12 Days of Deluscar – Day 7: Tips on blogging – Part 2
This is the second part of my “tips on blogging” posts. While on the first part, we dealt with the more rudimentary aspects of blogging, this part we will dive onto the more technical sides and fending off exhaustion and burnout.
1. Issues with Episodics
While in my previous post, I recommend you to try everything. An exception — episodics are tricky. They require you to post every week according to the anime’s weekly airing schedule, which can be troubling for people who may prefer his or her own pace. Some episodes may be in the introductory or build-up phases so you don’t always have a lot of content to work with. I tried episodic blogging before, and I’ll be frank… I just don’t like it. But like I said, just try everything — if it works, then that’s great, but if it doesn’t, then at least you now know it’s not for you.
2. Post Ideas
I will be frank. If you’ve been with me up until now, you will find out that I’m probably not the best guy to come for advice regarding post ideas. That’s probably because I’ve blogged for years and every single idea has been dug out through the deepest recess of my brain, the well’s run dry by now. …Well, that’s probably an exaggeration and indeed, back in the day, I had so many blog ideas that I don’t know what to do with them. If you’re looking for more post ideas, the best advice I can give is to read a lot! Read someone else’s posts, talk with your commenters, engage in anime discussions, stay up to date with the latest anime news and so on. Sooner or later, your mind will be filled with dozens of ideas you probably don’t even have the time to work on.
3. Spoilers
Spoilers are another tricky thing to tackle. I’m always on the side of non-spoiler content, but I understand some posts require spoiler-ish context or else they just wouldn’t work. In that case, just put a spoiler warning so readers can read the spoilers at their own choice. If you feel you are stepping into spoiler-ish boundaries, always remember to put up a spoiler warning.
4. Reserve your posts if needed
I mentioned this a lot in my blogging chronicles and I feel I should say it again — reserve your posts if needed. You don’t necessarily need to publish your posts immediately so why not save it for next time? Times when you are undergoing writer’s block or too busy/tired to write anything new are times when it’s perfect to bust out some of the posts you’ve been saving. I feel this has been a really underappreciated thing in blogging. Reserving your posts helps you pace yourself and maintain longevity, and is the only reason I have lasted as long as I did (though I may have relied on it too much, lol). Of course, if you’re doing episodic blogging which is something that requires frequent updates, then I’m afraid I can’t help you there; one of the many reasons for my dislikes on episodic blogging.
5. Take a break if you are feeling burned out
Maybe life has just been keeping you too busy, or maybe some problems have occurred that just got you into too much of a sullen mood to write anything. Even worse, all the posts you have been reserving were all published. Yes, sometimes it happens. When all the stars are aligned in an almost perfect storm, you may start sulking at the very thought of having to churn out actual new content. You are burned out. At this point, don’t be afraid to take a break. You can publish your posts at a slower pace. In my experience, I slowed down to a post per month (or two, even) schedule during the late stages of my blog, which was pretty much becoming semi-hiatus, and it worked wonders for me. If you feel the need for a hiatus yourself, then go for it! Blogging is a hobby and shouldn’t feel like a chore… Well unless you’re blogging for money. I would assume when money is on the line, it would challenge bloggers with certain pressure and stress which hobbyist bloggers can get away with.
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