment question for today – are there any ‘smaller’ YouTubers that you’re a massive fan of? Let me know down in the comments! My friend Dean, who I met at Summer in the City, has an amazing channel and I love watching his videos so you should check him out too.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

 

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