This time last year, I was writing reflections on my approach to book blogging and what I might want to change in 2020. You know the spiel: 2020 turned out to be far more different than I ever imagined, my plans were upheaved, etc. Dare I say 2021 looks to hold more stability than 2020? At least when it comes to my blogging habits. So, I thought I would return to that series of reflections and reconsider the goals I laid out. Here are the links to that original series for the curious:
Part 1 – What Am I Doing Here? | Part 2 – Learning from Other Review Styles | Part 3 – Favourite Reviews I Wrote in 2019 | Part 4 – Developing a New Review Style | Part 5 – Reading Challenges & Community
In Part 4, I delineated “a list of changes I would like to try in my reviews”. I categorized the changes by content, format, and design. Let’s see whether I made those changes or if I still want to.
Content
✔️Continue to blend personal reaction with evaluative comments when relevant, but don’t hesitate to separate personal reaction if that helps with structuring the review – I would say I was more mindful of this in my 2020 reviews. Definitely something to keep aware of going forward.
✔️ Consider how a book may be received by its intended audience – Same as above.
❓ Be upfront about acknowledging my biases and/or lack of experience with certain topics – I have done this in some of my posts this year. It’s something I could be more mindful about going forward. I might make a sort of checklist of things to consider for when I review books that describe experiences outside of my own.
❓ Experiment with contemporary fiction reviews so I find a smoother way to write them instead of avoiding reviewing such titles all together. – Another halfway done one. I did review some MG contemporary but I ran away from reviewing YA contemporary. I have actually been thinking “In 2021, I need to stop reading MG/YA contemporary”, haha. So maybe that’s how I’ll resolve this challenge. (I don’t have an issue with reviewing adult contemporary.)
✔️ Don’t cling to a particular length. Consider whether a shorter or longer reviews says what I really want to say to do a book justice. – I have got the hang of this!
Format
✔️ Incorporate at least one quote into each review – I don’t know if I did it for every post, but I think I have been using the more intentionally than in the past!
✔️ Move ratings to end of the review – Done! I like how this works.
❌ Include a recommend for/appeal factors section with keywords – Nope…
❌ Include a brief professional description/annotation for at least the books that I may not have personally enjoyed or been the target audience for – Nope. But this and the above sound like good ideas, hey? Haha, apparently I didn’t have the brainpower to write them in 2020 but perhaps I will find it in 2021.
Design
I know before even looking at the list that any design changes I contemplated immediately fell to the wayside in the madness of 2020…
❌ Stylized headings – Did not happen. I think this goal is too niggly for me to bother with. But I do love seeing pretty, consistent headings on other blogs…
❌ Graphics for my further reading list – Did not happen. I will think about it, but I think the list format I have now works best.
❌ Rating icons – Did not happen. Now that WordPress has a ratings block, it is a moot point for me. If I had any design skill to be able to create my own icons from scratch, I might give it a go, but I am happy with the filled in stars.
❌ Redesign Family Reads banner – Did not happen. But I am working on it now! I’m also creating a new post template for that series.
❓ More consistent imaging across different post types – I did make more graphics for my posts, but I was experimenting with them as I went (i.e. not super consistent). Did not happen. But as with the above point, I am working on it now to be ready for full implementation by January. You can get a sneak peek as I tweak a recent review to test some ideas. One thing I really want to do is have consistent post banners. I have taken some ideas from CW’s post on revamping The Quiet Pond, but as I mentioned above, I have no skills to design my own graphics, lol, so my banners will be simpler pieces.
Actually, inspired by all of this, I’ve just gone and updated my website header for the first time since its creation. I wanted the original design to be clean, mature, and applicable to all sorts of books. However, since I now have an identity as a middle grade/fantasy blogger, I thought it was time for something a little more playful. Will I stick with this? Time will tell…
Community
Part 5 of the series addressed reading challenges and community participation. I’m not going to talk about specific challenges right now (that will come in year end posts). I just want to acknowledge how the book blogging community played a far more important role in my life in 2020 than I could have foreseen. I’m grateful for the events I participated in and all the new blogging friends I made. I have more engagement on my blog than ever before – and engaging with fellow readers is the best part of blogging. So many thanks to my blogging friends, new and old 🙏🏻🥰
How did your blogging plans look different in 2020 than you anticipated? Are you thinking of making any changes in 2021?
I would say considering the year we’ve had, you’ve done very well with your goals. And I love your new header!
Thanks so much Tammy! The header is growing me. I’ve whipped a few more graphics in Canva now and am excited to roll them out, however basic they are haha.
I like your idea of blogging goals, and how you reflected on them, great post!
I‘ve got no explicit goal for 2020. But in March, I pledged to read one story a day and write a review for it. This worked quite well, and people seem to enjoy it. Dunno how long I can keep up this frequency in 2021, though.
Along with it, I posted „level up“ memes to remember how the blog develops. This is a nice way to spread some positivity.
Thanks very much! That’s awesome you were able to keep up with that throughout 2020. It’s been a weird year, to say the least – to have something like that to work on everyday must have been a nice bit of consistency, even if it can’t continue next year.
Thank you 😊 It brought structure to the days, which is always a good thing. And also something to look forward to.
I was just looking at my 2020 reading/blogging goals post from January and thinking… yeah, THAT didn’t happen! 🤣 I’d say you did really well! Love the new header. I’m glad the book blogging community was a comforting space this challenging year.
One of my goals this year was to read more diverse books, which I did, but in 2021 I want to analyze and review that diverse representation more carefully. Social Justice Books Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Literature is super helpful in guiding this critical reflection: https://socialjusticebooks.org/guide-for-selecting-anti-bias-childrens-books/.
Wishing you a safe, healthy and happy new year!
Jessica
Thanks for stopping by, Jessica! I’m happy to have a couple comments now re: the new header. I think it’s here to stay 🙂
That page you linked is actually exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote that note about maybe making a checklist! Haha, I knew I had a resource saved from the kidlit course during my MLIS program but I couldn’t remember what it was. I dug it up and it’s a checklist that someone created based on those guidelines. Thanks for the reminder – I will definitely take another look at it now.
Happy New Year to you as well! 😊
I’d been planning to redesign the whole blog but graphics stuff always seems to get delayed. I am happy with my new review format and mostly happy with my reorganization but still hoping to work on a new logo and header
Sounds you like you got the big/important changes down! I think it’s easy (and probably good) to consider graphics ‘low priority’.
Great post! I’ve got a lot of ideas floating around my head for the blog, maybe if I wrote them down they’d stand a chance of getting done.
This ” Include a recommend for/appeal factors section with keywords ” is something I keep meaning to do every single time, but by the time I’ve finished writing the review I’m in a rush to get it posted and never get round to it.
Thanks so much! I feel the same way. After writing an entire review, I am not excited by the thought of synthesizing it into a few keywords…
this is very helpful. Blogging has been taking a back seat to other things, and I need to think seriously about how to keep it interesting for myself (and my readers) if I’m going to keep going.
Thanks Charlotte, I’m glad to hear it’s helpful to other bloggers. I hope your own reflections/changes prove beneficial.
I think you did great with all of these. There is a rating block on wp now? I have not yet discovered this haha.
Thank-you! There are some neat blocks offered in the new WordPress now. I’d recommend taking a quick scroll through them, which is how I found the rating one, haha. You might some other useful ones.