Nothing like a discussion post to mix things up on your blog. This is the first discussion I have written in a long while. A while back now I read a post Amber write about how blogging has changed over time and it got me thinking about my own blog. Especially as I’ve been going through a bit of a slump lately. Returning to blogging has made me feel like a bit of a newbie and it’s really got me thinking about how I blog and what I blog about. I started looking back at posts, from features I did religiously and those that popped up once or twice and died a death.
Currently, the main posts you see from me are weekly updates in the form of my Sunday Summary posts, reviews and mini reviews, and monthly wrap ups (which have been few and far between of late). During my years of blogging posts and features have come and gone and I’ve certainly changed during that time and I thought it was interesting to look at what’s changed and consider why.
Top Ten Tuesday
This feature is still going strong out there for Top Ten Tuesday, although the host of it has changed to The Artsy Reader. But I stopped writing these posts. This feature is simple, a theme is chosen for each week and you write a post and choose books etc to fit them. It’s fun and it’s always great to have a post which guides you in what to write about. My blog probably needs more features like it, but I won’t be doing it. I stopped because it became way too stressful thinking of new and interesting books for the feature. I stopped enjoying it. I found myself spending every weekend trying to rush finishing the post for the next week and it was honestly a chore so I stopped. I thought I’d take a break and go back to joining up each week later, but I never did and I honestly don’t miss it. I love reading everyone else’s posts for this but you won’t find me doing it (even when there is a really good theme for the week).
Looking Forward
Do you guys remember this feature? Looking Forward was me talking about the releases I was excited about for the coming month. It was great. I got to check out upcoming releases and it really helped me sort out my shopping list and I normally discovered a couple of new and interesting releases during my search. This one drifted off simply because I found myself adding too many books to my TBR and it became a bit unwieldy. I really loved this feature and might resurrect it sometime soon. We all love checking out new releases don’t we?
Discussions
Why don’t I write more discussions? I used to take part in the Discussion Challenge, hosted by Nicole and Shannon, every year. I’ve no good reason for not taking part this year apart from the fact I’ve been on/off blogging slumps a lot lately. I got burnt out with blogging and life and just stopped. Which is crazy really, discussions are the most popular posts I do (apart from Sunday posts because it seems everyone loves a quick life catch up) so discussions should be given priority. But they take so much time to write! And I found myself repeating discussions and having nothing new to say. Yet I miss writing them. There is nothing better than feeling like you can have a true discussion in your comments on a post and they’re so much fun.
I Post Less Often
Like everyone, I felt like I had to post a million times a week. Every day I was trying to think of new things to post. I had my own little mental blogging schedule I rarely kept to. I even created a blogging calendar where I tried to map out what I was doing each day but it turns out when you work 40 hours a week and have a social life there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to post as much as I thought I had to. Instead you’re lucky to have 3 posts a week off of me and that’s cool. I take things at my own speed and it’s made blogging a lot more fun taking the pressure off.
Have you looked back on your own blogging at any point? How has your blogged changed over the years? And are there any features you used to have which you miss?
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