Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Wednesday Chatter #9: How Blogging Changed Me

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!



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Hey guys! Happy Wednesday! I thought I'd get a little personal with today's topic and I figure since I've seen so many other bloggers do this, why not do it as well? Especially since I just noticed my blog is 5 years , 5 months and 1 day old (I counted, I'm a geek).

Before starting this blog I never would've contemplated writing a semi-intelligent sounding formal email to any publisher. Ever. Even having to write something to my teachers sounded terrifying. I was just about to finish college and I was super, super shy. Now, I'm still very shy, but at least I've learned to sound confident and smart in an email. And I've emailed to publishers. And agents. Which brings me to how this affected my real-life self. I've learned how to write that formal email. I probably would've done it eventually, but blogging helped A LOT.

Pre-blogging days meant no written English exercise from this girl. I understood the language, I even could've convince someone that I can speak it. But to write a full text in English? HA. HAHA. No. I would've been able to write a few sentences, but definitely not a full text. Now, thanks to this blog (*virtual hug to blog*) I'm writing my thesis in English. And I'm doing a damn fine job at it. And that's not me saying it, that's my teacher. So yey *pats self on the back*

I also didn't have any friends with similar book interests before. I realized fast before having this blog that I may be alone in my love of vampire romance, chick lit and fantasy. I used to have no one to talk to about these books. Back then, even reading was a solitary activity. Sure, I had my mom who I convinced to share my love for Marc Levy and we used to read Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampires Mysteries books together, but still, there were tons of other books that she didn't enjoy that I did. Now I have tons of people to talk to about these books. Even better, I have people that can recommend me similar books. Or other books that they enjoyed and that I might as well. Not to mention the fact that I increased my reading rate a lot ever since I started book blogging.

All of these changes are good, however I still have tons of stuff left that need to change:

  • better organization;
  • ditch the "oh god, what if this post sounds like crap" fear. This one is still present, people. You wouldn't believe the number of posts I've written that I've later deleted because they sounded bad or controversial or just plain stupid. I have this issue with lack of confidence;
  • be more social. This one is difficult not only because I'm shy and a nervous wreck when it comes to approaching people I don't know (if we know each other, you know that I'll have absolutely no issue with bugging you to talk about whatever), but also because of the different time zones. I live in Europe and when I get on Twitter I'm either way too early for most people, or way too late. I also always miss the fun stuff and chats. 
There are probably a lot more stuff that I need to deal with, but it's a start, right?

Let's talk: How did blogging change you? Did it affect you on a personal or professional level?

2 comments:

  1. Aw, I adore this! I am so glad that blogging had such a positive effect on you! I agree- the publisher email thing was HUGE for me. It took a long time because I was really scared and anxious- same with the social stuff. But it feels like such an accomplishment to have done it!

    As for the 3 things you still want to work on... YEP. Same. I am woefully unorganized, and scared about every single post! As for the time zone thing, I have found that with my blogging friends from Europe, Australia, Asia, etc, it is easiest to communicate through comments, emails, DMs, even Goodreads comments. Twitter is hard, because it's in real-time so you miss things from other time zones- even in the US, I find it hard with Pacific time zone friends!

    And congrats on the English thesis- that is a HUGE accomplishment!!
    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I was so glad when my teacher was okay with me writing it in English *phew*

      I was terrified the first time I had to write an email for publishers or authors. It does feel good to do it, doesn't it?

      Every post terrifies me. I always fear it will be either stupid or overdone. Comments work. Twitter is hard, right? And it limits what you can say, what with those 140 characters.

      Delete

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