I kinda took a big break from blogging. I felt like I kept running face first into a wall over and over and over and over and you get the point. But now the muse has returned. Turns out all I really needed to do was to change up my design a little and suddenly I have way more blogging inspiration. The funny thing is (it really isn’t funny, more like pathetic), today is my last day of summer break. Yep, that’s right, I go back to school tomorrow and have wasted my entire summer of freedom staring at my computer unsure about what to blog. And now that my free time is coming to an end, I have ideas. I know right? Seriously Emily? Seriously? -_-

Anyways, let me explain the title of this blog post. The first half is kind of obvious. It’s a new month. September is finally, (and unfortunately, if you ask me) upon us. August is over. :'( Summer is gone.

And I played around with the design of the blog a little, hence the new look. I felt like my old design was a bit, well, old – it really hasn’t changed much from its days as Icy Cold Reads besides the color scheme and header. I wanted something new. Something different. Something cleaner, more modern. And thus here we are. (I’m still working on the small things, so feedback is greatly appreciated. :D)

New Blog?!?!?

Not exactly. Remember the …sort of. About that. It’s not going to be new blog. It’ll still be the same. Same name. Same features. It’ll still have everything you liked about it (hopefully). It’ll just be a bit… different. You see, after weeks of dealing with a blogging burnout I finally figured out how I got into that mess in the first place.

How I got into a blogging slump

It was because I was tired. I was tired of doing the same thing every week. I was tired of listening to other people’s not so helpful advice. I was tired of my blog and tired of blogging and I just didn’t want to do it anymore! It used to be fun, but then it became tiring and worse, bor-ing.

When I first started blogging, I looked up how to become a successful (read: popular) blogger. One of the tips that I found was to have an update schedule. Post the same type of post on the same day of every week. It’s a reasonable tip. As a reader, I use it to check out my favorite blogs. If I know what day my favorite type of post will be up, that’s when I’ll visit. The only thing is, it didn’t work for me as a blogger. When you’re a blogger with a time limit it’s hard to stick to a blogging schedule. Especially if it’s Sunday night and you’re more inspired to write a post that’s supposed to be published on Fridays instead of one that’s supposed to be published on Mondays.

Another common tip was to post frequently. Now this tip just led to another problem. After a point, it caused me to value quantity over quality which is a big no no for me. But when you feel pressured to publish something everyday, regardless if you want to or not, you’re going to end up with filler content of less quality no matter how hard you try.

A third common piece of advice I got when I first started blogging was to stick to one topic. I chose books. (Duh). But there was a point when I started feeling stuck in that decision. I have more hobbies beyond reading. Reading is my favorite, of course, but there are other things I like to do besides read.

I kept doing what other people I felt other people wanted and not what I wanted. I kept listening to advice I took way too seriously. That didn’t go well, so now I’m shaking things up.

How?

I’m kissing the update schedule goodbye… sort of. I think I’m still going to post “Investigated” posts on Mondays, and of course the memes on their regular days, but I’m done trying to post other types of posts on certain days. And I’m done putting quantity over quality. It may lead to less posts, but whatever. I also hope to have more posts involving arts and crafts, baking/cooking, TV show reviews (I have a rant on Teen Wolf in the works), and heck even more personal posts. This blog is still going to be mostly about books, but I just want to make it more than just that.

Oh, and one more thing. It turns out that the fourth piece of advice I found was the most helpful. It was to do what your heart desired. When I first started blogging two years ago, it didn’t really make any sense mixed in with the other advice. But now it’s the one that I’m following. It might sound cheesy, but in the end it’s the one that’s bringing me the most happiness and serenity.

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