Sunday 29 December 2013

Disconnected

So I think I'm going to be ending this year on a kind of depressing note, blogging wise. As the title would suggest, I've been feeling a bit connected from blogging, from reading, from the blogosphere lately. It's only until now that I realised that that was the way I was feeling. I thought I'd just been in a bit of a slump as per usual, but it's been going on for what feels like forever now and I just wanted to address that properly.

It comforting to have been able to read so many posts of late about this sort of thing, because it's nice in a way to realise that even the most talented, wonderful bloggers out there have slumps like everyone else. I'm not going to give up blogging or anything, in case you're wondering. That's not the way to go about fixing this problem, I don't think. Well, personally, for me anyway.

 I just feel like for the past year at least that I have come to a complete standstill with blogging. I love it and I mostly do it for me, but at the same time I want to feel like I am contributing something new or interesting or different to the community that I belong to. I see all of these bloggers who are just so great at what they do and who have so many ideas and so many plans and are so organised and have such initiative, and it's like what do I give? What do I provide as a blogger? My opinion on books, which is what I set out to do, but that's it! I literally pretty much only do review posts these days. I mean, I never really had any ideas for features or the like in the first place, but I feel like I am not producing the sort of quality content, the variety of content, that I should? For some reason I just feel like I've put a lot of pressure on myself to be better and I lack the motivation and the creativity to do so. I love the followers and readers that I have dearly, and I wouldn't have gotten this far without them, and I know that it's not about the views and the follower counts, but I still just feel like I have come to a complete standstill and like I have nothing to give.

I've also felt so disconnected from what I've been reading lately. I was thinking about this when I was writing up my top ten books of the year, and I realised that compared to last year, it didn't really feel like much stood out to me. I still like the books that I read but they don't spark things in me like they used to. There are very few books which I read this past year which made me feel and made me feel better and just evoked something in me, something that made it truly special and personal, you know? And I still think reading is fun. I don't think you could force me to give up reading now if you tried. I just want to get back in my groove, finding a happy medium between reading loads of books and not really getting anything out of them and reading hardly any books at all but adoring them. Maybe it's just been a bad year for me reading/blogging wise. I don't know.

I just feel at a bit of a loss with this whole thing, you know?

Yeah. Well, I really hope that 2014 is the year that I get back on my feet with this whole thing. I feel a bit better now getting all that off of my chest.

3 comments:

  1. I know what you mean - I've had a really weird year when it comes to books. There have been tons of really good ones - knocking my favourite YA contemps down to just 10 is incredibly hard - but there've been loads that disappointed me,actually.

    With just posting reviews, if you were looking for something else to do, maybe see if you could arrange e-mail interviews with a couple of authors? I always find them really good fun and I'm sure there are authors out there who'd love to feature in one! Or you could try discussion posts with people,which can be good fun. (I'm hopeless at them, so not when they involve me, but I've seen others do them well...)

    Hope you start to feel more connected soon. The 'standstill' feeling is horrible, I know from experience!

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  2. Hm, we're sorry to hear that you're feeling this way -- but we also think it's normal. It happens to almost all bloggers at one point or another -- and sometimes multiple times! So do whatever you need to do to relax, recharge, and regroup. Come back if/when you're ready, and just do what makes you happy. Most importantly, remember that you are not obligated to do this. We find that feeling of "must" often kills the feelings of "love." ;)

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  3. I know exactly how you feel, dude. I got pretty busy with GCSE stuff and personal issues last year, and blogging started to get really stressful for me, and that's why I had to kinda cut myself off. But I really miss it now, and whenever I go on Twitter, I have absolutely no clue what anybody is even talking about, which makes me feel really sad and left out even though it's really my own fault. I think the best thing to do is just chill, y'know, and do what you want to do and how you want to. I hope 2014 is better for you. I miss reading your posts and I'm totally going to try and stay on track this year :)

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