So I ran out of inspiration, because I post more or less daily, and decided to call on Lita for help since she did mention once that she pretty much never runs out of the stuff. And of course sweetheart that she is, she immediately offered to “give” me one of her future post topics but that didn’t feel right. Besides the conversation itself gave me an idea. The first thing Lita said is that the need to find something new to write about every day is exactly why she doesn’t want to be a daily blogger and I though – huh… I could write about that!
As I write this I have published 1332 posts and have a dozen more scheduled. Some of these posts are just re-posts for other blogs or tiny little announcements but still, that’s a lot of random stuff to talk about. I’m hardly the only daily blogger, some people even have multiple posts a day, but I am one of the few that is not a seasonal episode reviewer, an anime news blogger or a multi blogger site. I’m just a hobbyist that mixes reviews with essays and lists and whatever strikes my fancy like a lot of other bloggers. I just do it daily. And I’m often asked why!
It’s an excellent question. I personally don’t think that posting more often is in any way “better”. Arguably taking a few days to really flesh a post out and do proper research is likely to give you better results. The few posts that I really like are ones that took me a long time to put together and I had easier to write entries in the meantime to keep things going. Since I am neither a news or episode blogger, there is really no particular time table I have to stick to either. It’s all just arbitrary and self imposed.
O.k., now even I’m starting to wonder why I do it…
All of these reasons are of course completely personal and probably don’t apply to anything else. The main and most boring one is that I am essentially a child. I have a feeling that if I don’t have a strict posting schedule, I just won’t do it. Granted I could relax a bit and post every other day and I might end up doing that. Spontaneous poll, should I start posting every other day????
When I started blogging I basically worked out this schedule in my head that put aside a certain time for writing every day and now it’s part of my routine. My day doesn’t feel quite complete without it. For the record, the benefits I gain from my writing time are pretty much akin to what I read about meditation. It calms me down and centres me. It allows my thoughts to drift and focus on something outside of myself and my immediate circumstances which makes it easier to get perspective on my life. And it’s fun!
These are also benefits that I don’t get out of more structured and long winded projects. A posts which requires a month of research and specific points to hit and detail is very satisfying, There’s really no denying that. It is more satisfying than the bulk of the posts I write. But it doesn’t give me the same introspection and sense of calm that I get from throwing my thoughts out in the digital world.
And much like meditation, I find that the only way to really get any of those benefits is by doing it frequently and consistently. I guess that’s a bit like exercising as well. Hmm, it’s almost as if practising a thing will make you better at it. Meditating is suppose to help expand mental faculties but I’m not sure I’m seeing any of those benefits…
So basically for me, and my life style, writing daily as well as the ritual of choosing images for my words and scheduling a post, brings me a lot of collateral en intangible benefits (how many times have a written this word – take a shot but maybe a non alcoholic one…).
As for the how. One thing you should know is that I don’t sleep much. I’ve always been that way. I’ve been really blessed in that I sleep extremely well. I have never had insomnia and I don’t wake up in the night ever. I basically hit my pillow and I’m out. And I can sleep any time, anywhere. But I’m good on 5 to 6.5 hours a night. Like completely good. I’m not tired in the evenings or anything. So that gives me a lot more time in a day.
Right now I no longer have a commute to use for my writing so I block time during my day, a specific hour here and another there in which I write. And I do so regardless of whether I have something to write about or not. I scarp a lot of those posts. I will sometimes get 800 words in and just never manage to bring it together into something remotely worth publishing. Some days, I can tell right from the get go that my muse is partying in Barcelona without me and I will not get a post out today. Doesn’t matter, I still write something even if it’s nonsense.
And some days, I write a lot. My muse is back, not hung over anymore, and words are just flowing out of me. I have something specific to say and I’m excited and passionate about a topic (often one no one else cares about but thems are the breaks) so I’ll just keep on writing. I’ll get two or three posts out that day. I also have a few episode reviews which I usually write an hour or so after watching the episode, outside of my regular writing schedule. These extra posts are buffers for those days when I can’t get anything out.
Yes, some days are extremely busy and the 40 minutes in the morning, and hour in the afternoon that I managed to set aside for writing (that’s my commute normally), get whittled down to a single 15 minutes in the day. That’s ok., I still write a paragraph or two. There are some perfectly average looking posts that were written over the span of almost a week, one paragraph at the time.
Now I don’t have children to take care of which I feel is another big factor in me finding time to write in a day. And I’m fairly introverted which cuts down on my social obligations compared to a lot of people. I’m not sure most people could realistically have anything similar to my writing schedule and I’m not sure anyone would want to.Like I said, I really do this for selfish reasons that won’t necessarily apply to anyone else.
