Writing on this blog has started to become a chore for me - a chore that I have been dreading. For the past few days, I have been putting off opening anything concerning Say Hello, Doll. I did not promote my last post; I did not write any new posts; I did not look over drafts. The time that I have spent writing on this blog has quickly diminished to almost nothing over this summer. Part of that is due to the fact that I was taking college courses; the other part is that I had to re-acclimate to not being with my family, but in California. But excuses, excuse! If I really wanted to find time to blog, I could have. But I didn't.
I've started to ponder why I am feeling the way I do about blogging. Two conclusions have been found: (1) I am fresh out of inspiration and the amount of creativity that I have right now is not good enough to type out posts left and right, and (2) I am over the blogging phase. After more thinking, I think that the best conclusion is the first one: I am drained of creativity. Writing blog posts can be a very tiresome activity. Having to study, do other basic daily tasks, find time to socialize, and still have time to relax, blogging does not easily fit into my schedule. However, I don't want to quit. Blogging is a passion of mine. I am able to express myself more than I can in real life here (read: off the internet).
Instead of giving up and leaving this blog here to be neglected, I have decided to make some changes. I want to say within a week you'll see them, but I most likely will start implementing the changes today. For one, a name change is in order. (!!) I know that I just changed this blog's name at the beginning of the year, but I am coming to a new point in my life where I want to write about things more personal to me. Yeah, I love everything that I write about, but this blog is primarily for me. It is a space where I tell about how I feel, what I like, and my goals and thoughts. However, Say Hello, Doll is not that personal for me. (I know that I said it was better than Savage of My Life, which it is, but I want something with deep meaning to me.) So, when you see an unfamiliar blog name in your feeds, then please do not be shocked. Instead of scrapping all of the stats for this blog on Bloglovin', I am going to find out how I can just switch the name over. (Scrapping everything from my first name to SHD was so frustrating!)
I am also going to write more about my thoughts and personal matters. This weekend, I attended a diversity retreat for the upcoming school year, in which we'll be meeting every second Wednesday until May. During that camp/retreat, I realized that I do not express myself as much as I could. I also realized where the problem stems from. (In a later post, I'll explain about where it comes from.) Anyway, I want to change that; I want to speak my mind with little to no fear of judgment. Since jumping headfirst in real life is not something that I can see myself doing, I am going to start off slowly. Baby steps first, eh?
Other things that you can look out for is a blog redesign, added widgets on the sidebar, and possibly more segments (such as when I did #Quotunes) that will progress over an allotted amount of time.
Things that will stay the same are music at the bottom of each post, majority of the sidebar widgets, fashion posts, music posts, etc. There will probably be an increase of music-related posts though, since that is one of the main reasons this blog was started.
I can say that I will have been blogging two years, y'all. But I won't. The only reason that I won't is because I only "officially" began blogging the summer of 2013. Thus, I will say that I will have been blogging for one year this summer. {Whoa, baby.} The reason that I am bringing this topic up is because I feel as if I have experienced a few things and have a few tricks up my sleeves. Most of you older bloggers probably already know everything that I am about to say, but I figured I'd share for any new bloggers out there. {Hi there! :}
One | Don't stress about posting every day. Trust me, sometimes you will have blogger's "writing" block, or maybe you just won't feel like posting one day. I know that sometimes (such as last week) I barely post. It's okay! Getting away from the computer, the stats, the comments--it sometimes leads to a much better inspirational day, and you can come back to your blog with a fresh, newly inspired mind.
Two | Pictures are your best friends. Some blogs can get away with simply using words for their entire post, but I know that I easily get bored if there is no visual content. If I am going to read a page long post sans photos, the first few sentences need to be very compelling.
Three | Social Media is not for everyone, and that is okay! I've only just recently made a separate account for my blog on Twitter. Oops. So far, I have seen little traffic to my blog from there, so maintaining it is not a biggie for me. HOWEVER, this is my experience. Social media helps many many bloggers out. I am not saying that my Twitter (SayHelloDoll) will never help me--I just need to be super dedicated to it--but I am more so focused on posting on my personal twitter. Other social medias help as well, such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I don't have the latter, though.
Four | Don't be afraid to reach out to other bloggers and comment, tweet, etc. I used to be put off by having to stop scrolling through my Bloglovin' feed, going to a blog, and writing a comment. It seemed like too much! In reality, if the post really touched you, then it is not that much of a hassle. I actually enjoy commenting on blogger's posts. It also makes me pretty happy to receive a comment back. This works both ways, though. If a reader/blogger comments on your post, tweets you, or emails you, please do respond.