I spent a large chunk of last weekend working on a list of blogging related tasks as part of Bloggiesta. Every couple of months, the website hosts an event during which a group of book bloggers take on certain tasks and complete them during a set number of days. Lists are posted on the website, mini-challenges are organised, and Twitter chats are attended. By spending four days working at the same time on one’s blog, we can more easily connect with other book bloggers. It aims to create an environment in which book bloggers can help each other in achieving goals.
While there are some limitations to online interactions as opposed to in person ones, Bloggiesta has been quite successful in creating an environment of mutual support and assistance. Bloggers commented on each other’s lists and offered not only encouragement, but advice. The Twitter chats were filled with good advice and encouragement, but also a good amount of healthy teasing (i.e. nothing close to bullying).
Another thing that I found interesting is how participants helped one another counteract any pressure to do things other than increasing the quality of their blog. This was quite significant, as statistics tend to become somewhat of an unhealthy obsession. There were quite a few conversations in which participants encouraged one another to focus on the book blogging, not on writing to get numbers up, knowing that the former would lead naturally to the latter. There was also a number of conversations focused on encouraging one another to remain polite, loving, and cheerful in the face of the abuse sometimes encountered at the hands of irate, frustrated authors.
All of this created a joyful environment in which both fun and light and profound and meaningful conversations happened, which in turn contributed to creating a space in which book bloggers could get back in touch with the reason they started blogging while at the same time, they gave and received honest advice on how they could improve their blogs.
Book blogging is already fun; you read and write about books. But book blogging within a group creates friendships which strengthen during intensive events like Bloggiesta. It also seems like thanks to these friendships, book bloggers are engaged in increasing numbers of enthusiastic conversations about their efforts, resulting in increased quality book blogs. It’s no wonder that participants return to Bloggiesta, and it’s no wonder then I will, too.
And now, onto NaNoWriMo!
First published on Sahar’s Blog on 23 September 2014