Busting the Newbie Blues Blogfest

I have been blogging for a while now, so I suppose I would say that I'm somewhat established, but then again, I have not set schedule and have been too busy to read. That being said, I want to try to get better at blogging because it's fun.

At Small Review, there is an Event being hosted called "Busting the Newbie Blues" which helps established bloggers and newbie bloggers connect and have fun with each other. It runs from Dec 3 to Dec 31, so jump on board and meet some new book blogger.


I chose the questions for the established bloggers, but they are generally the same thing for both newer bloggers too. I've been blogging for a long time, even though I just got serious this past year or so. At any rate, here are the questions and my answers.

1.  When did you start your blog?
   I started a blog just keeping track of the books I read, but it wasn't a "book blog" until about last year and perhaps this year, even more so with giveaways and such.
2. Why did you start your blog?
   I started my blog because my friends were passing books back and forth and keeping a journal about it. Since I don't want to pay for postage and the person I would pass books back and forth with has the same taste as mine, it wouldn't make sense to do. I kept forgetting what books I read
3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?
   I guess my biggest challenge is to find the time to blog. I work several jobs, go to school, and have several volunteer and internships that I do and then I need to find the time to do homework, study, read the actual books that I want to review, and then find the time to review them on the blog. The biggest mistake that I've made is not having a consistent update schedule.
4. What did you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? How did you deal with this?
   The thing I find a bit of a downer is working hard on a post and getting no response. This doesn't happen as often now because the stats show that people are reading and if there are anything like me, they just read, but have nothing to say at that point in time. I've learned, especially from my web fiction writing days, comments aren't everything. Just keep writing and the people will come.
5. What do you find most encouraging?
   Having a meaningful conversation with other bloggers either on my blog or on other blogs. I think it's awesome to discuss a book that we've liked.
   
6. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?
   I like blogs that have people who engage with their commenters. I know that some blogs get so much traffic that they can't engage with everyone, but it's clear that they do make the effort to do so. I would like to guess that they've always done this whether they had a lot of followers or not. I like some special blog designs as well that are really unique and pretty.
7. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?
   I dislike blogs that have too many buttons and banners and little widgets. They take a really long time to load and they are kind of annoying, especially if they play music. If they have good content, I'll suffer through it but honestly, there's nothing like having a simple, clean, and pretty template design.
8. Do you have any advice for new bloggers?
   Blog about what makes you happy and don't stress yourself out trying to get posts up when you have a schedule. If you have a scheduled post feature, use it. Most of all just have fun.
9. How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people?
   Marketing via giveaways, blog hops, and blogfests. That being said, I think the greatest thing that has helped me is trying to develop relationships with other bloggers. When I do a blog hop, I really try to read a few posts of people that week and try to be consistent. I do follow a lot of blogs because of these blog hops and it takes a lot of effort to keep track of them all. If a blog has an interesting post, I'll read it and I probably need to be better at leaving comments.
   
10. Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience?
    Looking forward to meeting some new bloggers. 

#Reverb10: December 5: Let Go

December 5- Let Go
What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?

I let go of a lot of things this year, mostly it was fear of the unknown. I also let go of the anger I felt about my past, especially in school. I made a lot of mistakes and I entered in a major that I enjoyed, but my heart wasn't in it. I'm still getting over the fact that my advisors didn't tell me any other options. I'm where I want to be now and even though I'm taking more classes, I'm less stressed and I feel that this is my passion. I really feel that I can do something with the things that I'm majoring in which is Psychology and Creative Writing.

I also let go of my contention for feeling some of the things that I feel. I'm more selective in what I'm going to say to people and some times I say things that I don't feel that I need to apologize for, but sometimes I just need to vent from time to time and say things that I don't necessarily feel all the time, just at that point of time. I let go of feeling bad for saying the things that are on my mind. It's liberating in a way.

#Reverb10: December 4: Wonder

December 4 – Wonder. 
How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

I cultivate a sense of wonder by always letting myself be surprised with what life hands to me. I am a notoriously bad planner, but I'm always open to just going with the flow. It makes things a lot less complicated. Of course, there are times where I need to take the reigns and take control, but overall, I just let life guide me where I need to go. How does this cultivate a sense of wonder? For me, when I try to control things that are beyond my scope of power, things don't work out well and I'm stressed out because I'm trying too hard to do something the hard way instead of slowing down and stopping to smell the roses. I cultivate a sense of wonder by trying to learn everything that I can and letting myself be surprised.