Oh, and another great trick is, when you run out of inspiration, ask Lita, She’s awesome!
How often to you post and do you have a reason for it?
So that’s the secret: writing as meditation. I was always wondering how you did it, but now it makes sense.
It’s pretty much the only way I can stay quiet for any span of time
I want to post more…. and judging by my NetGalley I NEED to post more. I just haven’t taken that leap yet. You could say that I’m that nightmare of scheduling you were talking about. I plan on buckling down and really figuring things out before the month is over with though.
Good luck! I’m sure you’ll do great
Writing can be a very therapeutic activity. And I believe that’s the best way to go when it comes to blogging. Writing because of how it makes you feel. Not because of out of obligations or anything like that.
I’m very bad with schedule to be honest. When I first started out blogging, my posting time had been more or less erratic. These days I’m making sure I at least post once a week. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking of new post ideas, jotting them down, and try to write them. I need to learn how to manage my posting and writing schedule.
Schedules definitely aren’t for everyone.
I’ve always been amazed at bloggers who can write every day! I’m an academic through and through, so my posts get really big without me realizing it, and that means I post less. A large part of my blog is essays (like, 1500 words minimum and bordering on 4000 for my more in depth posts) and I totally feel that “long winded project” satisfaction! But even if it’s my preferred style, it always comes at the cost of feeling like I don’t have chill things to say. Your blog is such a breath of fresh air to see spur of the moment thoughts on my reader, and inspires me to consider changing it up and posting less structured things.
I’m sure you would be great at it. As long as you don’t completely abandon your more structured posts cause there’s not enough of those on WordPress!
I’d like to post everyday but I have a lot of things I need to attend to like chores, mourning every morning, thinking of posts that I want to post but suddenly got axed because it is not even print-worthy, and the never ending battle of good versus evil.
But seriously, if you can post everyday, you’re a legend in your own right.
Admittedly I do let evil win a lot…
So, uh, basically the complete opposite of me? K. O-O
I am chaos incarnate. I have no schedule or regimen. Whatever I write about just sort of happens. I have no shortage of ideas to write about. The catch? I’m a perfectionist, so I never finish anything I’m writing, unless I’m confident it cannot be improved by me any further. And there’s always stuff to improve. You can imagine how prolific I’m not. Even writing comments takes me a while, and it’s even worse when I’m writing my books. I guess you could say I’m a good writer, yet I’m not much of one. I’m actually more successful in jobs I have no interest in, because it doesn’t need to be perfect if I don’t care. But writing? The one thing I’m a natural at? That’s a challenge for me, ironically enough. I’d say I’m envious of your ability to buckle down and produce content on a regular basis (and don’t even get me started on your godlike ability to actually *sleep* properly! Gah!), but in all seriousness, I’m sure you’ve got your own set of hurdles, too– everyone does.
Maybe I’m wrong, but you seem to approach blogging the same way I approach diary-writing: very stream-of-consciousness; even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone except yourself, that’s okay, because it’s something you do mainly for your sake. That you have an audience in this case to relate to & expand on your thoughts is just an added bonus. Sorry if I’m completely off-the-mark, but the thought just sort of dawned on me as I mused over what I could do to solve some of my own issues.
Ack. I always start out these comments intending them to be short and sweet, only for them to devolve into a winding ramble. Turns out that writing about writing is actually an interesting topic!
I do approach blogging like diary writing. You sound like a real writer. All artistic temperament and flashes of inspiration. I’m mostly faking it
Eh, that’s just your Impostor Syndrome talking. Real writers get books/articles/whatever published. I do not. I could be the greatest artistic mind to ever live, and that wouldn’t mean a thing, because I can’t bring myself to complete any of my projects. Besides, it’s not exactly possible to “fake” being a good or interesting writer. If you “pretend” to be interesting and succeed, then that still makes your work interesting, yes?
Encouraging!
Respect.
*bow*
I post at least once a week because when I planned out my blog, I thought “it’s not too frequent that I won’t have anything to say, but frequent enough to keep people coming back”…and I was right, for the most part.
I’m not going to run out of backlog posts to resort to in times of blogging crisis, because I occasionally forget about the goldmine that is my drafts folder on the WP website, but grinding gacha games -> less time for blogging or consuming stuff for blogging -> less time for stuff I probably should be doing (so on, so forth…) means I’m gonna burn through the usable stuff sooner rather than later. Having more hours in a day by cutting out commutes (should have been approx. 30 mins each way, 5 days a week) just makes me complacent, I’ve found out, because it makes me more liable to grind for hours…or sleep in or something.
