This feels more like a Wednesday Blogging Challenge prompt than a Top Ten Tuesday post because I don’t really see how this is a top ten list? Maybe that’s just me! So I’m just going to answer this like a flat prompt rather than a ten-point answer.
When I started blogging I was in university, so I spent most of my time reading, writing, editing, learning and working on my ability to communicate in writing. So it was easier to write better reviews, because the brain muscles I needed to use were more limber. But now I’ve been blogging for a decade and a half, my life has changed, and my mental faculties have gone down hill. So now my reviews are a bit more slap-dash, have less depth, and tend to re-use the same or similar wording I think. I’d love to still be able to write the way I did back in the day, but at the same time blogging gets less space in my life now, so I just don’t have that to give. It’s all about life balance, and at least putting less energy into blogging enables me to keep it up!
Likewise I used to spend a lot more time working on my blog. I had lists I kept up, I tracked prizes and upcoming releases and participated in tags. I reviewed ARCs and made the effort to request them. I spent a lot more time visiting other blogs regularly and fostered relationships with other bloggers that were more sustained on a weekly basis. I ran social media accounts where I shared all my blog content and I chased subscribers to both social media and my blog. That was great, and I enjoyed it. But similarly to my reviewing, all of this has dropped off substantially. For a few reasons. The main one is, of course, not having the time and energy to keep all of that up. But also a lot of the bloggers who were active when I started blogging, the ones I became friends with in real life and who I exchanged comments with every week, the ones whose blogs I relied on for recommendations and fun posts, stopped blogging altogether. They got busy, stopped wanting to blog, moved on to careers that satiated their bookish needs or just disappeared for reasons I never knew. This was the first time I experienced this in blogging, and it was devastating. I still miss them. It felt like when I took a break from blogging during pregnancy, I came back to a very different online community, and it wasn’t one I was really part of anymore. So that was hard, and as I didn’t have the time to build up from scratch all over again, I’ve never gotten back to the same blogging engagement I had then.
That said, over the past few years I’ve slowly but surely begun to feel like I’m getting to know a new group of bloggers, and it has been wonderful to begin feeling connected to online folks again. There are at least seven or eight bloggers I try to visit as often as I can and comment, and who comment on my posts most weeks. I’ve found some wonderful women who are parents and grandparents, and whose feedback on both books and life have been wonderful to read. There are bloggers who I’ve begun to get to know and who I am starting to feel connected to. I love all of you who come and read my posts, who leave comments (even when I don’t always find the time to comment on your posts as often as you do mine – I’m trying, I promise!) and who give me plenty to smile and laugh about. At the end of the day I started blogging because I wanted to share thoughts about books, but I’ve learned that the opportunities it provides me to find people I can connect with and share interests and experiences with is the true joy of blogging.
I don’t know how long I’ll keep on blogging, but I’ve enjoyed having somewhere to natter on every week, and I’ve loved getting to know other bloggers who do likewise. Your comments always brighten my day, and you’ve given me wonderful advice and book recommendations! I hope I’ll be able to keep blogging for as long as you guys will keep visiting my blog!
What about you guys? Did you manage to make a top ten out of this prompt? If so, how???? If not, what direction did your post take this week?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.