Previous tips:
Tip #1: Don’t try to do everything all at once.
Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to make friends.
Tip #3: Interact with other bloggers (outside of your blog).
Tip #4: Scheduling is your friend.

It's a giant lightbulb. Get it?

Tip #5: Take advantage of your creative periods.

Just like there are times where you don’t want to blog, there’ll be times where you’ll want to blog a LOT. Take advantage of that! Write as many blog posts as you can (using tip #4!), start a new project, etc. Do keep in mind tip #1, though, while you’re doing all this. Creative, energetic periods are great when you’re in them, but once they’re gone you’ll probably regretting starting those fifty things all at once. It’s better to focus your energy on one or two really good things, things you can keep going even when you’re in a blogging slump, than giving up on ten or twenty things you don’t care about any longer.

I’ve noticed that I get a big energy boost whenever I meet up with other bloggers (tip #3), but after a week or so the energy is gone and I don’t feel like doing anything. If I can take advantage of that energy while I’ve got it, I can get a lot of stuff done in that short period of time before it goes away.

What gives you an energy boost? How do you take advantage of your creative periods?

Tips for newbie bloggers (5) is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

Bad things:
1. People sending me notices about “events” they’re doing online when those events are actually just giveaways. Stop it!
2. People emailing me review offers for things that are completely outside of what I normally read/review here. Multiple times.
3. Hulu videos taking forever to buffer. It took me over an hour to watch the first episode of Smash! (Loved it, btw. Musicals!!)
4. Having to lug around all those used books which I was really happy to buy at the time but now wish I hadn’t because they’re seriously heavy.
5. Not having any candy or snacks or yummy things in the hotel room and I can’t get any unless I want to spend $4 for a small box of Cheezits from the hotel snack store thing.

Good things:
1. My new Smash book (no relation to the show of the same name), which I probably didn’t need but it’s really nifty and I like having a place to put things that I don’t want to put in my journal and/or carry around with me for another month in a big stack of ridiculousness.
2. The packets of Earl Grey tea I found at breakfast today! EARL GREY. YAY!
3. My hives are going away! The children’s Benadryl is working! DOUBLE YAY!
4. I finally got a swimsuit top so I can go swimming soon! (I accidentally packed my other ones in the moving pods.)
5. It’s my 24th birthday in 20 days and I’ve started getting lots of nifty birthday stuff like coupons for free food and discounts on things I don’t need to buy but will. Huzzah!
6. My new packet of circus stickers. They are awesome.

What good/bad things have happened to you this week?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
020. Boy Meets Girl – Meg Cabot [rating: 3.5]
021. Wanderlove – Kirsten Hubbard [rating: 5] e
022. The Wizard, the Witch and Two Girls from Jersey – Lisa Papademetriou [rating: 3]
023. Stupid Fast – Geoff Herbach [rating: 4] e
024. The Unidentified – Rae Mariz [rating: 4] e
025. Entwined – Heather Dixon [rating: 5] e

Books reviewed this week:
013. Withering Tights – Louise Rennison [rating: 2] e
016. ttyl – Lauren Myracle [rating: 3]
017. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Ann Brashares [rating: 2.5]
018. Vesper – Jeff Sampson [rating: 3] e
019. Dramarama – E. Lockhart [rating: 4]

Books acquired this week:

• Dust by Arthur Slade (bought).
• Jane by April Lindner (bought).

Also: I’m on Pinterest now! Figured I might as well try it out and see what I can do with it.

The Sunday Salon (Feb. 5): Good/bad things is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

Lessons I’ve Learned Starting a Micropress @ HTMLGIANT

Various posts about ALA and blogging and review copies and whatnot:

• Librarians, Bloggers, & The Lines Between @ Stacked
• Legitimacy, Professionalism And Book Blogging @ Good Books and Good Wine
• GIMME GIMME! Conferences, bloggers, and Bitterblue @ Biblio File
• Review. Can I use that word? @ Just Book Reading
• O RLY: A “Contract” for Book Reviews? @ Insane Hussein Reviews
• Surely It’s a Review…and Don’t Call Me Shirley @ Chrisbookarama
• Reading your stars: starred book reviews in review @ Read in a Single Sitting
• Discussion: ARCs, Responsiblity, and What It Means to Us @ Bloggers[heart]Books

