2020 Book Blogger Goals

Hello 2020! New decade, largely the same old me but with a nice Aussie tan from my winter holiday.

One of my favourite things to do at the beginning of the year is make new years resolutions. I love planning things out, looking ahead at my life in minute detail and deciding how I can improve. I know, my head, a great place to be. Any-who, with the turn of the decade comes a new year and chance to look at back at my former goals and make a handful new ones for 2020. I’m going to start with a quick recap of last years goals.

Get to 600 blog followers

So apparently I started 2019 on 270 followers and I finished 2019 with 780 followers! I’m super proud of that, a 500 follower increase is more than I thought I could achieve. I’m hoping to hit the big three digits in 2020.

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Use Goodreads

Oh gosh, I’m still so terrible. I started kind of ok at updating it but I didn’t keep it up at all, I ended manually adding lots of the books I’d read last year. Oops. This year I’m going to track as I go and log on once a week to add a reading update.

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Not to Have any Reviews stored over a Month

Yeah this one failed, I read 37 books this year and published about 15 reviews… Woops. Another goal joining the 2020 list, I’m afraid.

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Post three times a week

This honestly just got too much. I didn’t have the time to post three times a week and wanted my content to stay fresh and well written (it takes me hours to write posts!). I’ll stick with a minimum of two for 2020, although I have a new and exciting series coming up for you all that might push me to posting three times a week.

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Read 6 historical fictions

I managed this one! But, honestly, I think it may have put me off historical fictions. Certainly of the YA variety. I find myself being way too critical when the plot couldn’t have happened, picking up on historical inaccuracies, and I found that a couple of these novels would explore themes of sexism at the time but allow their wealthy main character to be the exception, which grates me a bit. There might be a discussion post in this actually 🤔

Anyway, here’s the historical fictions I read:

1. Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
2. Stalking Jack the Ripper
3. Circe
4. Rose Under Fire
5. Huckleberry Finn
6. Alex and Eliza
7. Things a Bright Girl Can Do

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Complete the Classic a Month Challenge

This started off really great. Until about March. I got offered Muse of Nightmares by a publisher, which was super exciting, and then had to race through Strange the Dreamer and missed a classic and then poof, never got back to the classics. I don’t think I’ll be trying this again but I am hoping to continue to read diversely in 2020.

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Read 1 non fiction book

I actually did this! I read Becoming, Michelle Obama’s autobiography and I loved it! I’m hoping to read some more autobiographies in the new year so let me know if you have any recommendations.

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Try NaNoWriMo Again

I was unconvinced I’d be able to win this year and I was right, I didn’t quite manage it. But I am pleased that I gave it another go and very happy to have made more progress than last year. Maybe in 2020 I finish it?

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Complete the Duolingo Tree

In Januray 2018 I randomly took to learning French and, in January 2019 I had nearly completed the Duolingo Tree. Which was super exciting until they brought out a new update that put me three circle things away from finishing the tree but on only 1 crown (Duolingo people may vaguely understand this). So this update set back put me back to slowly working my way through the tree again. Grrr.

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Run a Thing

I ran many 10k things! Well, two official ones and many 5ks with mates. I got two shiny medals and am hoping to do a half marathon in 2020.

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Knit Something

I managed to knit my dinosaur toy a little scarf, which I’m very proud of. The goal of knitting a Weasley jumper is quite far away but maybe one day.

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And nowwwww, drum roll please, my 10 2020 goals!

1. Improve on my NaNoWriMo word count
2. Send at least one of my NaNoWriMo 2019 short stories off to a magazine
3. Get to 1000 (!!) blog followers
4. Get to 2000 Instagram followers
5. Run a half marathon
6. Do Duolingo everyday
7. Do something for muscle strength (I’m great at cardio but with the physique of a leaf)
8. Update Goodreads once a week
9. Reduce my food waste
10. Publish a discussion post once a month

Let’s Compare Notes

So there you have it. My goals. Bring on 2020. What are your goals? What do you think of mine? If you have a goals post feel free to drop a link or opinion in the comments!

