A Blogging Journey: How Do You Stay Motivated?

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I wish I could say that with my nine years of blogging experience (almost, my anniversary is in Nov), I could give some insight into this question, but the truth is that the longer I blog, the more I ask myself this exact question. Also, wow, I didn’t realize I’d been blogging for that long!

I think that when we start blogging everything is easy. We have so many ideas so writing is easier, and in a way, we are less jaded. Haha, I make that sound ominous. Also, my experience blogging is very different from others so if I make it seem like blogging is not very fun, well, it’s because that’s slightly been my experience. But don’t let this scare you away. I think blogging is what you make it! And this is mostly aimed at people who blog for fun, not people who blog for profit. My answer to you is “do you wanna get paid or nah? start writing”

I remember that when I first started blogging, I would write almost 2-3 posts a day, and yes, publish them. Some of those posts are still on my blog, others have been lost, and a few are hidden in my drafts. Enough to say that what is public is maybe only a portion of my blogging career. And honestly, before Blaugust 2022, I hadn’t blogged in A WHILE

I think that before August, the post I wrote with actual content by me was [Essay] Arcane: Deep Diving Into The Father-Daughter Relationship Between Silco and Jinx. That was in April and before that were only a few sporadic posts, some were reviews and others that I nearly dragged myself out of bed to write. So what has kept me here?

I think the biggest reason I still blog is that I always feel the need to share something. I read manga, I watch anime, I play games, etc., and I want to share what I’ve experienced. Does this have anything to do with the fact I don’t have any IRL people to share my excitement with? Or the fact I’m soft-spoken and am 90% ignored in conversations? Who knows, maybe, all that has to go somewhere, right? Quitting blogging has also been on my mind a few times, but when I’ve finally thought, ok I won’t come back, I’ve been gone long enough, people won’t remember me, there’s a new crowd anyway, there I go, crawling back to my computer and screaming about something

So will I ever truly stop blogging? No. I will always come back

As for what keeps me motivated, I think part of it is the community. I think the times I’ve both disliked and loved blogging the most were when I was doing something with the anime community. Disliked…well, we’re not here to write mean things, but let’s just say that there was a turning point in my early years that turned blogging from something fun I decided to try into a slight chore. From there my perspective on blogging slightly changed. On the flip side, I think my feelings for everything are always changing depending on my situation at home and in my head, and the same applies to blogging

Do I love blogging? Yes. Can I see myself not blogging? Not really. Is it tough? Yes. And that affects how much I love blogging and whether I love it every day or not. The answer is no. I don’t love it every day

I wonder what’s in store if I don’t love it anymore

Ok, this isn’t my career but I instantly thought of this song, and I mean, I’ve been blogging long enough where it IS a significant part of my life. If someone asked me to describe myself “blogger” or “writer” would definitely be one of the words I’d use

But yeah, essentially blogging turned into something I HAD to do. People were talking about building consistency, about posting every day, stats, follower counts, being successful, and it started to feel like I had to write something significant and proper for there to be value in my posts. If this hasn’t happened to you, I’m glad and kind of jealous. But that’s how I am, easily influenced. Also, I want to put this out there but I am not a good person. I wish I were a better blogger buddy (and human overall) but nope, I can’t. I think it’s my Taurus nature. That should tell you enough lol

Anywhooooo, this is why I am grateful for things like OWLS, theJCS, and now Blaugust. OWLS is no longer part of what I do but it helped me keep some consistency to the blog because of course one post a month is consistency. I decided to stop for reasons I’d rather not share but also, I talk about some things in this post. Soon after I think I talked about not doing theJCS, which I would host twice a year… but I couldn’t stay away from that one. But now I really think I might be done, lol. That leaves me with Blaugust. I am actually really glad to be back to blogging. I’ve had so much fun sharing many of the things I’ve been up to, my purchases, and just doing posts with not much of a purpose. If you think I buy a lot of things, just know that I don’t. It just seems like it because all those posts were part of my backlog

So yes, being involved in community events is a nice way to keep motivated. There aren’t as many in the blogging community (as compared to, let’s say, the fanfiction community) and sometimes the events can be very vague (post for 12 days, for 31 days, for x-days), which doesn’t help people like me who need more focus, but I think there’s more now than before

you know what would be awesome? if i continued to post consistently after blaugust 😭

— crimson @ #blaugust2022 (@anerdyfujocries) August 9, 2022

I don’t want to jinx it but I think maybe I’m coming back to blogging. I know I always say this but I think going on hiatus was exactly what I needed. Maybe part of the problem was burnout and going on breaks to clear the mind, to try something new, or to build a backlog of content you’d like to write about is the answer to blogging for a long time. But I’m no expert. If anything, my advice is to do what works for you. Some people can post every day. They have the time, the energy, and the will to do it. Others, like me, don’t. I’ve decided to embrace that. I mean, for a few months I semi-refused to blog because I didn’t have a surface I was satisfied with where I could place my laptop. Now I do. So now I write. Although now I have a new problem, which has been affecting my blogging elsewhere and I imagine, soon here

The last thing I’ll mention is Let yourself and your blog be open to posting about anything. My blog is very BL specific, which at certain parts of my blogging life has been very constricting. I mean, when I started I loved the idea. I never thought I’d have trouble with it but then I started to grow and consume more media, a variety that I didn’t feel 100% right putting on my blog. I mean, I love the fact my blog is BL aimed. I wouldn’t change that, but things (and I) develop and I didn’t think of that when I started blogging. To the people who remember My Fujoshi Life and Cute Boys Central (idk maybe there were others, I can’t remember them tho), thanks for sticking around. I hope A Nerdy Fujo Cries will be the last time I make a major change to my blog and that it will give me that leeway to write more about most of the things I want

There are still things I semi-refuse to post about here, like books (I have a book blog elsewhere anyway but it’s TOUGH) but I do want to keep some focus/niche vibe to my content so I do place some limits on myself. I still primarily blog about BL but I’m starting to branch out into other LGBTQ territory and Asian content in general (hence my dramas category!) so I guess maybe that’s where I’ll be living soon

Does that mean I’m saying you should pick your URL carefully? No. I’m just weird like that. Don’t be me. That’s what I’m saying

I feel like I sort of answered the question, LOL. With quite a bit of rambling. So now I turn it to you all, how do you stay motivated? Please share with me your wisdom!