I feel that with how slow things have been here recently, I owe our readers a bit of an explanation — hence the State of the Chains Address.

First, my apologies for no poll this week. I am skipping it this week and it will return this upcoming Monday. I’m low on ideas for polls and have received a few ideas, so I need to get them all ready to go.

As for how things have been…

One thing about this site — and the writers — is we came out of the gates without any pace. By that I mean we had many ideas and stories and we just kept putting them out day after day. We tried a few things and when they didn’t work too well, we scaled it back or replaced it. Things were good.

For those of you who write, you might see where this is going.

It’s one thing to blog, it’s another when it’s a niche topic. I have a personal blog on top of Rattling Chains. At times, it’s much easier for me to whip out stories there because it covers a variety of topics. Here, it’s disc golf.

And when you are writing so many things on one topic, it can become stale. With that comes the thing a writer dreads — writer’s block.

There are times when I just don’t feel like writing about disc golf. I love the sport. I love all aspects of it. But I stare at the screen. I have ideas. And I have stuff from interviews with personalities from all over the disc golf spectrum.

But I can’t get anywhere.

Part of the issue is the lack of playing, without a doubt. It’s been weeks since I played a legit round. See, there’s no real course near me. I have to travel 1:20 to play at a decent course. And with gas as it is and everything else, it’s sometimes hard to slip away and play. Mainly because if you travel that far, playing 36 is more in line than playing 18.

I’ve thrown here and there and putted sometimes, but field work can only be done so much. Therefore, being disconnected from the sport some has made it hard to concentrate on writing about the sport.

Further, it’s summer. Mix everything in with softball, other hobbies and certain other aspects going wacky in my life and I’m spent.

The other guys on staff have things going on as well. Between jobs or relocating or life, things got in the way.

I blame much of this on me. See, when we started, my goal was 3-4 posts per week. But we were doing seven or more. By doing that, we weren’t building a queue of stories. That put more pressure on us to produce at a high level each and every day.

Since then, we’ve scaled back.

Even still, it’s tough. We’re not reaching as many readers as I’d like and we’re doing this because we love disc golf and writing. Mix the two together, it’s perfect.

The future

We’re not going anywhere.

The reason there hasn’t been a post here in five days is because I was thinking long and hard about this site and where I see it going. As the founder of this site, I feel like I have the pressure of deciding its future. We’re entering our fifth month and I think we’ve provided strong and well-done disc golf content.

I don’t see that ending.

For a while, though, it might stay slow. I’m going to attempt to keep us on a 3-4 posts per week schedule. We have a staff of excellent writers and have been talking to another couple of people who are interested in joining us.

We’ll continue to bring the best content we can, whether it be stories, photos or video.

And, as always, we’re more than interested in hearing ideas, thoughts or comments. Feel free to leave them in the comments section below or e-mail me.

Allow me to thank the readers for sticking it out with us. We’re going to get back on track. It took a burn out to make me realize that doing a free blog without the plan of making any money should be fun — not a job. If it loses the enjoyment, then why do it?

Like disc golf, this is fun. I love to write. So do the others on staff. And we all love disc golf.

This is just a bump. We’ll be back and be looking to have some fun. I have some good stuff to give away, too.

Speaking of which…

If you’ve won anything from us in the past month or so, it will be coming. I have most everything packaged, but I just haven’t taken things to the post office. IF you haven’t received what you won, feel free to shoot an e-mail with your address and what you were expecting so I can double-check everything before sending sometime this week.

Thanks to all and keep on rattling those chains!

If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj [at] rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!