Saturday, August 02, 2014

Thoughts On One Year of Blogging

214/365

Last week marked one year since I started this blog. I did have a different blog before that, which you can view here.

I'm not a serious blogger, in that I don't have post in hopes to bring attention to my blog, at least not on the scale as most bloggers do. It's not a pride thing, but just that this blog is like my photo journal. Realistically, I won't be printing my photos out and scrapbooking them or anything. I'm 18. It's not a priority for me. At all. I keep track of the stories and days behind my pictures by blogging.

I challenged myself to blog every day this year, and so far I have succeeded. I enjoy it, for the most part. I mostly just feel bored with it. But, here in a few weeks, I'll be heading up to attend school in Chicago for 4(+??) years, so that will add lots of excitement. There are some blog "features" I'd like to start, but I haven't nailed down the specifics of them yet, and I probably won't until 2015.

Blog features I currently have and what I think of them:
- Weekly Self Portrait
I love this. They aren't always (are they ever?) incredible portraits I spend lots of time composing, but they are me. I plan on doing this forever. FOREVER. I don't know if blogging will still be a thing if/when I get married, etc., but if so I will still be doing this then. Even if blogging isn't a thing, I still will want to take portraits every week. This is a keeper.
- Work in Progress Wednesday
I'm considering editing this. I will probably cut out the poster-background when school rolls around, but I still want to document my progress on whatever project I have going, which brings me to another thing I want to change/consolidate:
- Monthly Reading Update
This is awesome for the booktubers that I follow, but not for me. I'm no good at book reviews. I think I rely way too much on how I'm feeling and not enough on the actual book, so I'd rather just update, weekly, where I'm at in my reading in my "WIP Wednesday" posts (mentioned above). Because, really, isn't a book you're reading...in progress?? I think so.
- Yearly Goal Updates Each Month
Yes and no. I may do this every other month, just because it takes an hour or so at the end of each month to gather all the information. Then again, I want to have less goals each year. Until I finish school, which could be 4-6 years, depending on whether or not I end up doing my masters (there! I said it!), I will probably do a maximum of five goals for the year, and I'm not even sure about that.
- Project Posts
I haven't done one of these in a while, because I haven't finished any projects, but I still like this. Every time I finish a new project I post about it. I don't post about knitting the same hat five times, but rather hat A, hat B, and hat C. Not hat a (1), hat a (2), and so on. I will keep this up, probably in about the same fashion as they are now.

I don't think there was anything else I wanted to write about on this topic. I like my blog. When I started my first blog, I purposely didn't say anything for a few months because I wanted to figure out my voice. I think I've got it down now, though, but I know it will change as I change. I have to say, though, that Elise is my favorite blogger, possibly mainly because of her voice in her writing, especially in her older posts. It's just relaxed, and that's kind of what I aim for. You can tell she's more purposeful in her writing now, which is because her audience has grown. I've still got a small audience, so my posts are going to be more casual.

I think I'm just spewing random things now, so I'll leave with a mantra of sorts from the series I'm currently reading: "A need does not constitute a call." - Paige Torn by Erynn Mangum

(Don't even get me started on my tags. They are in a very rough state, and I'm not quite sure where to even begin fixing them.)

- rl

(p.s. this is part of my 14 goals for 2014. You can view all my goals here.)

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