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.
This was a lovely read!
I’ve only been blogging consistently for 3 years, though I had a different blog when I was 21-25 which mostly was a way to kill boredom at my very slow and part-time library assistant jobs! That time I never really figured out the community aspect.
Starting a blog in 2022 the internet has changed a lot, even the meaning of the word “blog” has changed in the general understanding… But I do think as more people are sick of soulless social media there is going to be a resurgence.
This time (at 37) I’m clearer on why I want to write a blog (it’s fun, it’s creative, it feels like a truer connection than social media and it’s less noisy) but I have so much less time than I’d like for it because I’m grown up now with a 40 work week, a house and garden to take care of, more hobbies (books to read!) and a partner to spend time with!
I’d like to have more time to engage with other bloggers – a sentiment I keep reading – but it does take effort and I think we’ve gotten lazy and used so algorithms serving everything up for us! I’m glad I’ve found things like TTT to help me discover others!
I think you’re right about so much of this. I also prefer blogging to social media, even if I never have many followers or visitors, because I’d rather have comments fairly regularly from a few other bloggers I know a bit about and who share some of my interests and reading tastes than a barrage of thumbs up on a post with no actual interaction. I think priorities definitely change, and as you point out this time of life doesn’t provide as much free time and energy. But I think if you’re doing it because you enjoy it and are happy with a smaller online community, then that’s plenty good enough!
I’m the one who suggested this topic. I’m sorry if it was a complicated one! LOL. But, I’m super interested in bloggers’ answers to this question. It’s always interesting to me to compare/contrast my experience with others’. For instance, since I’ve been blogging for almost 20 years now, I totally understand how you feel about the “old” book blogosphere. There were so many blogs/bloggers that I loved back in the day who have since died (so sad) or just moved on to other pursuits. The “new” book blogosphere is wonderful, but I still miss some of those old blogs and bloggers, too.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Haha! I’m sorry if that came off like I was saying it’s not a good topic – it’s a great one, I just couldn’t quite get my head around how to turn it into a list of ten. Though now I’ve read some other bloggers’ posts, it makes more sense! I sometimes have trouble figuring out how to execute things, it’s a brain thing. I had plenty to say though, just not in the correct format! Yes, I feel the same. There were some that had such similar taste in books that I had found, and they introduced me to so many of my favourite books of all time, as well as being great for sharing bookish discussion! But this is life, change always happens, and there are wonderful bloggers now that I am really enjoying engaging with (like you), so it’s swings and roundabouts, as the Brits say! I think when life is less busy I’ll probably get back to spending more time and energy on blogging, and maybe then I’ll feel a little less peripheral. In the meantime I’m just happy to keep up my tiny corner of the bookish blogosphere! I hope you have a great week!
“Slap-dash” is a good way to describe my reviews too. I used to put tons of time and thought into them. Now I’m busy with work, the kid, etc. Blogging is just way less of a priority for me.
Yes, that’s it exactly. I have thoughts, but it also feels like my brain just isn’t quite as sharp? Like things have become a little less in focus? I don’t know how to describe it, but it does result in having a harder time finding the words I’m looking for and describing the feelings I’m having! Plus the kid thing – mine will always take priority, so I don’t have the time I used to for social media and visiting other blogs every single week. I try to whenever I’ve got some spare time, but I know I’m not keeping up with it as much as I used to or as much as I’d like! Hopefully I’ll get better at that over time.
I also started blogging when I was in college, but that was a long time ago. When things got busy writing my Master’s thesis, my blog kind of feel by the wayside and I finally just picked it back up after 13 years. Now, I also have a social media account and I’m making an effort to connect with people. I guess you could say my blogging priorities have changed over time, too!
Yes, that’s exactly it! Welcome back, I hope that it is as rewarding now as it was before you needed to take a break. Top Ten Tuesday is a great weekly thing to connect with other bloggers – it’s how I’ve “met” some of the ones I interact with regularly now, and they’re fantastic folks!
Life changes every day, every year. Sometimes the things we enjoy have to be put aside for more important things. I’ve enjoyed visiting your blog over the few years I’ve been blogging.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/the-ls-have-it-ten-titles-starting-with-l/
That’s exactly it! You’ve put it so much better than I could, and captured exactly what I was getting at. I do still enjoy it, and I don’t want to give it up, but yeah, it’s definitely lower in importance than other things right now! Thank you, likewise!