Sunday, January 29, 2017

I RETURN (maybe?)

HELLO WORLD ARE YOU STILL THERE? It's been a while I know. What, five months? Psh, whats that in the history of the universe - just a quick flash, right?

But yes, I have returned from the world of studying for MCATs. I took that deathly exam and did ok? I think? (I won't know for another month.)

"So what's going to happen on Ravens and Writing Desks?" you ask (and if you don't, you should). "Are you going to have a return party? Are you going to post all the reviews of books you read while you were away? Are you going to tell us about what's happened to your WIP's and plot bunnies? Are you really really back for good now? Because that maybe? in the post title is suspicious."

Behold, my answers:

Party?
YES SURE LET'S PARTY RIGHT NOW HAVE SOME CAKE

Image result for cake gif

Reviews?
No, unfortunately not. At least not a bunch of them. Actually I've realized I don't like writing reviews all that much? So maybe occasionally I pop a review in, but it won't be a regular thing.

Writing Updates?
YES! I'm going to do Beautiful People and talk about my writing projects and everything. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE.

Umm... what next?
Ah yes. The suspicious maybe. Honestly, I have no idea what is in the future for Ravens and Writing Desks. It won't be as formal a blog as it was before*, with regular posting and reviews and features. It was fun when it WAS like that, but I've changed as a person, the book world online has changed, and the way I interact with the book world online has changed.

*was it ever actually FORMAL? Ha.

When I first made this blog, I was about to start my senior year of highschool, and I had never really been a part of the communities of the internet in any way. Also, though I didn't know it and therefore wouldn't have admitted it, I was kinda lonely. I had friends, yes, but I didn't see them as much as I had used to. The book blogging world, and, later, book Twitter, became a place for me to rant and ramble and fangirl to people always willing to rant and ramble and fangirl right back. There was a picture going around Twitter a few weeks back about "pocket friends" - how your online friends are basically friends in your pocket, always there to support you when you need it, always easily accessible at any moment. And the pocket friends that I made my first two years of blogging (last year of high school, first year of college, both years where I was kinda lonely but didn't realize it) were so, so wonderful, and so so important to me. I still talk to lots of them. (Shoutout time: Cait, Kate, Brett The Girl, Brett The Boy, Lily, and Cassie are just a few but I feel like I'm missing about 99% of you amazing people.)

But guess what has happened since then? I've made so many real life nerd friends who are also awesome lovely people and that I see every day. Now I'm not saying they're better than all you amazing internet friends, but what I am saying is that I'm not so lonely in my real life anymore. I don't find myself needing that immediate support from pocket friends on as constant a basis as I once did (though it's still so nice to know it's there <3). Basically, my purposes for using the internet and the communities on it have changed a bit - I'm here because I WANT to talk to you lovely friends and share my stories and adventures and hear yours, instead of because I NEED to in order to dissuade my loneliness. If that makes sense?

I'm really hoping this doesn't sound selfish or derogatory of online friendships, because IT'S NOT I PROMISE. I'm such a lucky person with so many amazing friends omg - both in real life and online (and some online friends who've become real life ones! Which is crazy awesome).

So, coming back to the original question - what does this mean for Ravens and Writing Desks? It means I'll definitely still be posting, but not with the goal of making this blog a perfectly organized and popular capital city for my internet world. My world spans more evenly between internet and real life now, and this blog is not, somehow, suited to be capital anymore. (This is a weird metaphor for social networking and I'm not sure if it works but ok deal with it.)

This post is getting rambly, so I think I'm going to resort to bullet points, but thanks for letting me sort out the depths of my soul. :-P

  • No more stressing out about whether I'm a "good" blog
  • No more reviews unless I really really feel like it. (This also means basically no more ARCs or any kind of review copy except in certain special situations.)
  • Random writing updates even if I feel that few people care
  • Probably random life updates that even less people will care about
  • Writing novels takes higher priority than writing blog posts (it used to be the other way around)
  • No regular posting schedule. If I don't post for a while, that's ok. 
  • Basically no structure at all. I DO WHAT I WANT.
This last one is going to be hard for me because I'm an organized person and a teensy bit perfectionist. Also, it's hard for me to not think even a bit about "the views" because nice numbers always give fuzzy feelings. But I think it needs to happen for me to stay sane. This semester I've got a lot on my plate and blogging's going to get a way lower priority than it used to. I think that's the healthiest thing to do. And of course I will always be on twitter and instagram (my new favorite thing omg). 

THANK YOU so much for reading this if you made it this far. Thank you for being my internet friend <3 I appreciate you more than you know.

