May 26, 2015

...In Which Life Gets in the Way

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Five months into 2015 and it's official: I royally flunked.
I've been debating with myself if I should write this post and sound whiny, or grind my teeth and pretend everything was cool. My decision was made when I realised two weeks had passed since my latest post, which pretty much makes you dead in the blogging universe. Now, from Day 1, I've always refused to adhere to stupid rules and turn blogging into a chore. On the other hand, with my followers and readers base, it's not like I can go M.I.A. for weeks and expect to gain more of them, or to become an established blogger. So I decided I owed such followers and readers - not to mention new visitors - an explanation, at the very least.
My goal for this year was to produce an average of a post per week - which I did last year. And which should have been so simple to accomplish. Until it wasn't.

Back in 2014, I kick-started the year with the Book Blogger New Year's Challenge by Parajunkee. I suppose this helped, both on the morale and the post-quantity side. Anyway, 2014 was a quiet but steady year for me - so I thought it would be easy to keep up with the flow in 2015. Um...apparently, not.

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You see, there's this annoying little thing called life, that has a penchant for getting in the way. I'm not going into my personal problems here, but suffice to say, in my life there's not always enough time to devote to blogging - and even more, not enough energy to convey into it. Let's face it - it's much more challenging for an adult blogger. And no, I'm not saying that my younger pals have it easy. But it's a fact - family AND chores AND work are a much heavier bundle than school. Not to mention that, when you're zeroing in on 50 (or, well, 49 for now, but all the same), you often simply don't have the energy to keep up with all the stuff life throws your way, and blogging becomes another exhausting task sometimes. Plus, like I said - time. Heck, I like gifs as much as the next person, and I can see why they're needed - but the mere task of finding the right ones for my upcoming post may take hours sometimes...and this is a luxury I can't afford. Not often, anyway.
I love blogging. I sure as hell don't want to quit. I want this small blog to grow. And it's depressing when you look around and realise that so many people who started around the same time as you have hundreds of followers, while you're stuck at 88. So you feel restless and want to do something, but also feel like everyone's out of your league, and shouldn't you put what remains of your mauled energy into cleaning house and stuff? Which is not my idea of living life, though it's required from us adults. Only, you see, I want to keep this little corner of the net for myself. I want it to grow bigger. And it feels like climbing a mountain most of the time, and I'm aware I won't ever be able to reach the top - and for "top" I don't even mean becoming a Number 1 Blogger...

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I'm really tired right now. Physically and mentally. And I'm not making excuses or trying to invoke sympathy - I'm just stating a fact. And another fact is, I don't want to quit blogging. Because it keeps me sane. Because, as small as my audience may be, this is my outlet, and I would miss it if I quitted. Because I like to connect with my fellow bloggers. Because there are authors that I can help get the word out about their books. And I realised this involves work. So I'll have to do what it takes, juggle blogging with life - only not too hard. I was thinking I could try the meme thing again, but stick with the less demanding and more rewarding (content-wise) ones. It's either this or shutting up shop. Which I DON'T want to do.
I suppose some of you, at least, have felt this way, once in a while. I'm officially taking advice ;). Either way, you won't get rid of me so easily! *evil laugh* Till next time...thanks for listening!

[Made a while ago with a generator I can't remember...]

6 comments:

  1. Awww!!! Roberta!!! I hope everything is alright. There are times when I feel like this too, and usually I disappear for a whole month ;) It doesn't matter if you have a lot of followers or not. You introduced to Christopher Pike, and you made me find out a world of other books, and I'm sure there are others like me! Don't push yourself, and blog when you feel like it!

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  2. It's the same way for me - my mom actually wants me to quit blogging because she thinks it's childish when I think it's something else entirely.

    But hey, it's your blog after all. It's up to you when to take a break, because when you're back, we'll all be here still. And if we're not? We might be taking a break, or "harassing" (read: tease, chat, etc.) our cobloggers, or something else entirely.

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    1. Hehe - those lazy cobloggers.

      I can't believe you mom thinks that. Try to explain to her that there are also respectable old ladies who get a kick out of blogging...you know, like this one here ;).

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  3. I stumbled across your post...been blogging since 2011 and it is hard to keep up! I've been dealing with extreme stress and it slowed my pace to blog this last year. I don't do nearly as many posts as I'd like. But keep at it! You'll be glad you did. :)

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    1. Thank you for your encouragement! I'm aware that it should be quality over quantity, but this doesn't look like a winning strategy nowadays. Regardless, I'm trying not to let it bring me down. And people like you definitely help :). Keep at it yourself!

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