I want to thank Megan at a Geeky Gal for nominating me. I adore her good nature and sense of humor. I like these awards posts because they are excuses to do something different.

The rulz!

Thank the blogger that nominated you and give a link to their site.

  • Do a post to show your award.
  • Give a summary of how your blog started.
  • Give two pieces of advice for any new bloggers.
  • Select at least 15 other bloggers for this award.
  • Let each nominee know you’ve nominated them and give a link to your post.

I started this blog out of boredom. Things were going on in my life I thought other people might be interested in, particularly anime. Since then it has grown to cover hiking and wilderness, self-care and depression, my Asperger’s experience, dancing naked in the streets and anything else I feel like putting up. My writing quality has greatly improved since 2016. I’ve become habituated to writing even though it has kept me from doing other, perhaps healthier, activities.

I sometimes get obsessed about a topic and my blog can be a way to play with that obsession. Those posts usually stay up for a while, get very few likes and then quietly disappear.

My first bit of advice to new bloggers is to find your passion and write about it. Joseph Campbell called this “Finding your bliss.” Get at that thing that excites you and chase it. You should not write for anyone but yourself. Make it the much cliched “labor of love.” Don’t chase after likes and clicks. Over time your enthusiasm will show and people will link and like and comment.

…if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
– Joseph Campbell

My second piece of advice is for people to use their blogs to learn the craft of writing.  I am so much better today than when I started. My grammar and spelling are much more accurate. I use the active voice more often instead of the passive voice. I have become better organized.

The traditional method of writing an essay involves first making an outline. You then go on to develop a thesis statement,  an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. That is how you should start but is something to grow out of. (Most never do because it is what gets good grades in English comp classes.) Essays with impact usually end up being more conversational or storytelling in nature.

If you let it, your own style will develop and evolve.

I use a free grammar checker called Grammarly. When it detects a mistake in spelling or a few simple grammar points, it underlines the error and offers suggestions. When I see an error, I don’t just click to correct it. I make an effort to remember the error so I don’t make it again. I have found that I am making far fewer errors than I originally did. Most of my mistakes are now simple typos and not a misspelling or mismatched nouns/verbs.

Sometimes I disagree with it. There are viable ways to use language other than traditional grammar. Seeing the underline makes me reassess if I really want to go that route. There’s also a built-in spell check in Windows that I use as well. It will catch a few misspellings that Grammerly misses.

I never get tired of going over old blogs and correcting mistakes. I’ve been known to completely rewrite a year old post because it dissatisfied me.

Fifteen bloggers? That’s a tall order! I don’t have a clue who else has done this topic. Here goes…

MyAnime2go
Pinkie’s Paradise