Bloomsbury has put a ton of its ebooks on sale over at Amazon, including some really interesting YA ones. Here’s a complete list of what’s on sale. I’d personally recommend buying the following, if you’re interested:

• Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan (YA fantasy) | $2.51 | my review
• The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (YA fantasy) | $2.24 | my review
• The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker (MG fantasy) | $2.45 | no review, but it’s totally cute!
• Mister Creecher by Chris Priestly (YA horror/historical fiction) | $2.51 | my review
• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (historical fantasy) | $2.99 | no review, but it’s awesome
• Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore (YA fantasy romance) | $2.51 | my review

I’m thinking of buying a few books for myself, but I’m not sure which ones to get. Can anyone tell me if these’re books I might like? The books: Pirates!, Flawless (Cyrano de Bergerac retelling!), My Fair Godmother, In a Heartbeat, Coffeehouse Angel, Dirty Little Secrets, Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants

Unfortunately I don’t have enough Amazon gift cards to buy all of them! So I need to pick, like, two. Sob.

Commonplace Post (20) is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

017. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Publication: Dell Books for Young Readers (April 26, 2005), Paperback, 352pp / ISBN 0553494791
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 26-27, 2012
Source: Bought

Mini-Review

I’ve been meaning to read this book for forever, mainly because it’s one of those generation-defining books that’re so important. I’ve seen bits of the movie and I know vaguely what it/the book is about, so I was expecting something cute and touching and possibly melodramatic. There’s actually not that much melodrama in it, but it IS cute and touching. And kind of boring, to be honest.

I think partly it’s boring because of the writing style. It’s very straightforward, with lots of short sentences. A typical paragraph goes something like this: “Carmen looked at her nails. They were chipped. This made her feel sad. She didn’t know when she’d have the chance to repaint them and she didn’t like walking around with chipped nails.” See what I mean? It gets the point across, but it’s not very entertaining.

My favorite character was actually Carmen, and I liked her so much that I could ignore the stuff I wasn’t wowed by. In fact, I’m planning on reading the second book because of Carmen’s story! (That, and I’ve already bought it.)

Rating

Not bad, but I think the movie might be better.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

018. Vesper by Jeff Sampson
Publication: Balzer + Bray (January 25, 2011), ebook, 309pp / ISBN 0061992763
Genre: YA Paranormal

Read: January 24-27, 2012
Source: Bought

Mini-Review

Technically I suppose this could be a sci-fi book– what do you call books that has werewolves and psychics and so on, but they’re werewolves/psychic because of science? It’s a paranormal book, right? But with sci-fi stuck in?

Notice I didn’t add “romance” in there. The romance in Vesper, though the sort that I hate (soulmates), is hardly in there and is definitely not the focus of the book. So that’s good! The writing isn’t that bad, either. In fact, it’s pretty darned good. There was SOMETHING about the female teenage characters which made me very aware I was reading a book written by a non-teenager man, but I can’t put my finger on what that was and it didn’t bug me TOO much, anyway.

Vesper is an exciting, enthralling, and action-packed paranormal/sci-fi book that should be a hit with anyone who liked those sorts of things in their books. It’s also the start of a series, which is annoying, but it’ll probably be a good series so I guess it’s forgivable. I’ll read the sequel, if only to learn more about the sci-fi aspect and how it involves the characters.

Rating

I liked it!

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

019. Dramarama by E. Lockhart
Publication: Hyperion Book CH (May 20, 2008), originally published 2006, Paperback, 320pp / ISBN 0786838175
Genre: YA Fiction, a bit of GLBTQ

Read: January 27, 2012
Source: Bought

Mini-Review

omg. I can’t remember if I’ve read a book by E. Lockheart before, although I’m guessing I haven’t because I’m pretty sure I’d remember something as spectacular as Dramarama is. It’s a book full of theater kids, set in a theater school, with drama and passion and singing and dancing and lots of stuff about musicals– I LOVE MUSICALS, omfg– and it’s kind of heartbreaking but in a good way.

It’s so good! It’s almost the exact opposite of Withering Tights, which I suppose is kind of a weird thing to say, but it is. It’s not funny, but it made me smile almost the whole time I read it. It doesn’t have caricatures, it has characters. It deals with the same stuff Withering Tights deals with (boys, friends, finding yourself) but with the aim of tugging your heartstrings rather than tickling your funny bone. If WT wasn’t your thing, Dramarama just might be.