Why I Wouldn’t Choose Blogging as a Career

I know what you’re thinking. Mad, wouldn’t I want my hobby as a job, isn’t that the dream? But I’ve been asked a handful of times whether I’d make book blogging my full time job and, even if we lived in some Fantasy realm where book blogging makes millions and my blog’s grown to the point of being able to make money, I still think I’d keep it as a hobby.

I’m going to caveat all this with if you’ve made blogging your full time job then that’s amazing. I admire your bravery in taking that step and, as a computer scientist, think it’s great that technology has allowed people to have so much freedom in their career. But, personally, I’m not dreaming of becoming a rich and famous book blogger, earning my millions in some mysterious way benign to most bloggers. Blogging isn’t bitcoin and I don’t think I could make enough money out of it, but I also know I don’t want to make it my career.

My first thought would be my job. I’m in the incredibly lucky position that I really like what I do. Its not perfect all the time, there are obviously bumps and I definitely miss the days where I didn’t have to see the 6am/7am hour, that would surely happen if I was completely in control of my own time. But, on the whole I’m good at computer science, love it and am really hoping to make a difference in the field.

The second big factor is that I don’t want to treat my blog differently. I don’t want to see each follower as number rather than a friend and watch my stats meticulously to find which content is engaging and which isn’t. One genuine comment is worth more to me than a 100 views. Blogging is my space to relax, chat about books, get recommendations and just chill. It’s not my office. I love my blog, but even doing the most fun jobs, like blogging all day, there will be some moments when you want to do something else. I like having the freedom to write posts, chat about whatever, post on social media when I fancy talking to the world, and then switch off my phone if I feel. I always reserve Sundays as a blogging break and try to not be too hard on myself about when I read and when I forget to post. If it’s not fun I just won’t do it.

The final reason I wouldn’t blog as a career is the work. Blogging, and just freelancing in general, looks hard. Planning your own hours has lots of downsides: working late in the evening, working weekends, never knowing when to switch off. Or, at least, that’s what it was like for me at university. I found that stressful and know I wasn’t very good at it.

Then there’s the hours I’d have to put in to be good. I’m a computer scientist, I understand SEO, can write code and know how to write a good website. But social media, marketing and graphic design? Yeah not so much. It takes a lot of skills to run a successful blog and I like wouldn’t want the pressure, I enjoy exploring and learning those skills in my own time, trying out things and not being too worried if they don’t work.

There would be more obligations to be a better blogger if it was my career and I don’t want that. I’m not saying I don’t want to be good at book blogging- I do. I want my writing, confidence and online marketing skills to improve. I enjoy learning these skills knowing they’re just for me, not to wack on an impressive CV or produce a steady income to pay rent and buy food.

What about you? How long have you been blogging? Would you want a hobby as your career? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Why ‘No Post on Sunday’

If you’ve ever seen Harry Potter you’ll remember well the scene where Mr Dursley sits back smugly with a cup of tea, indulging in the fact that there’s no post on a Sunday. Obviously you’ll then remember that he does, in fact, recive some post. Quite a lot of it.

But without magic letters delivered by magical owls down quite ordinary chimneys, the rest of us are at the mercy of Royal Mail who do, in fact, not deliver any post on Sunday. No squeaky hinged letter box opening and slamming shut as hoards of junk mail and the occasional council tax bill flop to the floor of our tiled entryway. We just wait until Monday to recive that Chinese menu and local flyer.

Now obviously, being a book blog, this post is not about the postal system. Despite it’s opening it’s actually an emerging but not often noticed theme on my pocket of the internet: I never post on a Sunday.

I can’t remember when I made this rule so if you delve into the murky realms of my blog’s conception you may find the odd post thrown up on a late Sunday night or early Sunday morning, potentially back when I was stumbling into my student house after a late night trip to McDonalds for a share box of chicken nuggets and a handful of laughs with my friends. Regardless, certainly in the last few months I’ve been firm to not post on a Sunday.

It’s not just posting I don’t do. I don’t blog hop, I don’t reply to comments and I don’t, and this one is the hardest of all, check social media. No squeezed in scroll of Bookstagram while waiting for the pasta to boil, no far too long read of Twitter in bed, that was only meant to be five minutes but is now pushing an hour. Even, despite it not being anything to do with my blog, no peak at Facebook to see the people I only vaguely once knew on holiday with other people I don’t know at all, coupled with memes that stopped being funny the first time they appeared on everyone’s feed.

