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 inspiration: taking a break

I’ve really appreciated the activity I’ve seen on Twitter lately, supporting bloggers by telling them it’s okay to blog the way you want. There seems to be this pressure – that we put on ourselves – to follow a checklist if we want to feel like bloggers.

A lot of this happened while I was having a break from posting so it was encouraging to feel it didn’t matter I wasn’t currently setting posts live and that didn’t stop me from being a blogger.

I hate taking blogging breaks, but this year was particularly hard. I know it’s not all about the statistics, but I’ve really seen an increase in numbers recently and feel I might – finally – be doing something right. I’m never going to be a big blogger, but I love what I do and that’s good enough for me.

Sometimes, though, it gets too much.

Are you starting to struggle to think of content? Is it getting too much to keep on top of everything?

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.

Dear Diary: Bursting Blogs

The timing for this post worked really nicely as I have this week off work. No holiday planned, I just needed to make sure I used up some of my days and as I haven’t had a break since Christmas, now was as good a time as any.

Despite not going away, it’s turning into quite a busy week with appointments, meet ups and all sorts. It’s lovely! I’m hoping by the end of the week I start to feel a little more refreshed.

Up and Coming: February

Time is a strange and curious thing. On one hand, it feels like an absolute age since I last wrote one of these. On the other, I don’t know where January has gone. I’m going to assume it’s because I’ve actually been on top of blog posts for the last couple of weeks for a change so I’m not rushing around trying to get this done in the nick of time.

It has felt rather nice being organised, I must admit. Planning and scheduling posts is once again enjoyable rather than feeling like a task that has to be done.

So what do I have planned for this month? Let’s take a look:

Up and Coming – September

Here we are at another month already. September is a second-chance month for me. It is the month I returned to university after dropping out the first time around. It is the month anyone still in education returns to face a new year. It’s the second time in the year you can start again and no one bats an eyelid.

Well, I have no intention of new starts on here. The last month has been great fun on the blog and I’m really pleased with how I feel I am growing as a blogger. I know I still have a long way to go, but every month is a learning curve, is it not?

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.