Rating

I really liked it!

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

MINI-REVIEWS: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Vesper, Dramarama is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

016. ttyl by Lauren Myracle
Publication: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (April 1, 2005), originally published 2004, Paperback, 234pp / ISBN 0810987880
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 25-26, 2012
Source: Bought

Review

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that for much of my life I was a Book Snob. I’d see a book like this one, with its bright pink cover, written in IM format, full of pop culture stuff– and I’d think it wasn’t worth my time. That it was silly, or stupid, or most likely both. I’d write it off as a “no way am I reading that” kind of book and that’d be a big mistake. Because ttyl? Isn’t stupid or silly or a book you should ignore. Maybe the cover is a bit over-the-top and maybe some of the pop culture stuff is dated now, but actually it’s a great book in a really clever format.

The author

ttyl is the about three girls: Zoe, Maddie, and Angela. They’ve recently started 10th grade and have to deal with all sorts of new things. Things like boyfriends, former enemies turnings into (supposedly) new friends, a pervert teacher flirting with his students, and more.

I’ll admit that I didn’t like it as much as I liked Bliss, but that doesn’t mean that ttyl is necessarily subpar. They’re two different genres, and one’s more experimental than the other, and so on and so on. ttyl is, I think, more in tune with teenage life today (although the things in Bliss are actually pretty timeless), especially with the whole “written in IMs” thing. It talks about the damage rumors can do to a person, and friendships gone sour, and teenage rebellion. It talks about sex, and love, and the difference between obsession and passion. And, as a bonus, it’s also funny and enthralling!

Because it’s in chat format, it took me a while to get used to reading it. The occasional chatspeak didn’t help, although there’s less of that than you’d think (there’s also no misspellings, bad grammar, etc. like you’d find in real online chatter). Also one of the fonts is Comic Sans, which…yeah, kind of gave me a headache after a while! Still, it’s surprisingly easy to adapt to a non-prose format, and I actually really liked it by the time I finished reading.

If you’ve been putting off reading ttyl because you’re worried about the formatting, or the subject matter, or the cover: stop it. If you like contemporary YA and books that deal with Real Life things in a smart way, you’ll like ttyl. The sex stuff is frank but not raunchy, and it’s not anything teens don’t talk about anyway. All in all, ttyl is excellently written, with a great story and likable, if somewhat trope-y, characters.

Rating

I liked it a lot!

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Other reviews

Puss Reboots: “There are times when the slang doesn’t flow right and doesn’t feel genuine. The author tries to stick with actual slang and sometimes that works and sometimes it falls flat because the context is wrong or pacing is off. My favorite example of teenage slang is the mostly made up stuff that Georgia Nicholson speaks in the series by Louise Rennison.”

BookLoons Reviews: “The imperfections of talking online are clear as well. It is easy to misinterpret what people mean when communicating via instant messages, and the girls hit quite a few roadblocks in their relationships, because it takes a while to get the real picture.”

Notes

Credit
The author’s photo comes from Goodreads. It’s not mine! Book cover comes from Amazon. It’s not mine, either.

REVIEW: ttyl by Lauren Myracle is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

The book: Hives I mean, hello! Welcome to February. It’s cold and overcast and a bit drizzly here in SoCal, but I’m sure it’ll clear up eventually. I can’t say the same about my hives.

Today I’m reading Entwined by Heather Dixon, which is currently only $0.99 at Amazon if you’re interested in getting it for yourself. It’s another retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses story, though I think I’m going to like it more than the previous retelling I read. For one thing, the princesses have more memorable names (still flowers/plants, but more unusual than “Daisy” or whatever. Bramble is an awesome name, don’t you think?).

The tea: I’m actually not drinking tea. I’m drinking water. Lots and lots of water. To flush out my hives, I guess? Some people have said it works. Eh.

If I had some tea, I’d probably have something with flowers in it. Because…duh.

Do they go together? Water goes with everything, really, although only in a boring kind of way.

Other tea drinkers

Leave a link to your TT post in the comments and I’ll add you to the tea drinkers list!

