It's very hard to get back into blogging after being gone for a while. I've been thinking on what to post and how to make my comeback to this blog. I could hardly pretend I hadn't been gone at all, so that's not what I'm going to do. Here I am and this is what I've been up to.
Quitting blogging
The real question is: Why did I quit blogging? The simple reason is that I didn't feel like doing it anymore. I thought it was too much work while being in my senior year of high school. Then my freshman year of college came around and I never got back into it. I have no good excuse and I don't need to have one. I was busy. This doesn't mean I haven't been reading. Since 2016 started, I have been reading more than ever. My reading average is 15 books a month. This is crazy for me. My total reading amount comes down to 80 books and we're only halfway through the year.
What have I been up to?
I have been doing something else book-related since last October. I created my own booktube channel. I have uploaded more than 100 videos on my channel. That comes down to uploading 3 to 4 videos a week. I have been using the same name as the name of this blog, since I wasn't sure if I'd ever come back to blogging. Making bookish videos had been my pride and joy for the last 9 months. My motivation has been through the roof and I've been very good at creating an uploading schedule. This gets me to believe I must be just as good at keeping a blog going.
What is in the future for Charlie Book Fanatic?
The booktube channel is definitely continuing on, because I absolutely love creating videos and sharing my love of books with fellow booktubers and readers. My plan is to expand my platform onto this blog and keep a separate blog going next to my booktube channel. I don't have any ideas for posts yet, but I do have a list of video ideas which I might transform into blog posts. I can also insert my videos and make a blog post around it, but I'm not the biggest fan of this idea. What I don't want, is to push people into watching my videos. I've been an avid reader of blog posts and I loved writing my own ones for the short amount of time I did it last year. The difference between my booktube channel and this blog is going to be that my blog will be fully book-related. On my channel I upload mostly bookish videos, but I also upload story times.
Where do we go from here?
I will choose some ideas and type those up. I don't have an upload schedule or any real ideas yet, but it will happen. I promise you that. I might make posts I don't have any videos of. Examples are discussion posts and challenge updates. I don't do those often enough on my channel, but I did do one recently on New Adult books and why I like them. I think I can create something great with this blog and I hope you'll be here, along for the ride. It's going to be a crazy one.
Tips
I can't leave you hanging without giving you some tips if you're wanting to get back into blogging after a long time. That's what the whole title is about and what I've been asking myself, after all.
1. Think long and hard about the content you want to create. Do you want to go on with what you did before you quit or took a break? Or do you want to do something completely different?
2. Talk to your readers! If you don't know what to do, do what I'm doing right now. I'm talking to the people who read or want to read my blog. They'll understand and maybe even help you out a fair bit.
3. Create an upload schedule and stick to it. I know how hard this is. I started blogging once and quit. I started booktubing once and quit. I picked both up again. Having an upload schedule helped me so much. I was determined to stick to it and it worked.
4. Brainstorm. It's so important to have actual ideas for the content you want to create. I know I'm being contradictory here. I have no clue about what I want to upload here, but I do have ideas. I can pick whichever idea I want to work on anytime I want. For my booktube channel, I have the whole year planned out already. I'm never stressed out.
5. Don't push yourself. Don't create an insane upload schedule you can't stick to. Only do what you can do. If you know you're busy, don't go and upload six to seven times a week. You can do whatever you want, but I feel like quality is more important than quantity anyway. Spend more time on one post you can be proud of and you will feel way better.
If you do want to check out my booktube channel, you can find it here: www.youtube.com/charliebookfanatic
Do you have any more tips to get back into blogging? Leave them down below! I'd love to hear from you.
