armchair bea: keeping it real

my road of blogging, there's many more posts to come :)

Hello readers and visitors!
   I feel awful because I haven't been visiting as many blogs as I'd like to. I'll definitely put more of an effort today! And for those who haven't been lazy like I have and have found your way to this post: I admire you so much. Thanks for stopping by!

How do you not only grow an audience, but how do you keep them coming back for more?

I'd like to say I've only lost 1 follower since reaching over 650. And I keep saying that the only reason I seem to be able to keep this many is by being myself and being honest. I know that sounds absolutely over-said and sappy, but its true. Honesty is key in keeping an audience.

If you have been around for years, how do you keep your material fresh?

My material consists of reviews, and reviews are always fresh. They're just my analysis and opinion about a book: it varies for each book. There are some things that I repeat way too often, like how characters are key, how cheesy YA romances are, weak female heroines, unrealistically hot guys, how amazing The Shadow of the Wind is...all of these things I'm completely aware of. I haven't mentioned a few of them recently, except for The Shadow of the Wind (as you read earlier). I think all bloggers have similar experiences to mine. Those repeated things I listed above were only problems I reported when I read young adult fiction. Now, with classics, I don't have that problem, which is why I love classics and modern classics so much. I almost felt diseased when I kept reading pretty much the same things repeating over and over in different books, like a cacophony of bad literature (no offense) when I suddenly took this magic medicine that "cured" me. I'm diverting from the actual question: my apologies.

How do you continue to keep blogging fun?

Fun for me, or for my readers? I've kind of detached from the blogging world and my readers. I don't comment as often or visit blogs as often. I fear that it's what happened to me after reading too much young adult books: I became bored. I became over-critical and exhausted. I might still be, but I'm putting an effort into blogging again: thanks to Armchair BEA's schedule and topics given to me with deadlines. More than fun, I find blogging (more precisely, reviewing) crucial to me. The hiatuses I took...I completely forgot about blogging and didn't even think about it. But when I came back, I...enjoyed it. I enjoy formulating my thoughts into words and solidifying my opinions on a stable outlet. Why I need to keep blogging:

• I'm more aware of who I am (as weird as that sounds). My honest thoughts can no longer hide in my head once their online. Like I said before, blogging solidifies my opinions. Not only on books, but on occasion I'll type something up and be like "Wow, that's deep. Do I really think that way?" After all, my typing is loads faster than my writing, and always easier to read than my "fast-writing".
• I can keep track of books and my initial thoughts to them: My primary motive for blogging was to keep track of books. And of course, its interesting to see how my perspective changes later on when I look back at books I've read. This blog is like road of time: I can go back to certain dates and look at what I wrote, how I sounded like, who I was. Sadly, I wish I had kept another blog about my personal life. My diaries have been neglected for months, even years. My last entry before writing in it two days ago was last year.

I've never considered my blogging to be fun to others. I hope my readers enjoy what I write, and I'd like to think they stick around because they do. Another over-repeating motto I keep spewing out is "If you truly enjoy reading my blog, you're welcome to follow. If for any other reason you wish to follow my blog, I would reconsider". I don't want to make it seem like I'm some amazing blog that only exclusive people can read, no I just don't want to bother or waste other peoples time. Do something because you truly want to.

Ah, now that I have given you all my sagely, old-blogger wisdom (which totally went off-topic), what's your response? Leave a comment and I'll visit your post!