THE WRITING ASYLUM

Should I Terminate My Blog? It feels like a virtual reality padded cell in here… Should I save my time and sanity by quitting? There are never enough hours left in the day to do everything I want to do. And what about the novel?

Welcome to Tannille’s honest review regarding her blogs. Remember to play the violin.

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Lately, I have been reevaluating my life. There never seems to be enough energy to do everything I want to do — I know, I’m speaking to a choir. My detailed thoughts on the matter can be read HERE. The short version is, I want to follow my dreams and publish novels, but everything else steals my time and focus. 

This month I started reviewing my blogs. Blog 1 is my fiction and author platform Tannille. Blog 2, The Writing Asylum, is about the craft known as writing. I need to regain my energy and focus on novel writing. This means giving up on tasks that aren’t essential to my writing dream. Let’s see if either blog should end up on the chopping block.

Blog 1: Tannille.com

In her current form, Tannille.com, aka “Blogging with The Muse: A Cauldron of Flash Fiction, Short Stories, and Novel Nuggets”, has just turned four. Where does the time go? She isn’t my first blog baby, just the first I committed to without faltering after a year or two. I think joining the wonderful blogging group “Friday Fictioneers” deserves the credit for keeping my motivation burning. 

Every couple of years I do a revamp and reflect on where my blogs are at. They feel like living entities. They keep growing, there is no end point or rather, there is no completion. That’s the nature of blogging. My revamped blog is now purple, my signature colour. I want to put more “me” into the design. The former aqua blue was clean and crisp, but the colour didn’t suit my fantasy and quirky stories. I designed a new header with an altered tagline “Blogging with The Muse: A Cauldron of Flash Fiction, Short Stories, and Novel Nuggets”. I’m beyond satisfied and will continue to post fiction weekly. Every writer needs a website.

Blog 2: The Writing Asylum

The Writing Asylum… The Writing Asylum, she’s two, and like all toddlers, her personality is forming. There is growing up to do. As a result, the revamp is minimal. The likes, comments and hits are pathetic. Maybe it’s time to move on and reclaim my time and energy? Hold on… 

STOP!

While tinkering, I dove into stats. I’ve never bothered before because I don’t want to worry about these things. Long story short, The Writing Asylum doesn’t command the same reader interaction as my fiction blog, but wow, she does better with social media shares! Who knew? As a result, Both blogs now have social media share buttons on every post for readers to share and corresponding social media accounts (FaceBook, Twitter, and Tumblr). Auto publishing on WordPress is a breeze. Those accounts are somewhat out of sight, out of mind for the time being. We can’t be expected to do everything at once. Secret uncovered — those big gurus we follow on YouTube have a team of people to help them with the workload, or at least have a personal assistant. I wondered why I struggled to find time for all the extras they tell us, up-and-coming writers, to do; social media, blogging, newsletters, free content, networking, and so on. 

Lesson 1
Don’t judge blog performance only on likes, comments, and hits. Social media shares count.

Blogging Reality: How Long Does it Take to Establish a Blog?

I recently did a bit of reading up on blogging. Several blogging gurus pointed out, with the exception, to establish a blog, it takes 2–4 years of regular posting. The huge blogs that hit the big time take about 8 years. Some say around the 200 post mark there is a shift in readership. I noticed a pleasant shift on my 100 mark for blog 1 and I’m heading towards 200 posts. Bring out the poppers!

When I took blogging seriously four years ago, there were a lot of blogging gurus talking about the importance of the launch and instant followers. I now call BS. Blogging, or at least in my niches, is a commitment and takes freaking ages to grow. It’s unfair for me to judge The Writing Asylum’s performance when I have less than 30 posts (as I write this). I urge those in the same boat not to give up unless they HATE blogging or there is a hard choice to be made thanks to health or time. Blog less if you have to, not ideal but once every couple of months because life exploded will not break the blog in the long run. Burnout is real. Blog for yourself, but keep your target audience in mind. Over time, you’ll find an authentic audience who likes your content. That’s my theory and I’m sticking with it.  

Lesson 2
Blogs are a long-term commitment. Don’t quit too soon. Given the long game, write for yourself (with an audience in mind).

Write for Yourself and Have Fun

There are posts on this blog I wrote for others. I thought I wanted to be a writing guru type. I love helping other writers and have been facilitating writing groups for over a decade. I studied writing at university, and continue to take online courses, read books on the art of writing, and consume related content (YouTube, podcasts, blogs). One never masters the art of storytelling. If I’m honest with myself, those more teacher-like posts became too time-consuming, and I felt dread. So many writers are blogging about the craft of writing those days. I don’t need to compete. Just be me. I ENJOY, writing these more focused diary-like posts on writing. Sharing my experiences as they happen. Hell, I wish I had started this decades ago. My opinions on writing alter the more I write. I’m still discovering new things.  

THE WRITING ASYLUM ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE!

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Have you considered terminating your blog? What were your circumstances?