Why I won’t stop blogging

It breaks my heart when book-blogging suddenly becomes negative.

Over recent months, there’s been the debate about tagging authors. Others seem to be under the assumption there’s a monetary value in reviewing books, or that our thoughts aren’t valid just because we’re bloggers.

This is not the first time that I’ve had overwhelming doubts about whether I should stay with it. I work hard to keep to a schedule, planning what to read and when, sometimes at the risk of losing my enjoyment of the actual reading.

It was almost too much this time. I’d lose my blog as a whole if I stopped reviewing. While wallowing in self-doubt though, I suddenly started thinking about why I do this…

Photo by Ella Jardim on Unsplash

Blogging Rant!

Having a break from blogging also meant having a break from social media: I went quiet on the internet. I figured it would do me good and it would still be there when I got back.

What I wasn’t expecting, however, was to come back to massive arguments everywhere! What happened in those few months that I missed? There are posts all over Twitter with bloggers either telling others how to blog or informing them they don’t count as a blog if they aren’t a certain size, etc. Or equally heated posts arguing the opposite and everyone should be able to blog how they desire.

I’m on the side of the latter: everyone who has an active blog is a blogger, regardless of their content or the amount of times they can publish a post. Life gets in the way; not everyone can keep the same schedule or engage in the same way.

Back to Blogging!

Look who is getting herself back in the blogging business?

I apologise for the lack of posts and interaction over the last couple of months. As you may be aware from previous posts, I have just undertaken a MA. It’s been the most intense year of my life, juggling working part-time and commuting to university as well as studying. I reached a point where I was enjoying writing the reviews, but everything else had lost its fun. I couldn’t decide what additional posts to do, I didn’t have time to watch the films I wanted to review and promoting the posts just saw me falling further and further behind.

I decided to take a break. It was the right thing to do: I was stressed out enough as it was without adding a hectic blogging schedule into the mix. A couple of weeks ago (just as I started getting myself organised again!) I realised how much I was missing blogging and now feel that I am ready to give it my all once and again.

Why Did I Start Blogging?

I’ve been thinking about my blog a lot lately. I’m hoping to work in the Publishing industry, in particular as a publicist. As such, keeping my blog fresh and active is important, justifying keeping it going while I am studying and work is getting on top of me and I have no time!

But it got me thinking about how and why I started. I’ve been blogging for about three years now, although it has only been the last year that I’ve spent a lot of time and effort on my blog – engaging on social media, that sort of thing, rather than just the posts.

At heart, I am a reviewer. That is how I started blogging and I still love doing it now. But how did it all begin?

Up and Coming: March

It has been so lovely getting back on track with blogging. I have a real buzz for it at the moment.

Or maybe that is just procrastination from uni work?

Between ARC’s, charity books, library books, borrowed books and re-reads, the number of books I have waiting to be read right now is insane. One book at a time, right? It’s the same with shows – too many to catch up on!

February was a fun month for reviews – I read and watched some really good things. How about you?

Hopefully, March will be the same!

Here’s what I have planned:

5 Steps To Organising Blog Posts

Blogging can be a time consuming job. That’s fine if you have all the time you need to read or watch the review material, take and edit pictures and then write the content. But when you have either university or a job (both which I have experienced while blogging), organisation becomes key.

When I first started blogging, I reviewed everything I could get my hands on. It meant I could have up to six months of reviews scheduled. That might sound great in theory (even to me now as I race to get the reviews done in time), but it doesn’t work. It leaves no flexibility for new releases and makes it hard for me personally to react to the review when it goes live because I scarcely remember writing it.

Up and Coming: July

I’m trying not to think about how it is that time of the month again. No, not that time, blogging time. Post planning, tweet timetabling and book bookings. The time where I look back at how the last month has gone (good blog wise, you honestly don’t want to know otherwise) and think about what is up and coming for the summery month of July.

With any luck, some nice weather. A few weeks hardly makes a summer, I’m bored of the rain and cold now. With even more luck, things starting to go my way a little, but more on that will be revealed in my Dear Diary post coming later this month.

How about entertainment wise? What’s on the agenda in that front?

Up and Coming: June

Here we are again, another month gone by. It has been a month of watching and reading, of writing and planning. All in all, I’m feeling in quite a steady position which is rather nice. For too many weeks I was scrambling to get blog posts sorted, but now I am feeling organised. I’m definitely planning on making the most of it while I can!

To be honest, it hasn’t been the best month. I’ve got a lot going on at that moment, so having this to focus on is making such a difference when it comes to keeping me grounded. So it’s that time to take a look at what I have planned for this next month!

New Year’s Resolutions

Happy Birthday, me!

Well, happy birthday to my blog, for it was this time last year that I nervously hit publish on my first ever post.

What a year it has been.

I feel like I have learnt so much about my style as a blogger and the type of posts that I enjoy writing. I’ve learnt how bad I am at taking pictures and how much of a fluster I get myself in when it comes to not getting posts scheduled on time. And I’ve loved every minute of it.

Why blog?

Last week I wrote a post on what I do to get myself ready for the week ahead. Admittedly it was mainly based on beauty type events, but they mean so much more than that. It is my way of making myself feel a little better, to know that I have taken the time out to look after me for an evening and prepare myself both physically and mentally for the upcoming week.

I know that sounds a dramatic way of looking at it. But when life is a mixture of being ill, feeling down or generally not having much confidence in who you are, it is amazing what taking an evening to look after yourself can do.

So I wanted to take this post one step further. To look at why I do it. Why I take the time out to go to an extreme with skin care. Or rather, why I then blogged about it. Why am I blogging at all?

For me, it all started off because of the reviews. I fell in love with doing it and knew that I needed a platform to promote my work. This isn’t the first blog they have been published on. But I moved sites because I wanted to take it a step further. Rather than just writing a rambling post – mainly based on fan things – of what I had done each week, I wanted to do it properly. I’ve had a little guidance, so now I’m just having fun!

The beauty posts were the first way I branched out from reviews. I’m highly interested in make-up, skincare products, nail varnishes, that sort of thing. I could never write tutorials because I have such a lack of ability. But I’m interested in it in general and like to talk about the products I’m using. I’ve found myself eagerly reading other people’s posts and getting inspiration for my look from them, so basically wanted to return the favour, even if no one ends up reading it.

But then these more personal posts started to come out. What it felt like to have a clear out. How I’m managing to keep (or not) to my New Year’s Resolutions. It became a platform where I could explore in more depth about how I felt about something by focusing a post on it specifically. I guess after that it sort of became addicted. I’ve always loved writing and this gave me the chance to stretch my mind to create a new type of content. I do still struggle coming up with some ideas, especially for personal posts which is why there are still a lot more focused on products than on me. Who knows though, maybe one day they will start coming easier and then I’ll really be sorted.

Until that day though, I would like to use this post to thank everyone who has followed me so far, no matter which platform.