blogging | reflections on my first full year

1 full year of blogging: how on earth did that happen?  In some ways I can’t believe how quickly the year has flown, yet at the same time it feels like a lifelong hobby.  1/16th of my life is close enough.  :)  Obviously one year is no grand achievement relative to those who’ve had their online space for half a decade or more, but still.  Let’s just take each milestone as it comes!

I *think* I’m still at the stage where I can remember at least something about every post I’ve published, whether it be where I went wearing that outfit or who I was with at the time.  That screams newbie in itself, don’t you think?  I can’t wait to have a little more hindsight and be able to look back and browse as if I’m reading someone else’s writing.  When I first started out, I thought bloggers who’d been writing for a year were mega experienced, however in that position myself now I can safely say I still feel like a total beginner.  And still will in years to come I’m sure. 🙂

Things I’m grateful for/that blogging has taught me:

How to write in more relaxed styles.  Before my blog came to be, the only place I wrote regularly was in the pages of my English exercise book.  Because of this, I tried way too hard to use the most ambitious vocabulary I could think of, and my usual trick was to use 22 words where 2 would suffice.  My writing sounded way too formal for what is essentially an online journal, so as a result I spent ages editing each post, making it a little easier to read.  Since last September, blogging has opened my eyes to a much friendlier, chattier style of writing and I now feel much more relaxed typing in the way I’d talk.  Even if that does still involve long waffly sentences and excessive use of parenthesis.  Brackets in every second sentence are a definite ‘bloggerism’!  Writing to a real audience – however small it may be – feels like a totally different ball game to writing a letter, or story, or description purely to display your writing skills to an examiner.  Actual people being involved makes it so much more fun!  Not that examiners aren’t real people… but you get my idea.  I’m not studying English at A-level, so I’m grateful that blogging gives me a reason not to let my writing slip out of practice.

Creative juices ebb and flow.  I’m sure we’ve all had weeks with tons of bloggy ideas in the pipeline and the corresponding weeks where nothing quite jumps to mind.  Best just admitting it!  Daily bloggers really are inspirational to me, so props to you guys!  Fancy sharing your secret?  Anyways, in my now 52 weeks of blogging I’ve had my fair share of both, but I’m trying my best to work on consistency.  If i want a creative career I’ll need to be prepared to accept not always overflowing with ideas, so I’m glad to have recognised this now.

Expanding my social circle.  Twitter is home to the majority of bloggy socialising I know, and I’m so glad that I’ve been able to talk to people from all over the world that I would never have come into contact with otherwise.  We all have at least one thing in common so age, background, other interests etc. don’t really have much significance.  Nowadays, I can’t imagine having only a circle of friends that I know and have met in person, as I really feel that I’ve formed friendships with people regardless of having never met face to face.  That said, it would be fab to meet up with more bloggy friends!  I can’t wait to see Alice again either.  OK so this has turned into more of a hallelujah to the internet in general, but I think bloggers are an exceptionally nice and supportive crowd!

How I think blogging has changed over the past year:

Comments: Nuff said.  Many a blogger has posted about this already: that traffic might be on the up, but comments and general interactions seem to be decreasing in quantity.  I’m lucky enough to have several loyal commenters who genuinely put a big smile on my face every time they take the time to leave such lovely thoughtful comments.  The fact that a few people have continued reading as it evolved from a craft blog into my whatever-it-is-now-blog means so much.  Sadly, I’ve perhaps alienated a few of the earlier readers along the way, so thank you so much to those who have stuck around!

YouTube for bloggers has become more popular. As you can tell, I’m fully backing this one!  The added dimension that video brings to a blog is great, IMO.  Over the last 6 months especially I’ve started watching YouTube a lot more (as well as reading more blogs), and I’ve noticed quite a few other bloggers have made the leap too.  It’s all very exciting!

Twitter chats have become huge.  Hundreds of tweets appear faster than you can hit F5 and it’s so hard to keep up!  They’re still invaluable though.

More bloggers are blogging about blogging.  Wow that’s too many layers deep…What I mean is that I’ve noticed far more observational, informative and ranty posts, about blogging itself, appearing recently than I did 12 months ago.  All of which are super helpful and interesting so I’m not complaining!

**(Photos are a selection of my favourite outfit posts from the year – one from each month)**

So, there are my reflections on my first year.  Anybody else with a similar blogiversary to mine? 😛

lily kate x
follow me on bloglovin | twitter | instagram | youtube | email me