Not posting, or blogging, on Sunday doesn’t mean I don’t read. I still have an audiobook on while I mop the floor, stretch out in a warm bath clutching my latest loan from the library, squeezing the pages extra tight so the book doesn’t land in the soapy scented water. But it takes the pressure of it, not thinking about which reviews I need to write up next. I often stall over the app screen on my phone when I have some down time, landing on Duolingo or the Tetris app than my go to social medias and WordPress.

I enforce no social media Sundays to give me a guaranteed moment of quiet in the week. A day where there’s no work deadlines crammed in and no niggling pressure to compare my life with others through an unhealthy screen addiction. Blogging isn’t my day job and I do it for fun, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of work.

I never had the luxury of balance at university: hitting drawn out long periods with no deadlines and suddenly the frenzy when they all come at once. Getting in late from the library only to set my alarm for 8am, laptop an arms reach from my bed to start ASAP the next morning. My friend and I would meet outside her house, sit together in the library crawling over our notes, tapping away at our assignments, allowing ourselves one quick soggy sandwich break outside before starting it all back up again. Then we’d have dinner as a group, some budget meal like curry or our speciality: chicken nugget pizza, before saying we’d do it all again tomorrow. I’d often start my laptop back up again that night, if we didn’t all take a late night trip for ice cream or chicken nuggets.

Leaving university I was craving the balance a 9-5 job gives you. Not squinting at a computer screen after dinner, trying to polish an assignment of before bed, and going on actual proper day trips with my boyfriend, rather than quick afternoon trips down to the beach where we’d skim stones and eat ice cream, finishing up with piping hot chips on the seaside and the promise to not think about work for those few hours.

Having no social media Sunday is not exactly easy. I find myself using it just a little bit more Saturday, before I go to sleep, knowing I’ll miss it Sunday morning. It is definitely, and strangely, addictive. I’ve heard the Instagram algorithm punishes you for such inactivity and I find myself behind on blog comments at the beginning of the week. I don’t allow myself to take photos for my Bookstagram on Sundays, because it’s a no blogging day, and that often means I’m behind and don’t have the light to take good ones midweek.

I wouldn’t say I feel incredibly relaxed for this detox and, only being one day, it’s not a massive deal. I’ve not given it up for good or for a few months, like some of my friends have. I also don’t think I’m massively addicted. I know it’s what everyone says but I do have quite a good balance generally: I’m not glued to my phone over dinner, I don’t login to my socials on my work laptop and my Saturdays are often spent in remote countryside castles where lack of signal reverts my smart phone to a slightly rubbish selfie camera.

However, I still am sucked into the murky realms of social media, time flying away from me too fast, all too often and I have felt the pressure to be more on top of my blogging to do lists. I think it’s important to spend a day away from a demanding hobby like blogging, to keep it fun and just to put it in perspective. Because, at the end of the day, nothing bad is going to happen if I don’t reply to the odd comment on a post or ignore a Twitter chat for a while. It helps me step back and I think I’m a better blogger, and more chill person, because of it.

What about you? Do you spend any days away from your social media, or do you have other way of balancing your life? What are your other hobbies, besides blogging? Would love to hear from you in the comments!

Blogtober

With an overflowing drafts folder, slightly lazy posting schedule and half a dozen reviews I need to get out by the end of the year, to count towards my Goodreads goal, I’ve devised a crazy plan. To blog everyday. Yep, to post something everyday for a whole month as part of a blogging wide event called Blogtober.

Here’s a short schedule of what you can expect to appear on my blog this month, partly to help me plan it, mostly for accountability and a little bit for you guys to get hyped!

Tuesday 1st – Top Ten Tuesday: Summer TBR The Results

Wednesday 2nd – Blogtober Schedule

Thursday 3rd – September Wrap Up

Friday 4th – 30 Words: 30 Words I Learnt from Books

Saturday 5th – Discussion Post: Why no Post on Sunday?

