You guys I’m so excited! Why? Because this blog has been nominated for another award – the Free Spirit Award! Thank you so much Fujoshitep for the nomination 😀 I would totally recommend reading her post on this award, which is about why she loves Yaoi (beware NSFW). I wouldn’t recommend opening this while your parents (or much younger siblings) are around, unless they don’t care about seeing some naked men action ( ´͈ ᗨ `͈ )
This award was created by UNOTAKU and Marvelously Mismatched.

Rules
- Write about the topic your nominator gave you
- Place the Free Spirit Award button somewhere in your post
- Nominate bloggers (no requirements or limitations)
- Give your nominees a new topic to post about
- Have fun
And the topic that I received is
The things that help you stay motivated to keep blogging
This is such an easy but difficult question, I don’t even know how to start! Basically what helps me stay motivated are that I have an audience/feel like I belong, that I blog about things I like (whatever those things may be), and that blogging is writing.
Let me elaborate

1. An Audience/Belonging: One of the things that I worry about as a blogger (writer, person) is whether what I say ever interests people. Knowing that my content is actually being looked at by others always gives me strength and encourages me to keep writing. It doesn’t matter if there’s only one person reading, I will continue writing for that person alone.
I know, I’m a needy human being!
That’s why I always get super excited when I get notifications about people liking my posts or making comments (not just here, from other writing sites as well). Even the silent readers that hardly or never comment on my stuff make me happy. I’ve got this really big need to talk with others and since I can’t do that in person (I get super nervous and whatever I say never makes sense) I do it through the computer.
And since I blog about anime, manga, and yaoi I usually get to interact with people with similar interests. I don’t have to watch myself as much as I would if I interacted with people I know in real life (I don’t have many otaku friends, the ones that did like anime seemed to have grown out of it, I’m the only one left lol)
So for this, I thank everyone who has ever looked through my blog, liked anything I had to say, commented on my posts, and followed me! All of this feeds my soul~ (and keeps me semi-sane)

2. I blog about my interests: I feel like if I didn’t blog about the things I loved I’d probably not be blogging anymore, even if people liked my stuff (or maybe I’d be a bad blogger and people wouldn’t like my stuff and then I wouldn’t be blogging anymore). It’s kind of like my going to the gym right now. I started off well and then I just began to hate it, complaining, and now I just stay home whenever I can get away with it. I have to do something that I truly enjoy.
I guess the only thing I regret is that I can’t write as fast as I fangirl.
I’ve got this crazy Grammar Nazi and Artsy person inside my head that won’t let me post anything without checking it at least 100 times. For example, this post has had many revisions. Many. Like, I have to make sure that things don’t look too blocky (that there’s enough spacing), that there are visuals, that I haven’t left a million typos, etc!
Also, by blogging about the stuff I like I tend to meet others with similar interests (and that is awesome because then we can fangirl/boy together!!!).