Now let's party cuz I'm BAAAAAACK! :-)

Image result for party dumbledore gif


9 comments:

  1. YAY YOU'RE BACK. I hope you aced that exam you superstar <3 I'm excited to see where Ravens and Writing desks goes next! I really liked lottsss of people on the bookternet, but it's definitely a different sort of friendship. Like most of my *emotionally close* internet friendships are people who I originally met IRL and then they moved. Anyway, thanks for this post, and welcome back! *parties*
    Shanti @Virtually Read

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay thank youuu I hope I aced it too! <3 Oh that's really interesting that you met them irl before knowing them online! I feel like it's usually the other way around. But it's true that it can be a little hard to get emotionally close to people on the internet.

      Delete
  2. HIIIIIIIII. I actually really like reading life updates (even though I don't really like writing them) and yayayayayay. Also I've been stalking you on Instagram, of course, and GOALS. I like to think that when I go to university I'll make more nerdy friends (I have some, but most ppl at my school (shanti's school too haha) are just not really like me. ANYWAY. I'm so glad I have a blog and have internet friends, but irl friends are good to :) :D <3 <3 <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh goooood there will be lots of life updates. I'm glad at least someone will read them haha :-)
      OMG THANK YOUU I've really been getting into bookstagram a lot - it's super fun!

      University totally opens up a new world because I've found (at least at my school) it's way less cliquey and a lot more accepting of nerdiness. Good luck!

      Delete
  3. Hello :-)

    I remember it was similar to me, I started my blog in a time when I had little to do in my life and I already knew all my best friends of today, but we didn't realized that we were meant to be best friends. And already while I was blogging a lot, I realized that it was so much more fun to do stuff together with my friends instead of Internet friends, though I have in meantime met an internet buddy in real life. So she is both now.

    I really feel what you mean, with the perfect blog. You never meet ends with it. (I'm talking about my German blog, so...) But, somehow in the back of my mind I'm actually still clinging to reviews and stuff, but I wouldn't review the same way. I wouldn't give ratings to them and I would cut them slice by slice into analyzed pieces and write a hellish long review that no one will read. If I will ever do that.

    Actually I feel that I care more for peoples life updates when they're honest and less life-style because then they really touch me. I think I would really love to chat with you about your writing updates and life.
    In fact, I never come to this blog for your reviews, because I was never interested. They where not completely bad. But I didn't really look forward to them and they were not the reason I read your blog -I loved everything else much more. I'm completely okay with you not writing reviews anymore.

    Generally, there are few cases where I really enjoy reading reviews from somebody and follow a book blog for these reviews. I follow for writing updates, opinions, book tags and hilariously funny writing, it's not just you, but the completely. I feel like 90% of the reviews on the bookblogosphere are boring recaps, from which I don't gain much information. Also, I wish the people would give more hints about who they are, because on review-only blogs, they're completely faceless. I love grumpy CinemaSins videos so much more, because at least there honest and tell me WHY they didn't like it. No matter what, go on and blabber about your everyday life, I'll love to read about it :-)

    lg Mulan

    P.S. What happened to my guest post from a long time ago? I'm glad today that it was never published because it's kind of cheesy in my eyes now, but I never got feedback about it. But even if you thought it was bad, or unsuiting to your blog and your feedback is negative, I would love to hear about it, please. So, what happened to it?
    P.P.S. I feel like I have so much more to say but that I can't find the words for it so I hope you ask it something in this comment seems weird or awkward to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Omg thank you for this amazingly long comment! You are the best! <3 <3
      That's awesome that you have such a great internet buddy who is also in real life. And ohhh that's good that you like life updates! Because there will be a lot coming haha. And not many reviews.

      Oh regarding the guest post - when I disappeared for the five months, I just totally ignored my blogger account. I didn't go on it, didn't write anything, didn't access it at all. So your post is still in my drafts! Honestly, it was a good post, just rather much too long for my blog. I'd still like to post it, but feel uncomfortable cutting a lot out without your direct involvement. So we can talk more about it over email or something?

      Delete
  4. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YOU'RE BACK IM SO HAPPY!
    Getting to do what you want on your blog sounds so much fun! Do what makes you happy. Blogging should be fun, not stressful. (okay Mironiel, maybe you should follow that advice.)
    But tbh I missed you and your posts so I'm really happy that you're back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YAYYYYYYY HELLOOOOOO!!! <3 <3
      Join me in my endeavor to make blogging fun and less stressful :-)

      Delete

Book discussions make the world a better place! Write me a comment - I respond to each and every one, I promise. So check back!

(YES! I LOVE TAGS and I do them! So tag away! But no bloggerly awards, though, like the Liebster or the Sisterhood of World Bloggers. Thank you!)