Sunday 6th – No Post

Monday 7th – Tag: On this Day

Tuesday 8th – Top Ten Tuesday: Character Traits All Protagonists Should Have

Wednesday 9th – Summer Book Haul 1

Thursday 10th – Gilmore Girls Challenge: Update

Friday 11th – Review: The Raven Boys

Saturday 12th – 30 Words: 30 More Words I Learnt from Books

Sunday 13th – No Post

Monday 14th – Wrap Up: Halfway Through Blogtober

Tuesday 15th – Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Book Titles that Deserve an Oscar. Or the Book Title Equivalent

Wednesday 16th – Review: Finale

Thursday 17th – Discussion Post: Why I wouldn’t Want Blogging as a Career

Friday 18th – Summer Book Haul 2

Saturday 19th – Review: A Curse so Dark and Lonely

Sunday 20th – No Post

Monday 21st – Non Bookish Post: Just a Handful of My Favourite Birthdays

Tuesday 22nd – Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books I Would Rename

Wednesday 23rd – Discussion Post: Is Bigger Always Better?

Thursday 24th – Review: Vox

Friday 25th – 30 Words: Yet Another 30 Words I Learnt from Books

Saturday 26th – Review: When Dimple Met Rishi

Sunday 27th – No Post

Monday 28th – Review: Red Queen

Tuesday 29th – Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books that Weren’t Horror yet Still Freaked me Out

Wednesday 30th – Discussion Post: Is the Immaturity of Youth Shown Enough in YA

Thursday 31st – Wrap Up: October Wrap Up

How I Measure a Year

I almost missed this but this week my blog turned one! 1️⃣🎂🎉 So, how do I sum up a year? Back at school I sung a song “How do you Measure a Year in the Life” which was, like all songs you sing at school, quite a chore and not too exciting. The song found lots of bizarre ways to measure a year- I remember one idea was to use sunrises or cigarettes.

Overall my take home was I don’t have any idea how to measure a year more than the lyricist of this song, but thought I’d give it a go anyway. Here’s me measuring a year on the blog:

Posts written: 109. Wow that’s quite a lot of reviews, wrap-ups, Bookish opinions and lists.

Followers: 382. I’m very impressed with my blog on this account. I never thought it would get this many followers and I’m super grateful to all of you!

Most Viewed Post: Top Ten Books I read At Uni. Yep, apparently you guys loved reading about all my favourite reads from uni, and there were some real crackers 👌

Most Popular Month: August. I actually am a tad disappointed by this because I hoped to keep improving my engagement every month, but evidently my blog is a summer read.

My Favourite Post: Ten Female Book Characters in STEM. By faaar. I loved talking about some of my favourite characters, the ones that inspired me the most or I related to a lot. I’m going to try write a similar post this year but with books I read in 2019 and you’ll be glad to know it’s already got some characters on!

Bookish events I attended: 2? I think two, but one was YALC so definitely good fun. The other was a panel with VE Schwab, Samantha Shannon and Neil Shusterman

Biggest Blogging Acheivment: getting offered a copy of Muse of Nightmares. As a small blogger I’m super pleased to be on the tour next week!

Friends made through Blogging this year: countless. I’m in like two blogging group chats and get to chat lots in the comments sections.

Best advice received this year: not all your posts have to be reviews. My friend told me way back when I started this blog and since I have lots more interesting and regular content!

Search terms: ok, this is just a bit of fun, but here are what people have been searching this year to find my blog:

• Bookish weird items– mmmh hope I don’t count as one of these?
• Top platonic relationship fanfics– I feel this poor soul possibly didn’t find what they were looking for
• Top ten female characters in books– hey! I’m super happy I show up when you search this!

So there you go! That’s my year on the blog. How old if your blog, if you have one? What was the best blogging advice you ever received? Did you go to any bookish events this year? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

An Interview with Author Rick Lenz

Super excited to be posting my first author interview! Meet Rick Lenz and his latest novel Impersonators Anonymous (published just last year)! He’s chatted to me all about his novels, himself and writing advice for any budding authors out there.

1) Hi Rick, welcome to my blog! Would you mind introducing your book?

Happy to, Hannah!

