November 20th will mark my 1 year anniversary of blogging @Candid Chicana.

It has been a struggle trying to figure everything out. I didn’t understand the blogging world in the beginning. I’m not particularly a technology savvy person either.

I taught myself to blog by; trial and error, by going outside of my comfort zone, and utilizing social media to mingle with other bloggers.

Making friends in the blogging community has been a great way to get some support, feedback, and make new friendships.

There’s so much that has been a learning experience too. Here’s a list of things I’ve struggled with and learned during my first year of blogging:

1. Setting up the blog website: I taught myself how to set up my blog.
2. How to write a blog post: I learned to produce blog posts by trial and error. Working on them until I learned how to navigate my platform.
3. Creating content while balancing time: Instantly, I started creating content. It’s fun, yet hard work. Because I still have “life” stuff going on, so I need to properly balance my time. I must learn to motivate myself. As much as I want to sit at home and write ALL day and create all day, I have other responsibilities.
4. Organize my content with a schedule: It’s time consuming. Again, I would LOVE to just write, write, and write all day & night, but that’s just not practical. At least not right now. A blog post can take me 2 to 4+hours to write. I’m currently looking for part time work. So, I know this will affect how much time I will be able to devote to blogging. 😔
5. Writing despite my fears: I have so much more to say, but sometimes FEAR steals my courage. Fear of my writing not being acceptable, fear of the harsh critics, fear of failure, fear of embarrassing myself, fear of letting others down, fear of offending someone, fear of unintentionally hurting others in my journey, and most of all, the fear of NOT WRITING!

I actually really do enjoy blogging/ writing, and creating. My constant struggle is deciding what topics I should write about?

I will be working on a calendar of content creation for this upcoming new year, otherwise I just don’t know how I’ll fit blogging into my schedule.

When I worked full time at the thrift store this past year, I didn’t have energy and time to blog after work. So, I don’t want to lose my momentum that I’ve slowly built up, by screeching it to an abrupt halt.

For those of you out there considering starting a blog, it is a lot of work. You have to really love writing, or really love your subject to keep it up in the long haul. But it’s also a creative outlet! So, if you have that innate feeling that you should start a blog, GO FOR IT!

I hope this post has helped you decide if you want to start your own blog. Hopefully something I have said will encourage you to give it a go. Follow my blog, I will follow back.

“Years wrinkle the skin, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Quote Taken From: McKenzie, E.C. 14,000 Quips & Quotes for Writers &Speakers Baker Book House Company, 1980.

Photo Credit:

Unsplash, Igor Ovsyonnykov