Upon revisiting Ambivalence , or is it ambiguity? and reading Valence’s more recent posts, I’ve been pondering since how one could motivate themselves to watch anime as well as aniblog. It’s not easy. I’ve found myself on more than one occasion indulging in the two activities not out of enjoyment’s sake but for a different reason entirely, say for example, a sense of a duty. I’ve been experimenting with episodically reviewing series for months and can firmly declare that the idea does not sit well for me or my fellow blogger and friend Jacqivarius. The monotony has led me to abandon ship and hence a different approach to aniblogging. The only problem is… however do I manage to keep my motivation in check as to achieve this? I have a few suggestions in mind but we’ll see. We’ll see.
The longer I squander my time, the easier it is for my motivation to diminish. Not that I’m proclaiming my efforts are halfhearted (though the title of this blog may suggest otherwise) but that I ought to “reignite my own spark”.
How long does it typically take you to write a post? I would say two to three hours personally, sometimes more. I’m not one who can simply waltz into an examination with an air of confidence such that I could pull a brilliant, if not, decent extended response. I’ll be spewing incomprehensible word vomit onto the paper rather.
There’s also the editing which itself is another crisis. I’m a perfectionist; if given the time, I can be horrendously picky with my words. I’m more likely to run than to tread cautiously on a field of landmines. Mental breakdowns are common.
“Maybe I should press the delete button… On a second thought, better not. Ah, how about I tweak this part over here? Gah! What have I done?! CTRL-Z, CTRLZ!”
I’m also easily distracted. It doesn’t take long for my mind to deteriorate into jelly. That’s when anime and other fun getaways come into the picture. Blogging is no different but concurrently it’s also serious business. Unless your style incorporates stream-of-consciousness, you would and should think before you blog.
But like watching anime, reading manga, playing games and other interests, blogging demands passion, devotion, and above all, motivation. It’s time consuming, and there are and always will be moments where I’ll be grumbling incoherent words along the lines of “fuck, I’ve just wasted -beep- minutes of my life”.
What motives your drive to blog?
Every now and then, I’d like to visit other aniblogs and read their posts if any happen to pique my interest. I’m not one for commenting with elaborate feedback but regardless, reading is good inspiration. I’m however interested in adopting other methods that might aid in the refueling of my mind when I’m in need of it. Or perhaps a suggestive reading list of sorts will do the job if none seem to work. What do you think?
Oh, and the name’s Serenata. I’ll be blogging at Kirakuna from here onwards with many thanks Jacqivarius for the invite. Like Jacqivarius, I’ve “resigned” from The Otaku’s Blog but will continue to post there as a guest writer. I’ll attempt to provide innovative content to each though I ought to warn you beforehand as to not be alarmed by the two blog’s differences and similarities. I hope that my character will somehow amuse the current readers of Kirakuna. Yoroshiku!
– Serenata.
Kirakuna 
I simply blog for self-enlightenment. More like, expanding my range of knowledge and really getting to write what I like. Before I cared about stats, comments and everything, but I’ve grown up a bit since then. Well written post.
A terribly late reply but yes, I reckon every blogger has gone through the “world domination” phase where stats and comments once mattered tremendously. It’s a psychological popularity contest of sorts that most bloggers, particularly those who are new and very keen on earning an audience, tend to place themselves in. While it definitely wouldn’t hurt to have a few passersby peek into the content of my posts, I’ve stopped bothering with the numbers.
Nevertheless, thanks for the compliment; it wasn’t easy writing this.