The main character is 26-year-old Emily Bennett, an aspiring movie producer. She becomes obsessed with completing “Showdown,” a long lost movie starring John Wayne and James Dean, which she’d heard rumor of from character actor Richard Boone (Have Gun, Will travel). The two-thirds completed film will require the use of emerging computer technology and doubles who are almost dead ringers for Wayne and Dean. She stumbles into a love triangle with her impersonators, but doesn’t know who they really are because she suffers from face blindness, a brain disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. The three characters emerge from their pasts, gifted but damaged. Young and ignorant, they haven’t yet learned they have power over their own lives. Their vengeful ghosts inhabit there ever a decision, every passion and every dream. As the movie is completed, these flawed characters (and others) find themselves in the titular showdown of their lives when their interwoven back stories come together in a stormy climax that reveals their hidden animosities, demons, and loves.

2) And now what are three unusual facts about yourself?

1. Before I started working regularly as an actor, I worked as a set designer, stage director, an acting teacher, hotel night clerk, MC at the New York World Fair, Parks Department employee, clothing salesman, truck driver, factory worker, file clerk, public school substitute teacher, and I spent one day dressed up as Mr. Peanut in a supermarket in the Bronx. In show business, I’ve made my living not only as an actor, but also as a singer, dancer, musician, television writer and playwright.

2. I met my wife on a blind date. It was her first. She was very nervous. She had a couple of glasses of Dubonnet to deal with that. When I arrived at her door, she looked at me and said, “Not bad.” We got married two years later.

3. When I was twenty, I slid down a glacier in Norway. I miscalculated my trajectory. I’d gone too wide and could see that I was going to be speeding into a large patch of jagged rocks sticking out of the glacier. I knew I was a dead man. But by the time I reached the rocks, the glacier was so steep that I was airborne and the flew over them. When I landed, I was past the rocks, the glacier leveled out towards the bottom, and I was spared.

3) How did you come up with the idea for your novel?

I had been successful with my first novel, The Alexandrite, in which Marilyn Monroe was a character. Since I worked as an actor with John Wayne and Richard Boone, and I had heard a rumor about a lost film that starred John Wayne and James Dean, I was fascinated and began researching both Wayne and Dean. I got hooked on the story, and had to write the novel.

4) Who is your favourite author? (No cheating and saying yourself!)

Living: Haruki Murakami. Deceased: Shakespeare and Mark Twain.

5) If you had to be stranded on a dessert island with one of your characters, which one would you pick?

I would pick Emily from Impersonators Anonymous because she is partly based on my wife, Linda, and any desert island would be paradise if she was there.

6) What was the trickiest part of the writing process for you? When did you start on you novel?

My process has changed over the years. I started making notes for this book 20 years ago. My next one (not titled or published yet) took me only a year. The one I’m writing now should be finished by next fall.

7) Which is your favourite line in your novel?

“Being dead is no more educational than being a movie star.” — John Wayne in Impersonators Anonymous.

8) What is a piece of advice you’d give to a budding author out there?

Read, read, read. And remember that not everything you write is sacred. If it’s not what you want it to be, throw it away and do it better.

Let’s Compare Notes

So there you have it! My first interview- hope it went ok!! Have you ever read Impersonators Anonymous? Do you want to be an author yourself? Would love to hear your opinion in the comments!

2019 Goals

From writing my first set of blogging goals I quickly discovered how tricky they are to come up with. I wanted my goals to be balanced: achievable but still an accomplishment. So here we go, a list to achieve for 2019. Bring it on.

P.s. I’m ridiculously pleased with the picture on top of this post. It’s one of my favourite holiday snaps.

Get to 600 blog followers

I’ve really struggled with this number. I want to increase my followers next year but, being a mathematician and all, that goal needed quantifying. At first the number was 500 but then I saw I’m on 270 already and wanted more of a challenge. This might be impossible, but hey why not try.

Use Goodreads

I’m so bad at using Goodreads. This year I’m going to try complete a Goodreads challenge, post my reviews over there and be generally active in the bookish community on that site.

Not to Have any Reviews stored over a Month

I’m so bad at publishing reviews. I don’t know, I love writing them and often type furiously mid novel but then just let it sit in drafts??! Not this year. Every review will be posted within a month of the book being read.

Post three times a week

I currently post twice a week, which I think is why my reviews sit in draft for so long. Hopefully posting three times will get my posts out quicker and be a fun way to get more active on my blog!

Read 6 historical fictions

I really like historical fiction but always seem to get swept up in the world’s of fantasy YA. Hopefully I can strike more of a balance with that this year!

