If you’re anything like me, you swing wildly between two ends of the spectrum.
Me writing a post: This is gonna be epic. It’s one of the best posts I’ve written to date!
Me wishing anyone would view, like, or comment: What was I thinking? I’m garbage at this!
Why do I bring this up? To let you know that if this is you at all on any day, that you are not alone, friend. See below for a few reasons I talk myself into thinking I’m not even a bookkitten let alone a bookdragon.
I’m a slow reader. I’m talking, Kindle will say “Average reading time for book 3 hours and 46 minutes,” then it learns my reading speed and the book suddenly takes 8 hours to get through. Aside from the sad fact that I won’t read near as many books as many of my book blogging friends, it also feels like that makes me inadequate in some way.
Other reviews feel way more professional. I’ve read so many other awesome book reviews that provide the perfect balance of book summary and well written opinion, giving a high level overview in a concise and mature voice. Then I look at mine and they feel overly passionate, messy and chaotic.
New book bloggers to the scene already have more followers than me. What am I doing wrong and how are they so effortlessly cool? I don’t think I’ll ever have the je ne sais quoi they have that draws readers, deservedly, to their site in droves.
Some days I don’t feel like reading or blogging. If I’m meant to do this, it must be something I always feel like doing, yeah? Everyone else seems to post every day and have these great topics that draw lots of discussion to boot. If I don’t have that same passion or drive, maybe I’m not cut out for it.
What are we supposed to do with all of this insecurity? I’d love to say chuck it in the trash and forget about it, but that’s terrible advice because it will never happen… at least not for this insecure mess of reading over here. My next thought is, I’m sure authors go through this as well, so we’re not alone. But I’ve never lived the “misery loves company” adage either.
I think the best way to live with this is to breathe through it. Recognize that these thoughts come from comparing. You’re not at war with other book bloggers. They’re your friends. You want them to succeed (hopefully, or you need to work on the friend thing). Realize that no dragon needs to breathe fire daily to know what it is. It just knows it has fire flowing through its veins. So, you there, reading and writing and connecting, that’s the fire in your veins. And that makes you a goddamn BookDragon!
If that wasn’t enough, here’s one of my fav pick me up songs for this Sunday: Warren Haynes’ Soulshine.
Reading Minds 
I have the same feeling about my reader count. I’ve been at this for a while now and I’m wondering where all the readers at?
LikeLiked by 1 person
If I’m being honest, getting re-blogged by a couple authors who have lots of readers is what boosted me to gain more followers. Not anything magical I did myself.
LikeLike
I think I’ve gotten 2 reblogs. I wrote a guest post that’s going up soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds interesting. What’s it about?
LikeLike
It’s a story about an old man who died and finds himself with a difficult choice which will determine his afterlife.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that; it sounds super interesting!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your so funny, Michelle. You write awesome reviews. I like the way they’re set up and I love the enthusiasm. I think enthusiasm and a sense of humor is contagious. I laughed about you calling yourself a slow reader. When my kindle says 5 hours, for me it’s 20! Ha ha. It’s all about the fun though, isn’t it? Keep up the good work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely! As long as I enjoy it, y’all are stuck with me! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Comparing is pretty much the downfall for a lot of bloggers, not even those only in the bookish world. It’s something human and we all tend to do it but we shouldn’t be. We’re all our own selves, we all have lives outside of blogging / reading and we should simply accept that.
The thing with a lot of the points you mention is also that we grow. I started my blog in June last year and I know that I changed a lot since then. Reading-wise, blogging-wise, anything-wise. Sure, I read a lot, but I don’t feel guilty anymore when I feel tempted to do something other than reading [Seriously, Sims-addiction all the way lately..].
I’m mostly on top of my blogging game because I still read a lot and schedule my posts way in advance but there are times where I’m just flailing about, hoping nobody noticed how I’m all over the place – surprisingly they don’t, haha.
We also all have our own style when it comes to writing. Sure, some might sound very professional, but other reviews that are equally fun to read have this very loose, sometimes even sarcastic tone that I love. They’re less professional but they’re still as entertaining to read as a professional one! You just have to find your “own blogging voice”, like people tend to say a lot. Feel good about the things you write, the way you write them. It takes a while to find that voice and be comfortable with how and what you write but in the end it’s most important that you love what you’re doing.
As for the followers-thing.. Blog-hopping and connecting with fellow bloggers / readers is definitely the way to go if you want to expand your reach. People always told me that if they see someone pop up everywhere, they’re more curious to check out that person’s blog as well. I’ve followed their advice and it paid off, so I’m sure that it’d pay off for others as well. Sure, it’s a veeerry time-consuming thing but as long as you’re having fun with it.. Why not, right?! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
What wise words of advice! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing. I really appreciate it!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome! Do hope it helps. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great post and Really helpful because most of the time I don’t truly feel like a bookdragon haha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha. Me neither! BUT we all definitely ARE. We just have to convince ourselves. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person