The fact I’m watching mostly comedies at the moment to drown any nasty thoughts about the general state of the world might also be a problem, because when I drown my sorrows, I don’t want to think about stuff enough to write a post on it. (You should know all about that, Irina.)
I find that writing posts can also be a good distraction if you can muster enough inspiration
Once upon a time a few hundred years ago writing blogs more or less was my job. I didn’t work outside the home and spend all day and most of the night writing blogs, stories, drawing clip art and coloring pages, etc. And then everything got upended. I switched to writing books and that got upended a decade or so later. Either way I’d have to say my “secret” was constantly having an eye out for subjects and ideas, and yeah, it WAS my work so I at least kind of had a schedule. Then I was all burnt out and took an extended break and now it’s a wonder if I blog twice a month 😛 I never felt like it was a lot, but then I admire Issac Asimov – who wrote or edited 500 books in his lifetime (nonfiction and fiction) and something like 90,000 letters or postcards. I felt pretty lazy by comparison. I’ve always admired your “work ethic” as applies to your blog. As well as admired and enjoyed your writing. It’s interesting getting a peek behind the scenes! I hope you get to continue working at home. 😀 anything that gets me more Irina is good!
Agreed. More Irina!
What I learned today is to never compare myself to Isaac Asimov!
“5 to 6.5 hours a night”
If I could survive on that I’d probably have conquered the world by now. I can barely function on 8 hours… 9 is good… some days I’ll sleep for 10. I have a slump that kicks in around mid-afternoon.
This was a real problem before I retired. Take a 24 hour day, knock off 9 hours for a workday, another two hours for commuting, 9 for sleep, and it doesn’t leave much time left to live a life. If I got the choice, I always picked an hour lunch for the longest nap possible.
I’ve NEVER been able to get by less than 7. I’m completely nonfunctional if I have to do that for more than a couple days in a row. Very easy for me to become a caffeine addict.
I have often thought that my body really wants to be on a 25 or 26 hour day. If left to my own devices I will stay up later every night and sleep 9 hours. After a few weeks, I’ll be 12 hours out of synch with everyone else. The world doesn’t let you live like that.
Oh yeah… I post when I feel like it. I just don’t feel like it as much as I used to. Even so, over a couple years it really adds up. OTOH, my replies to other people’s posts occasionally get quite long.
Night Shift!
Hi, just wanted to popup to say that as somebody just starting out with aniblogging, hearing of someone’s experience as seasoned as you is quite enlightening. Keep up the good work!
Oh nice – a great new blog to discover!
Using Eureka for an Eureka moment is brilliant. 😁.
I usually post about four times a week depending on how long they posts end up being or how motivated I am. I mean, I mainly work four days a week, so I use the time off to write posts and the in between and after work time to write the seasonal posts as I watch them.
If I end up writing a 2.5k lengthened post like Patlabor TV or the post coming out on Wednesday which I’m excited about and no one will be shocked about, then I don’t write anymore those days because they take hours and hours to write.
I have been trying a new thing since exiting Mecha March. I keep drafts in my folder for a week longer before editing and scheduling them so I can have a fresher look when editing them. Or just general post flexibility.
I’m looking forward to Wednesday! I should try that delayed editing trick. It sounds like a great idea!
Well I try to post daily! I don’t always manage to do so but I have six topics to blog about and I just have lots of fun writing and like you I feel like I can clear my mind quite a bit by writing. It also helps me have a bit of a schedule in my morning. I can’t work for health reasons so this is quite a bit of a sanity anchor to me! Even though clearly I am not sane so not sure if it is working!
It’s a great therapy!
Fairly cheap too!
I was wondering how you manage to post something meaningful every day. No way in hell could I keep up with such a schedule. You could adapt that old title from James Brown and call yourself “the hardest working woman in anime blogging” and nobody would dispute it.
My own posting schedule has gotten more frequent since the virus hit the rest of the world. The end of my hour-long commute to and from work has gotten me two extra hours, so that’s helped. I’m still going to keep to a sort of weekly schedule this month, though, because I just don’t have that many ideas to write about. Most of them are those big project monster 5,000-word posts that take weeks to get ready, and sometimes they don’t even catch on when a 500-word post does. A little disheartening, but that won’t stop me from writing them.
Say effort doesn’t guarantee reults nlogging. Other than writing apost you like and that’s something