Complete the Classic a Month Challenge

I’ve no idea who came up with this challenge or who else is joining but someone mentioned it on Twitter and it seemed pretty self explanatory. It sounds tough but hopefully I can at least attempt! Because there are so many gems in genres I never seem to explore.

Read 1 non fiction book

I don’t really know if I’d like non fiction or not, I do enjoy some bibliographies so I suppose I can’t know until I try?

Try NaNoWriMo Again

I probably won’t win (I don’t know if I’ll ever win that challenge it is so tough) but just to best this year’s word count would be great.

Some non Blogging Goals!
Because why not share these with you guys too!

Complete the Duolingo Tree

I probably haven’t mentioned this but January 2018 I randomly took up learning French (?) I’m hoping to finish the Duolingo tree (which is all the little blobs of language) by 2020 💪

Run a Thing

I attended Park Run, a group run of 5k that happens every Saturday morning, all through University and have joined the running club at work. But every time someone invites me to run an official 5k or whatever I chicken out. Maybe I could give it a go this year?

Knit Something

I’m a total granny and knit in the evenings. I know, embarrassing, right? I guess I just can’t ever sit still and it gives me something to do. Anyway being the creative flop I am I keep unravelling my work, but hopefully I can achieve something, even just a small square, this year.

Let’s Compare Notes

So there you have it. My goals. Bring on 2019. What are you goals? What do you think of mine? If you have a goals post feel free to drop a link or opinion in the comments!

How I Post Consistently

I recently did my first ever guest post over on a publishers website *eek!* And have been given permission to cross post! So here’s my guest post on How I post Consistently, which you can also find here

It Won’t be Easy

The life of a blogger is not easy. You’ve got to juggle writing content, social media interaction and that pesky little thing of your life away from your laptop. Or Smartphone as the case may be. It’s not always easy and any form of regular input to your blog is impressive, whatever your situation.

However, posting consistently is key to successful blogging, in my opinion. I read somewhere, when making a blog was a fleeting idea in the back of my mind, that to get followers you had to be everywhere. People forget, hype moves away and if you’re not posting regularly your existing followers won’t remember you and new followers won’t find you. It’s important, but definitely not easy.

I’ve been a blogger since April and will not claim to be an expert in the art of consistent posting. There were times, my dissertation due, exams coming up and the constant battle of looking for work after university, where my blog was on the back burner. It’s not my career, it never had priority over my work or social calendar, but that didn’t mean I wanted to let it flop.

Think Ahead

The first step to posting consistently, for me, was to work out how often I could realistically post. My original intention was a book review, a ‘meme’ and another post every week. Did it occur to me that I fall into slumps, that I don’t realistically read a book every week or that a busy week might drag me away from my laptop? It was what I could achieve on a good week, but normal weeks aren’t full of Friday meetings finishing early or long train rides to visit friends. Two posts a week is slightly less than I can write but very achievable on weeks when I’m busy or in a slump or have no inspiration on what to write. There’s no shame in flooding your drafts with potential posts since there will be an inevitable moment where your grateful for the hoardes of drafts you’ve stocked up.

Savor Moments of Inspiration

The second step in tackling regular posting was ideas. Whether you blog about books, your life, or even you pet dog there are going to be days when Fido doesn’t do anything to merit a post. I originally intended to blog when I felt like it. In those wonderful moments when the words write themselves and I find myself furiously tapping out a post on my smart phone. It worked for a bit but I soon discovered inspiration, although often, is far between. I’d have twenty ideas for a post one week but then have none for the next. To counter this I began to drop down all the ideas, no matter how silly, as they appeared and began to select a favourite each week. And if none of these take your fancy find a tag or meme that another blogger has done recently. You don’t need to be tagged, you can just go for, honestly no one will mind. These posts are often very well received because they’re often funny and if the tag is quite popular other bloggers might flock to it the same way you have.

Find a Schedule that Works for You

This brings me nicely into my third point- regularity. I’m not convinced that posting on the same day ever week will improve your blogging repitoir or your followers but it can help with regular posting. My posting has become much more consistent since I joined in with a Tuesday meme. It gave me a regular posting schedule which put more structure in my week. I know I post once on Tuesday and have to have a post published between then and next Tuesday, which isn’t all that difficult. And it gives me a sort of deadline to work to that makes me actually get on with it, above all else.

