Why am I still blogging?

Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of keeping this blog. Which is honestly astounding. I have been here almost ten years. In that time, I have moved three times, switched jobs, become a professional critic and gotten married.

Oh, and I’ve also published 12 books and produced two seasons of a sci-fi/horror podcast.

When I started Paper Beats World, it seemed like everyone had a blog. From teens talking teen things on Tumbler to the sea of mommy bloggers giving you recipes after boring you with the three-generational family history of their lemon squares, blogs were the hot ticket.

Now, they’re not. Now, everyone’s got either a YouTube channel or a podcast. There are so, so many podcasts. I hosted one about true crime, and I continue to write a fiction one.

And yet, I am still writing a blog after so many people have given up on them or switched to a different medium. Why? I don’t make money from this site. It takes roughly two hours a week to write, edit and post a blog. This is time I could be spending writing reviews, short stories or novels. I could be keeping up with my house, playing with Oliver or reading. So, why am I still here?

I don’t want to write a newsletter, do YouTube or start a podcast

Writers need platforms. They need a way for people to keep up with them. Otherwise, how will we know when their new books come out? I need a way to let all of you know what I have going on. And frankly, I don’t want to do it any other way.

I hate newsletters. When was the last time you actually opened a newsletter you subscribed to? Because I sure don’t. They sit in my inbox and I feel guilty for not reading them until I get tired of feeling guilty and delete them.

I really don’t want to do Youtube, because frankly, it seems like a lot more work than I need to add to my week. YouTube would mean I need to put on makeup, create a cute background and write a script instead of writing a blog post. Then, I’ve got to edit the damn thing. Oh, and I have to be careful of what I say, or the video will get demonetized or taken down.

Gross.

As for creating a podcast, this I have considered. It would just be me reading blogs out loud, to be honest. But I can see that being appealing and something I could keep up with. But again, that would include hours of audio editing that I don’t enjoy.

I still find blogging to be the best way to talk to people and the best way to consume content.

If I thought that creating content differently would be beneficial to you all, I’d consider it. I want the things I say to be accessible, and enjoyable. And maybe this is just me, but listening to a podcast where I’m supposed to learn something is often a pain in the ass. I’m often listening to them while cleaning, walking Oliver, or doing any number of things I don’t have a pen for. So if I want to write down a book title, a bit of clever dialog, or information about an herb, I have to pause the podcast until I can get to a pen and paper. It is so much easier for me to have a blog post to refer to when I have note-taking abilities.

I still like it

This is a big one for me. We all know there are things on our to-do list that we don’t want to do, we want to have done. Writing for this blog has never been one of those things for me. I’m still eager to sit down and write for all of you every week. It’s still fun for me. And seeing as how I want to throw as much joy in my life as possible, that’s important.

I want to do things I have fun doing. So, I’m still writing this blog.

I haven’t run out of things to say yet

And I doubt I ever will.

Living is a constant learning experience. And it should be. We are always learning innovative things about our craft. We learn things about the world around us. We learn things about ourselves. Very rarely have I considered what I was going to write about for the week and come up with nothing. There’s always some new book to talk about, some new writing revelation, or some new tool I just discovered.

There is always something new to talk about. And I love that.

It is the one platform I can control

Lots of writers lost an audience when Twitter sunk into the hole of self-important bullshit that is Musk. And I know it hurt some of those people. As I mentioned earlier, we have to have a way to let readers know what we’re doing. And for many of us, that is social media. But social media is fickle. Instagram is relying more and more on reels. YouTube has gone nuts with censorship issues. Threads is nice, for now.

While I still post on Threads, Instagram and Pinterest, the only platform I can be sure of is this one right here. I can post what I want when I want and I know that most of you will see it. If all of my social media was gone tomorrow, I would still be right here.

It keeps me accountable

Writers have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. I despise them, they make me anxious. And yet, I need them. I need them real bad.

With my fiction writing, I often don’t have a deadline. The story will get done when it’s done. And if I have to push it back, most people won’t even know, because I’m usually not stupid enough to announce a launch date until the project is finished.

But I have committed to be here most Fridays. I know that this is when I have to have a post up, and that people are expecting it. So if I just don’t feel like writing. If I’m dealing with burnout or depression, I have that little push to get me to my desk. And often, once I’m there to write a blog post, I start thinking of what I’d like to do with the next chapter of the book. Or a good piece of microfiction I want to write. Or an idea for a contest I didn’t think I was going to bother with.

Writing is often like that. Once you get the momentum started, it’s hard to stop. It’s just getting that momentum going in the first place that can be hard.

You’re still here

Finally, I’m still here because you’re still here. People show up every day to read something I wrote on this site. I still can’t believe it. But I hope that I’m helping you. Every day there’s a new person, or a returning one. I want to put something here that will be inspiring, or funny, or helpful. And so long as you all keep coming back, I’ll keep showing up. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being here with me still.

Stay tuned for more.