How I started my blog | Blogger Recognition Award

Dear reader,

Now that I am back on my blog I decided to catch up on all the tags I missed. Two months ago, the sweet Andrea @ Andrea’s Nirvana tagged me on the Blogger Recognition Award, so that’s what we’ll go through today! A big thank you to Andrea who also is an amazing blogger.

Without further ado, let’s go back to where it all started…

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❥ THE RULES

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog;
• Write a post to show your award;
• Give a brief story of how your blog started;
• Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers;
• Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to;
• Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them & provide the link to the post you created.

❥ HOW I STARTED MY BLOG

I believe that I have a weird story with my blog. I first created in December of 2016 after lauching my bookstagram account in September of 2016. I didn’t really know what to do and how to blog, so my time here was really short. However I came back in October 2017 and haven’t really been active around there as I should have. I tried to find my own style but it was so hard and it took me months to finally understand what I wanted to do on my blog. It’s only during May of 2018 that I realised that I found how to make my blog unique, at least I hope it is. This blog has always been an extansion of my bookstagram account, but I love to use it to get closer to the blogging community as well. I like to see it as a diary sometimes, for example I often reread my wrap-ups to see what I did during the last months. My blog is a bit of everything, but it is me and even though I still am not as active as I could be, I’m glad to have it and to be here with you all.

❥ ADVICE #1 FOR NEW BLOGGERS

As I said I am not that active around here and still consider myself as a new blogger, so it feels weird to give advice. I’ll try, of course, but I still feel like a baby around here, not getting everything yet.

If I had to give two pieces of advice, the first one would be to post what you would want to see on other blogs. I love reading blogs and I can get inspired by many of them, but always try to stay true to myself while always writing what I wish the posts I read were about. Sometimes I notice that I would have loved to see trigger warnings in reviews, and so I added them. Sometimes I just realise that I would have done something different, so I do it later on. I never copy what others do, try to follow some trends to feel included but always try to add something different that would make people say, “Ah, that’s totally Clara’s style!”

❥ ADVICE #2 FOR NEW BLOGGERS

My second advice would be to stay organised and always be prepared. My blogging game immediatly changed a few months ago when I decided to think ahead and list all the ideas I had. I now use Zenkit to plan all my blog posts for the month, so I know what I have to work on, and list down all new ideas I have on a draft here. It truly helped me to be more active and to post more regularly. Of course I still take time to read others blogs and to comment on others posts, so that could be another advice, but I still wanted to talk about the organisation part as it can often be forgotten.

❥ MY NOMINEES

I have to admit that I don’t know enough people around the book blog community to nominate 15 people, but here are who I tag: Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books, Lucie @ Wishes and Pages, Kelly @ Another Book in the Wall, Ally @ Ally Writes Things, Ryann @ Ryann the Reader, Audrey @ Libertea, Beth @ Daisy Chains & Headspace, Ashleigh @ A Frolic Through Fiction and Caroline @ Waves and Peanuts. Of course, if you want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

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Well, that’s it for today! Please comment how you started your blog and why. You always throw some advice in the comments or scream that mine are wrong!

Love always,

Clara