A trick that I’ve started to use lately, but have found infinitely useful, is setting aside time to blog. I’m not saying always stay in on a Monday night and work on your blog, I’m suggesting finding small pockets of down time and working in them. I blog on my commute, but whether it’s your bus ride home or the ad break in Strictly you might find these little moments infinitely useful, no matter how short.

A final quirk I feel I should doff my hat to is scheduling. Personally, I don’t schedule posts. I find it difficult to keep track of what’s posting and to interact with comments and shares on social media. But if you’re in a hotel room in some exotic tropical location on your family’s annual holiday you don’t really want to be worried about writing a blog post and miss the traditional ‘who won Monopoly argument’. Scheduling can make consistency easier and you never know, it might work really well for you.

Lets Compare Notes

So there you have it, some small tips that have helped me manage my posting. Would be great to hear from you if you have any tips of your own and if you think mine might be helpful?

Three Quick Aims for my Little Blog

One of the pure joys in life is making list. I make tonnes of lists, my phone is full of them. In fact the idea for this post is sitting on a list right now (conveniently called “potential blog posts”). So without getting too confusing this is a list inside a list- a list of aims for my nice, shiny, new blog. Little things that I’d like to achieve while making this blog:

1. To always be me

While writing for other things, like my uni magazine or creative writing competitions, I’ve always tried to be what I’ve thought people wanted. Make everything super serious or sound really sophisticated by using long words, like sophisticated. But here I just want to be me. This blog is where I want to ramble and review and just have fun really, so I’m going to try not cave to any need to make it seem professional.

2. To stick with it

Occasionally I’m a bit of a quitter. I have a guitar in my room collecting dust from when I was fourteen and decided the music industry was for me (it wasn’t). There’s a fanfiction account hidden in the heart of the internet with some awful stories on that I just gave up on. My Goodreads reading challenge (you guys are going to hate me for this) was religiously updated until I came back to uni and just, sort of… forgot.

But this blog I want to be different. I don’t want to just give it up after a few days, I’m going to try and update it. I want to look back at the time I left uni and stepped into the real world and be reminded of how insanely stressful it was much I grew as a person.

3. To have fun

I’m not making this blog to be famous or because it’s going to be some big stepping stone for my career (something tells me a book blog isn’t a massive asset for the old computer science CV). I’m making it because I like reviewing books, love to ramble and want to look back at what I was doing and who I was when I first stepped out into the big wide world. It’s more like a diary (which I decided to share with the world?) than anything else. So I always want to have fun while making it.

Anyway, thanks for reading my aims! If you guys have any aims (or share any of mine!) then I’d love to hear about them! Or, you know, anything you feel like commenting, because I’m lonely and would love that too!

Hello! I made a Book Blog!

So yes, I’ve reached a totally new level of madness and decided to make a blog. Because, you know, my life wasn’t busy enough or anything (this is sarcasm, my life is completely busy enough, I’m in 5 societies, have a full-time degree and I’m currently creating an app because, you know, yolo).

Ok, so I’m a little mad, but it’s still something I really want to do! I’m graduating from university at the end of this year ** freaks out just a little bit [maybe a lot but lets ignore that] ** which means I’ve nowhere to put my book reviews, previously homed at my university’s amazing student entertainment magazine. The idea came from my friend who makes a fantastic blog, it’s incredible and I read it all the time, I’d love to make a blog as good as hers.

At first I was like “oh my gosh, I can’t do that”. I’ve always been edited before I’m published in the uni magazine to make sure my words word properly. Without that I’ll use the wrong pier and “will put quotes around random things”. (If you think the pier thing was random, it’s not, it took me about 5 attempts to work out how to say “peer pressure” on the group chat once, my englishy friends will never let me live it down).

But then I thought “but I really want to make a blog…” and, well, sense and reason stopped being a thing then. So, without further ado, here we are, me, completely unedited!

Thank you so much for reading my first post! If you have a blog then I’d love to read it, and if not then it would be great to hear from you anyway! Just add a sneaky comment in below 🙂