The Secret Life of a (Sleep Deprived) Book Blogger

Hi everyone! In a desperate attempt to try and get back into posting regularly, here I am with a tag! I haven’t done one in ages, but I currently lack any sort of original ideas for posts and just time in general, so I am resorting to a book tag! And I love book tags!

Recently, Destiny @ Howling Libraries tagged me in The Secret Life of a Book Blogger tag, and I really loved the questions and her answers so I figured I’d do the tag myself! FYI, Destiny is such a wonderful person and a treasure to the community, so I hope you all are following her. If not, please go do that immediately! Let’s get into the questions!

1. How long have you been blogging?

My first post on this blog is from November, 2016! Which is so wild, because I have no idea where the time went, but I also feel like I’ve been doing this forever! And the fact that it’s been like 2.5 years is just amazing. I have been involved in the bookish community for longer – I joined Goodreads in 2014, and I have been on Tumblr for ageees, but always as a passive participant. My official, active blogging started in late 2016!

2. At what point do you think you’ll stop blogging?

I have no clue! I have no plans to stop blogging ever really! This is a creative outlet that I love having and a place that lets me discuss books with like-minded people, so I have no plans to give up on that. I love it too much. However, I can imagine a scenario when life gets too busy and I just have no time (which has been happening more and more), but I still think I’ll always come back here when I have something to say.

3. What is the best thing about blogging?

I think we all can agree that the best thing is the community – I have met so many wonderful, amazing people through blogging, and it’s always amazing to read people’s post and reviews and chat to them about it. In general, everyone is so nice and welcoming and I really love that about blogging.

4. What is the worst thing? What do you do to make it okay?

There are definitely times when things… escalate. I think that online discourse can get so overwhelming and it can often lack nuance. I think there’s a lot of cancel culture in the community which in my opinion isn’t always the best way to deal with issues, but there’s also a big part of the community that is really toxic, and when those people rear their heads, things get ugly. I personally deal with it by speaking up if I feel like I have anything meaningful to say and add to the discussion, or more frequently, I try to boost the voices of people that I feel need to be heard in that particular situation.

As for me personally, the worst thing is the lack of time to fully commit to blogging as much as I did before. I don’t really deal with it in any special way, it is what it is. I do try to squeeze in blogging whenever I can, though.

5. How long does it take you to make/find pictures to use?

It takes me a long time. I make the graphics I use and depending on the post, there are a lot of them to be made and it takes time. I spend around an hour and a half on posts, even those I have planned out and laid out in my head, simply because the formatting and the editing of the post to make it look pretty usually takes time.

6. Who is your book crush?

I was thinking about this the other day – I don’t really get book crushes anymore. I used to a lot when I was younger (for example, when I was a teen, I loved Percy Jackson), but nowadays I just fall in love with a character, without them ever becoming a book crush. It’s an entirely different feeling and I have no idea when I stopped looking at book characters like that, but it happened.

7. What author would you like to have on your blog?

I would love to host Susan Dennard on the blog. I really admire her craft and the way she talks about stories and writing. I also really appreciate how willing she is to share with her readers and I just love her to bits. I would also love to host Talia Hibbert, because I think she is one of the most genuine and funny writers I ever came into contact with. Plus, I think she handles a lot of important themes and topics in her books, and I really admire her for that.

8. What do you wear when you write your blog posts?

This is so random. I wear whatever I am wearing at the moment. But wouldn’t it be cool if I had a special blogging outfit? Like a robe or a cape, even? Might have to look into that later.

9. How long does it take you to prepare?

Depends on the post! But it never takes me less than an hour to prepare a post because of all the editing and doing graphics and whatnot. The longest I spent on a post is probably when I wrote my Edelweiss guide, which took HOURS and DAYS. But it was worth it, it’s my most popular post TO DATE.

10. How do you feel about the blogging community?

I’ve already touched on this in previous questions! I think the community as a whole is wonderful, although as with anywhere else, there are parts of it that are not so great. I do think that the blogging community (without taking in Twitter and other social media) is an overwhelmingly positive place and I love the people here. I do think that we should always choose the people we surround ourselves with and that we should be mindful of how we engage with each other in the community. People should be called out on their bullshit always, and every conversation should be handled with nuance. Unless someone is being an obvious, disrespectful dick, naturally. Then we drag him. But I think that we as a community are always getting better and learning and I think it’s just a pretty damn good corner on the internet.

11. What do you think one should do to create a successful blog?

I think just engage with other creators. For me, the blog took off once I started getting involved in the community, talking to other bloggers, tweeting etc. I think the secret is to just be genuine and get involved, and the rest comes with it. And I love what Destiny said in her post, so you should definitely go check that out as well!

I have no idea if people have already done this, so I am gonna tag a couple of you, and you are completely free to ignore me! I’d love to see your answers though! And if you have already done this, be sure to link me to the post in the comments!

Jenna | Elise | Janel | Rachel

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these questions and if you want to do the tag, consider yourself tagged!

                                                                                                                   

xxx

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