Lessons Learned from a Year of Blogging

Storytime: It’s August 3rd, I’ve just wrapped up a month-in-review, which means the next item on my to-do list is to start writing and queuing blog posts, Instagram photos, and tumblr links for the rest of the month. As is my customary routine. I open the WordPress dashboard and realize, “Oh hey, I’ve put up 50 posts on a near-weekly basis, that’s kind of neat!” I file this information aside in the “cool facts” portion of my brain, and go to open a new post, before doing an abrupt about-face as realization dawns on me in a sky-shattering Eureka moment. I madly scroll down my list, half-disbelieving as the date under my first post confirms that I’ve reached my 1-year anniversary of keeping this website, and I nearly missed it.

I reached one year how did that happen???? Honestly I’m still in some denial that I’ve made it this far, and in shock at what this blog has become since this first tentative post. I’ve learned so much over this past year, and changed so much as a person, so I wanted to share some of my biggest take-aways today. If there are any other aspiring authors reading this, I hope this serves as some degree of motivation and advice for you. To whoever is reading this, thank you for your support. I never thought I’d make it, and this milestone is exciting beyond my wildest dreams.

The only point of comparison that matters is past-you: As I’ve become more invested in the indie-author space, learning more about how to create an effective author’s platform, and taking the steps toward self publishing, I’ve also been comparing myself to the successful authors I’m learning from. These writers have multiple books out, thousands of followers, and make a living wage off their full-time author career, and I asked myself, “I’ve been working so hard, why am I not at that level?” That’s not a fair question to ask. I’m an unpublished 20 year old uni student, obviously I’m not going to have that kind of platform yet. But I will eventually, if I keep working hard.

Follow your interests: External validation matters less when you’re intrinsically motivated. It is easy to get caught up in the statistics and feel beholden to creating content that will get the most hits, but if you’re not enjoying the process, then what’s the point? If I write about what I love, keeping this blog won’t feel like a chore, and I’ll be able to maintain consistency which is ultimately more honest than following a quick trend.

Follow your interests: Other people can tell when you care, and that means they care more about reading what you have to say. I never expected anyone to care about my Count of Monte Cristo posts, but those have some of the farthest reach! My personal writing is unpublished and I figured only a few close friends would care, but I’m floored by the number of views my excerpts get when I put them up. Who cares about the way I outline? 50 of you, apparently! Moral of the story: Don’t be afraid to share your passions.

Quality > Quantity: I want to put content into the world that’s going to be useful, motivational, and entertaining. If I’m going to spend my time on this project, I want it to matter to someone, not just be mindlessly consumed and then discarded. By putting in the effort, I create articles that I can redirect people back to because I’m confident they still contain solid information. I might not write as prolifically as other bloggers, but even my old posts still get a few hits a day because they’re just as relevant.

Planning -> Consistency: At one point this past year, I was taking 18 credits of chemical engineering and business classes through zoom university, working 20 hours a week at a lab, and still putting out posts on the weekly. I won’t pretend that I wasn’t crazy or losing tons of sleep, but I can say that I would not have been able to maintain that posting schedule if I had to come up with new ideas every week. Knowing what came next meant that I could add it to my to-do list like any other assignment I knew was coming up soon, and it felt like something that could be accomplished and not an extra I’d get to if I had the chance. Even a simple schedule is better than nothing.

Education beats intimidation: I didn’t know anything about web design, blogging, the publishing industry, or author business when I started this. As I’ve done that research, the fear of the unknown was replaced by an understanding of the next steps to take, and even if the amount of work is still intimidating, I know that’s something I can tackle one step at a time. Educate yourself about what scares you. It might still be scary as hell but at least you’ll have the weapon of knowledge to use against it.

Spend your time on what matters most now: I don’t plan to publish for another few years. My stories are not ready to release yet and I want to graduate and have a financially stable job before I go all-in on the self-publishing project. I would be wasting my time on researching Amazon ads and trying to network with authors to get speaking engagements. Will I try both of these things eventually? Probably. But for now, I’m going to focus on what’s attainable: finishing my books, and keeping this blog running in the meantime.

So I find myself writing this in complete disbelief. I’ve wanted to be an author my whole life; as a little kid I hid under the blankets with a flashlight, notebook, and pen, thinking “I wanna write a book!”

Everyone does that, right?

Everyone has big dreams and big plans. But here I am, tentatively holding the half-finished 2nd draft of my manuscript, the almost-finished first draft of a new story, a blog of 50 posts, and countless more ideas, taking the next step towards putting the wildest of my literary endeavors out into the world for real. This is it, guys. I’m going legit. I’m really doing this whole “I’m going to be an author!” thing. I’ve got a website now.

Real Authors have websites, right?

I have slightly more of an idea where to start with this, but I figure a next step, no matter how unsure, is a next step nonetheless. I hope my humble corner of the internet will turn into something more, and I hope I’ll be able to bring you along on the journey.

So let’s take the next step together, shall we?