Ramblings on Blogging and Vlogging

This is the time when the bad and neglectful blogger apologizes yet again for being bad and neglectful of their blog. Dusting off the dust of their blog and giving various reasons why the blog has been silent as of late and making big grandiose promises that "I'm back to blogging for real this time. FOR REAL!"

I am not immune to this blogging trope.

Because I am sorry for being a bad and neglectful blogger. I also have reasons for being so. These reasons are: Vlog Every Day April, getting another job and having zero time to do anything, and a severe case of writers block.

In April, the VEDA excuse was legitimate. I was busy making videos every single day so my inspiration for the blog was all going towards that. For the writers block thing, a ton of bloggers have the same problem and push through anyways, so I should be able to do the same. As for my having two jobs, that excuse will only work through May since once June hits I'll be down to one job and will hopefully have a bit more time then.

Then, I wonder, what about June? In theory, I'll have my blogging mojo back and be ready to go. But what if I'm not? What if I just don't have any more ideas to write about? For a long time now I've seen my writing on here going downhill and I've been struggling more and more with finding topics I find worth writing about. I also have seen myself being drawn more and more to YouTube. Does this mean the time of my blog is nearing an end?

That's such a sad thought to me. I love this blog. I love my friends I've made through it and how I can keep in touch with people better than I would if I stuck with only Facebook statuses and Twitter updates. I like having my blog as an Internet "home base" for myself. A place where I can have almost everything all in one place. If someone wants to know how to contact me, I can just give them my blog link and they'll find my posts, my YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

I then think of my YouTube channel. When I try to sit down and brainstorm what I want to write or vlog about, I've been having a tough time deciding what should go on YouTube and what should be on the blog. I tend to do the same things in both places. If that's the case, what's the point in having both? Do I even have the time or energy to keep both up?

These are all of the things which have been going through my mind lately. At least a summary of what I've been thinking about. Particularly while I've been driving (practically living) on the tri-state to and from my various jobs. Having a commute gives you a lot of time to think and listen to audio books.

Here is the plan I've come up with, and I think it's a pretty awesome one. At least for the time being.

http://essaylab.org/

I want to keep up my blog and my vlog. I love both of them and can't stand to see either one go, but, I do want them to be different. I shouldn't just be replicating what I have on the blog over on my YouTube channel. That would just be silly. So, I'm going to try and keep the tone of each of them separately.

Over on YouTube, I'm going to spend more time focused on books, musicals, fandoms, and other fun things. Booktube is HUGE over there and I feel like it's the perfect place for me to share my love of books with reviews, to be read piles, book hauls, book tags, reading wrap-ups, etc. It's also where I can play my ukulele, talk about musicals, and do fun tags and topics. Especially during VEDA. As of right now, I don't think I'm going to have an official "schedule" for YouTube. But I will try to have something up on there at least once or twice a week.

Over here on the blog, I want to go back to the style I had more towards when I first started. Talking about life, faith, family, friendship, love, etc. I've noticed when I try to be more sentimental and serious on video, it never turns out the way I hope it will. I'll have more updates on what I'm doing in life, thoughts I've been having, honesty posts, and the like.

For the blog I will for sure have a post up every Wednesday. This way, I don't only rely on having inspiration to write and I can force myself to be sure I write something and have some consistency. It also will give me a chance to really focus on writing a single blog post and being sure it's good quality, instead of quickly writing something every day just for the sake of having something up. Periodically I may have something on other days as well, but Wednesdays for sure.

Now, naturally, there will be some overlap. My blog would be ridiculously boring and gag-worthy if I was only serious and never had any fun. My love of books, musicals, and random fandoms are of course going to seep into my other thoughts and posts. Then vise versa. There might be moments on my YouTube channel I have a specific topic I want to talk about, or I might be in a more contemplative mood. I know for sure I want to do Letters to Advent this upcoming December where it's a bit more mellow.

For the most part, I want to try my best to have something different in each place so I'm not just putting the same type of content only in different spots. I hope that makes sense.

So, that's my plan. Check back next Wednesday to see if I actually follow through!