The Blogger Recognition Award!

Thank you so much to Hidden Staircase for nominating me for this award (originally created by Eve at Edge of Night–thanks as well)! She blogs about mystery books and you guys should go check her site out! It is always such an honor to receive these awards from fellow bloggers! 🙂 Let’s get to it.

Here are the rules:

• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.

• Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers.

• Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog. Attach the award to the post. List who you’ve nominated in the post.

• Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.

• Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

My Story

I started this blog in April of 2014, when I was a freshman in high school. My sister had started a blog a few months earlier to showcase her sewing, and she had enjoyed it. (By the way, go check her blog out! She makes costumes and ready-to-wear clothing, and they are super cool.) I decided to jump on the bandwagon and try out a blog focusing on reading and writing.

I never “planned” on being a blogger. If you asked me at the beginning of freshman year if wanted to start a blog, it was so far off my radar that I wouldn’t have even known how to respond–it was never something I even thought about doing. That is, until the day I came up with a name for a blog and hopped on WordPress to create it. I’ve been blogging ever since.

Blogging is simultaneously a stress reliever and a stressor. I usually try to have three posts a week (though in a hectic week at school I might drop down to two). Writing blog posts is refreshingly different from schoolwork, so it gives my brain a break, but when I’m short on time, even giving myself a break it stresses me out. It ends up being a positive presence in my life on balance, however.

My Advice

Advice? Umm…I’m not sure I’m actually qualified for this, but here goes nothing:

1. Have a personality. I’ve noticed that the posts of mine that get the most traffic and likes tend to be posts in which I let my inner sarcastic fangirl loose. Sometimes with book reviews or TTT posts, I find myself being boring–just getting the facts across–but it always helps to let your own voice spruce up your posts.
2. Give yourself some “easy” posts. Especially if you plan to keep yourself to a goal of writing a a certain number of posts per week, having “easy” posts that you can write each week without too much work makes posting regularly simpler. I do the TTT meme every week, because I can write it in advance, it doesn’t take too long, and it lacks the pressure of other posts (such as book reviews which require, well, reading books).
3. Don’t be afraid to be a part of the community. Blogging isn’t just about putting your own story out there, it’s about interacting with fellow bloggers. The book blogging community (and other blogging niches, I would assumed) is supportive and friendly, so don’t be afraid to comment on other people’s posts or reach out to other bloggers. In my experience, there isn’t a VIP room for bloggers–we’re all in this together, no matter how long you’ve been blogging.
4. Make sure you’re having fun. Sometimes, blogging just won’t fit into my schedule for the week. If I find myself overwhelmed even taking the time to look at my blog’s dashboard, I know that I should back away from blogging for the week. Blogging is a great outlet and stress reliever, but only if you make sure that it stays a hobby instead of a tedious obligation.

My Nominations

Check out these amazing and wonderful blogs!

• Aila and Angela @ One Way or an Author
• Shelumiel @ Bookish and Awesome
• RJ @ Heir of Ravenclaw
• Nikki and Amy @ Every Book You Need to Read and More
• Charlotte @ Charlottebibliophile
• Jess @ Princessica of Books
• Emma @ A World of Books

(If you already received this award, I’m sorry, and you are under no obligation to do it again.)