Thursday Tea (Feb. 2): Entwined is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

Thinking Back

January 2012 is probably going down in history as the weirdest and most uncomfortable January I’ve ever had. Blogging was pretty much the same as it ever was– it’s the stuff outside of blogging that was strange and a little bit yucky. And exciting, too, I suppose!

So what happened? I moved from New Mexico to California, for one. I’ve been living in hotels for the past month. I’ve had issues with things being sent back in the mail and not showing up and causing me heartbreak. I’ve broken out in hives from mysterious circumstances (stress? mosquito bites? something else?). I’ve ate enough continental breakfasts to make anyone sick and I’ve learned how to make tasty meals with only a microwave and a mini-fridge. 

Kind of exciting stuff, albeit really annoying sometimes (hives are itchy, yo!). I know it’ll be worth it once we find a place to live and I’m settled in my own space again, though.

Meanwhile, I’m super lucky to have a stockpile of really good ebooks to read, plus some paper books which I probably shouldn’t have bought because it’s getting very crowded in our car nowadays. Even if I can’t get to my usual comfort books, any book I can lose myself in for a few hours is good to have around. It’s relaxing!

In February, I’d like to:

• catch up on reviews. I’m more behind on them than I’d like.
• do something special for my birthday on the 25th. Giveaway, maybe?
• not break out in hives again.
• go swimming at least once!

Reading Stats

23 total books read
14 total books reviewed
16 ebooks
0 audiobooks
7 pbooks

17 were by authors new to me
0 were rereads

Top 3 Books

004. Graffiti Moon – Cath Crowley [rating: 4] e
019. Dramarama – E. Lockhart [rating: 4]
021. Wanderlove – Kirsten Hubbard [rating: 5] e

Books Read

001. New Girl – Paige Harbison [rating: 4] e
002. Tooth and Claw – Jo Walton [rating: 3.5] e
003. The Green Man – Michael Bedard [rating: 3] e
004. Graffiti Moon – Cath Crowley [rating: 4] e
005. A Greyhound of a Girl – Roddy Doyle [rating: 2.5] e
006. Street Dreams – Tama Wise [rating: 2] e
007. I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Julie Dawn Cole & Michael Esslinger [rating: 2] e
008. Lies Beneath – Anne Greenwood Brown [rating: 2] e
009. Ghost College – Scott Nicholson & J.R. Rain [rating: 2.5] e
010. The Art of Money Getting – P.T. Barnum [rating: 2] e
011. Planet Janet – Dyan Sheldon [rating: 3]
012. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte [rating: 4] e
013. Withering Tights – Louise Rennison [rating: 2] e
014. The Giver – Lois Lowry [rating: 3] e
015. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green [rating: TBD]
016. ttyl – Lauren Myracle [rating: 3]
017. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Ann Brashares [rating: 2.5]
018. Vesper – Jeff Sampson [rating: 3] e
019. Dramarama – E. Lockhart [rating: 4]
020. Boy Meets Girl – Meg Cabot [rating: 3.5]
021. Wanderlove – Kirsten Hubbard [rating: 5] e
022. The Wizard, the Witch and Two Girls from Jersey – Lisa Papademetriou [rating: 3]
023. Stupid Fast – Geoff Herbach [rating: 4] e

Books Reviewed

From 2011′s books read:
167. Those Who Hunt the Night – Barbara Hambly [rating: 4] e
168. Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins [rating: 4.5] e
169. Making a Living Without a Job – Barbara J. Winter [rating: 4]

This year’s:
001. New Girl – Paige Harbison [rating: 4] e
002. Tooth and Claw – Jo Walton [rating: 3.5] e
003. The Green Man – Michael Bedard [rating: 3] e
004. Graffiti Moon – Cath Crowley [rating: 4] e
006. Street Dreams – Tama Wise [rating: 2] e
007. I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Julie Dawn Cole & Michael Esslinger [rating: 2] e
009. Ghost College – Scott Nicholson & J.R. Rain [rating: 2.5] e
010. The Art of Money Getting – P.T. Barnum [rating: 2] e
011. Planet Janet – Dyan Sheldon [rating: 3]
013. Withering Tights – Louise Rennison [rating: 2] e
014. The Giver – Lois Lowry [rating: 3] e

Poll Results

Check out the polls archive page for past polls and voting results. This month’s poll will be up later today!