3. Blogging Is Writing: One of my passions in life is writing. I love to write. When teachers ask people to say something they like, I’ll usually mention writing for fun. I write plans that never come to fruition, I write notes during class even after they’ve been provided, I write stories (originals, fanfiction, prompts), and I carry around notebooks and pens just for my writerly needs.
Writing for me is an easier way to express myself. It gives me more time to get my thoughts in order and unless there’s a deadline, I can take as long as I want. It’s something familiar to me.
Blogging is all of this for me. I can write about anything I can imagine and not have to worry about immediate backlash. As a bonus, I get to meet people who I otherwise wouldn’t and we’ll usually have something in common. Unfortunately, I’m not that great of a writer. Sometimes I feel like my content is stale and that’s what I’m trying to improve on, don’t know if I’m succeeding or failing though.
OK! I hope I answered that question well enough! Here are my nominees
Geek Girl Senshi (Stop Saying ‘Strong-Female Characters’)
As for my nominees here is your topic, what is a strong female lead and how does she compare to a strong male lead? For those curious, the reason I want to ask this is that my brother and I were discussing female characters and how there are not many of them that can be considered ‘strong’. We were specifically talking about them in terms of novels since my brother was reading the Throne of Glass Series and I wanted to get others’ opinions.
What do you consider to be a strong female lead? Characteristics? How is she different from a strong male lead (what is a strong male lead)? And if they’re different, why? Etc.
It doesn’t have to be anything long either (my question feels like an essay prompt, sorry). If there’s anyone else who wants to answer the question please do so, I’m curious as to what people think.
Also, I was nominated for this award twice so please look forward to the next post, which I’m hoping to put up before Sunday ends! Topic is Karma.
I think blogging is similar for me like you. I cannot express myself fully in real life since people might misunderstand or get judgmental so I either come off as standoffish, angry, overly anxious, or what I hate people using, “shy”. What the hell does shy even mean? Doesn’t even come close to covering all the strong emotions swirling inside me. Thanks for sharing. If I hadn’t mention this before, well, I really love your writings on the blog. Believe me they keep my interest. The only thing is you sometimes write about series I have no knowledge about so of course I don’t read those posts but it doesn’t mean I’m trying to ignore you on purpose or anything.
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Thanks! :3 haha I do that too, hard to follow something (or comment) when you don’t know about a show
I get the shy and angry thing a lot, used to have people telling me to smile all the time xD or people asking why I was angry (I’m not this is my neutral face -_-) then there’ll be times when I really want to participate in conversations but I just don’t know how! 😛
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🙂 Yep. The one where you’re told to smile more is hilarious! It’s like no this is my normal face get used to it.
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I used to have a math teacher in HS who made it his mission to make me laugh/smile so I’d purposely not do that in front of him 😛
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I like your essay-prompt like question, I probably won’t mind turning it into a full-fledged post 😀
And no worries, I feel exactly the same about being motivated by my audience, I feel like I am equally as needy as you HAHA 😀
And so, I don’t know why I haven’t come here earlier xD the hustle and bustle must have been getting to me ><
Great post, and I look forward to future conversations :3
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That would be awesome! Can’t wait to see what you dish out x3 we’re all needy humans!!! Lol Thanks same here :3
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The Grammar Nazi and Artsy people are real! Trust me, they haunt me as I glide my cursor over the “Post” button 🙂 and yeah, I always look back and revise.
I like your writing style a lot :3 It’s not only fun to read but never to long nor too short, which is a trait I desire to achieve through repetitive practice >.<
Anyway, thank you so much for nominating me! Again, I'll try to squeeze it in sometime soon hopefully, but this 30 day challenge really drains me, as I feel the need to cram in every song I can think of that fits the topic. Agh, I gotta stop picking so many!
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XD thanks! Glad you like 🙂 gah! Length is always something I worry about! Sometimes I feel like my posts get extremely long and I have to edit some stuff out or I’ll have last min additions but won’t know where to place it xP then there are the posts I think are way too short so sometimes they never make it up here 😛
No problem! Even if you can’t right after the challenge it’ll be there for when you can 🙂 that’s why I try to limit myself and place rules, because then there won’t be an end! @__@ but then I want to break the rules…HAHA
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Very true! I’ll probably end up breaking the rules sometime throughout these 30 days. Thanks!
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The Grammar Nazi me, Web Design me, and the Lazy Me are always fighting. “It’s too wordy!” “Use some pictures!” “I don’t want to take pictures and have to edit them!” XD
I’m really curious to see what your nominees say about a strong heroine. It’s such an interesting prompt.
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I guess we all have them then LOL the lazy me only wins out when I don’t have a computer, writing posts on a phone is hard xP I’m pumped too!
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Thanks for the nomination! And great timing on the essay prompt, as I’ve actually been chipping away at a post with a very similar topic off-and-on for a couple weeks now. This will definitely encourage me to keep working on that and try to get it finalized in the near future!
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wow you’re the second person who said this to me! i must’ve hit the jackpot xD i can’t wait to see what you have for us :3
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I blog because I enjoy writing and sharing my passion to others.
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Awesome post! Your answers are awesome! I blog because I enjoy writing and sharing my love of things with other people.
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2) and 3) are me! Writing and interesting are the reasons/motivation for me and my blog was born because of those. I like writing and hope I can write like you, @crimson613. Your writing style is easy to read, simple and clean.
Writing blog post is first, and share to other people is next. So I can share my thought, my analysis to others and want their opinion back so I can read and response them with comment.
ps. Oh & congratulations for the free spirit reward. ;3
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