I'm four and a half years into this blogging adventure, and I have certainly had my ups and downs. We all have good times around our blogs, when comments flow in and every self-imposed deadline is met! But if you've been at it long enough, I'm sure you've also seen a few failures. Here are eight I'm intimately familiar with and why they're not necessarily terrible.
FALLING SHORT OF YOUR YEARLY CHALLENGE GOALS
Whoops... Maybe we haven't all been there, but I definitely have. There have been times where I read a book, fully intend to review it, but somehow... forget. I'm not sure exactly how it happens, but every now and then I realize I read a book weeks or even months ago and never reviewed it! In this case I do one of two things: write a mini-review with whatever information I can remember, or let it go.
NOT FINISHING A BOOK
Let me just put this out there: I am a serial DNFer. Back when I first fell in love with reading, I would force myself to finish anything I started. As I began reading more and more, though, I realized that there really just wasn't a point. I noticed that, when I forced myself to read a book that I wasn't enjoying, it took twice as long and (of course) cut down on time I could have been reading other books I would love. Now if I'm not loving a book and I don't foresee it getting better, I have no issues with putting it down and moving on to something else!
NOT STICKING TO YOUR BLOGGING SCHEDULE
This is the one that used to stress me out the most! I've noticed that tons of bloggers have schedules that they stick to. Others seem to post completely at random. But what I've really noticed is that it doesn't make any difference to me either way. I used to try SO HARD to stick to a schedule, but then I realized that no one was as worried about it as I was. I still have a rough outline for my blog and certain posts always post on specific days, but I don't run my blog with that much rigidity anymore. Let yourself enjoy the process!
NOT COMMENTING BACK
I've always made it a priority around the blog to comment back to every person who takes the time to comment on my posts and I usually try to blog hop as well. But sometimes life gets in the way or I just don't feel it (I'm a huge introvert). While I used to do it no matter how I felt, I now usually just give myself the okay to take a day off. I always try to come back to it the next day when I'm feeling a little more excited about interacting!
NOT COMPLETING A REVIEW BOOK IN TIME
This is probably the biggest no-no in the blogging world, but I'll admit it happens. Last year my grandpa died and I went to the funeral a few states away. This also happened to fall right in the middle of my reading a book that I had received for review. I completely missed the deadline, but contacted the publisher and explained the situation. They were very understanding and told me to review whenever worked for me. Now I try to give myself much more time to read a book before the review is due. It's still good to remember that life can happen though! If you miss a deadline for good reasons, don't beat yourself up over it!
MISERABLY FAILING A READ-A-THON
There are just some things I'm not good at and I've accepted this about myself. For my first few years of blogging I signed up for ALL the read-a-thons! They're so exciting and interactive and fun! Except I never actually finish them. I always set my goals, make my goal post, and then read maybe one book, maybe none. I'm bad at reading quickly and I'm bad at making myself read things (mood reader here). The moral of the story is it's okay to accept that everything isn't for you! Now I just cheer from the sidelines.
FALLING SHORT OF YOUR YEARLY CHALLENGE GOALS
Reading challenges make blogging so much more fun! I used to sign up and host tons of them, but this year I'm down to three, not including the Goodreads challenge. I did this after miserably failing a few of my 2017 challenges and realizing that I needed to make sure to keep it fun. Challenges should be challenging, but they shouldn't make things stressful! It's okay if you don't meet a challenge goal - they're self-imposted after all!
PUBLISHING AN UNFINISHED POST
Literally the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened on this blog was when I published a review with only a couple sentences written AND SOMEONE COMMENTED ON IT. I meant to save it as a draft, but it had already been scheduled as a post. Oh well. I changed the post back to a draft, finished writing it, and published it again. Chances are, no one remembered anyway.
COMPLETELY FORGETTING TO WRITE A REVIEW
Whoops... Maybe we haven't all been there, but I definitely have. There have been times where I read a book, fully intend to review it, but somehow... forget. I'm not sure exactly how it happens, but every now and then I realize I read a book weeks or even months ago and never reviewed it! In this case I do one of two things: write a mini-review with whatever information I can remember, or let it go.
Yep, in four and a half years I've met with some glitches and failures. But what I've learned in that time after a few blogging slumps is that it's best to just enjoy it! While our blogs are our babies, they're also meant to be fun hobbies. Don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake! Instead, learn from it, adjust what you need to, and move on.
What blogging failures have you experienced?
Let me know in the comments!
