So I've Been Away...

The last post I wrote and published was more than a month ago. Which is a shame, as it wasn't that I didn't have any posts planned. In fact, my editorial calendar was all colour-coded and ready to go. it was just that every time I actually sat down to actually write out the posts...I couldn't. I realised that all the lessons that I had learned in 6 months of blogging, I wasn't actually applying, which was sucking the fun out of blogging faster than I could churn out the next article. The first lesson 'To Thine Own Self Be True' I was ignoring to my detriment. While I really enjoy writing about beaty products, it's not what I want euhnella to be solely about. And so trying to turn it into a beauty blog wasn't working. 

Though I've been quiet, that doesn't mean I haven't been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes blogging. I decided to go back to basics, and sit down and thoroughly plan. I know that planning can be an easy way to end up procrastinating by constantly telling yourself "I'll publish when I have xyz planned..." and in the end never getting round to actually writing, but in my case, I really did need to sit down and figure out the direction I wanted my blog to go in. 

Before you actually start a blog, it's difficult to gauge just how much hard work actually goes into blogging just by other bloggers telling you it's hard work - you actually have to live it. And what has been hardest for me has been finding my voice and figuring what kind of content I want to create and share on a regular basis. I think it has been hard for me because it meant breaking away from the perceived notions I had in my head of the kind of blogger I thought I'd be, and the blogger it turns out I actually want to be. 

Luckily I've been able to power through this block. My word of the year is 'persistence', and I knew that I had to figure out a way to make this blog work, rather than doing what I'd always done previously: calling it quits and starting "fresh" at another time, with a brand new blog. Discovering who you are as a blogger is actually more about trial-and-error, doing things and discovering you do or don't like them, if they do or don't work for you rather than executing everything to perfection the first time you get an idea to do something. 

So what does the future hold for euhnella? That's still to be figured out, but I have decided to share the process with you. I think one of the ways to find your voice in blogging is to aim for honesty and vulnerability, and sharing my struggles with blogging along the way, including the beauty elements (I still want to find a way to integrate beauty into my blog, as well as other topics), is one way that will help me not only grow my blog, but hopefully help others who might be on the same level, now or in the future, and want some inspiration to keep going. 

What about you? Do you ever struggle with blog content and direction?