Other Stuff

TBR stats (not counting review copies)
Paper: 11 books added to my TBR pile. 7 were read right away; 0 others were read during the month. 184 total paper TBR now.
Ebook: 81 books added to my digital collection. 4 were read right away. ? total ebook TBR now.

Reading goals
23/250 books read | 6159/50000 pages | 0/20 audio hours

Possibly Interesting Posts

• The Sunday Salon: Book Blogger Holiday Card Exchange news & other stuff | California edition | The looking-at-condos edition (& a small PNR rant) | The “this week sucks” edition | The “reviewing classics” edition
• Tips for newbie bloggers: (1) | (2) | (3) | (4)
• Thursday Tea: Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married | Street Dreams | Jane Eyre | Vesper
• Commonplace Posts: (16) | (17) | (18) | (19)
• Happy release day!: The Whole Story of Half a Girl | New Girl

Happy February, everyone! I hope your lives are hive-free and un-itchy.

Monthly Review (January 2012) is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

This post is just a reminder for y’all that today, January 31st, is the official release day for New Girl! I really enjoyed this book and I’m hoping some of you will enjoy it, too.

You can read my review of New Girl here at Birdbrain(ed). If you want to read someone else’s opinion, you can check out other reviews here.

If you want to buy New Girl, you can get it from Amazon or BookDepository. Or if you’d rather get it from your local library, you can locate a copy through Worldcat.

Happy release day to New Girl! I hope you find lots of happy readers.

Happy release day, New Girl! is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

013. Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
Publication: HarperTeen (June 28, 2011), originally published 2010, ebook, 291pp / ISBN 0061799319
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 22-23, 2012
Source: Bought

Review

I’m a big fan of Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicolson books (diaries and drama and lots of humor!) and so when I found out that she was starting a new series, one that starred Georgia’s cousin, Tallulah, I was super-duper excited. After reading it…okay, yeah, it’s not my favorite LR book ever, and in fact it just made me miss the Georgia books even more¹.

Withering Tights is about Tallulah and her summer in the county at a theater school, a theater school which is lead by the sort of people you’d see wandering around Hollywood somewhere with tea cozies on their heads. She’s there for one thing only: to become a star. And boys. Okay, two things only: stardom, and boys. And her first snog. So, three things: stardom, boys, snogging. And maybe some adventures a la Wuthering Heights. So, four things!

The author

And that’s basically what you get. There are boys, and snogging, and flimsy connections to Wuthering Heights, and some school stuff that doesn’t go as Tallulah planned. The comedy aspect isn’t, I think, as clever or as strong as the humor in the Georgia books is– for one thing, basically everyone but Tallulah and her friends come across as caricatures instead of characters. The teachers at the art school are especially terrible; I think they’re supposed to be humorous, “oh aren’t artists just funny little people” sort of characters, but I wasn’t really impressed with them. They came across more like slapstick comedy characters than actual teacher.

The nice thing about the Georgia books is, though everyone acts in a slightly ridiculous manner, they still feel like real people. People with a good dose of silliness in them, but people nonetheless! Tallulah (and her friends) have got the ridiculousness balanced with realness, and they’re really fun to read about. Everyone else, meanwhile, has got the slapstick problem.

So that was disappointing. The plot itself was pretty enjoyable, though, with character growth and coming-of-age stuff. There were also some nice insights into humanity– presented in a humorous way, of course– and the ending, though somewhat sad, was really nice. Although I didn’t think it was as funny as her other books, I did laugh out loud a few times, and I obviously didn’t hate it enough to give up reading it. So, while it’s not my favorite book ever, I don’t think it’s all that horrible, either.

Rating

It was okay. Not my favorite Louise Rennison book, but I don’t hate it, either.

Buy

Get your own copy @ Amazon or BookDepository.com and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog through the power of affiliate earnings!

Other reviews

Dear Author: “The likability of Tallulah is what allows this story to be so humor-focused. Her friends and love interests are all well and good, but they are limited in scope and development due to the story’s focus. I don’t often read YA that doesn’t focus on characters, but your writing voice is what allows me to make an exception and enjoy books such as Withering Tights just as much. Your writing is primarily humor focused – situational humor, puns, ect – and it’s akin to listening to a story told by a very funny friend.”

Book Chic: “Overall, a fantastically funny book about growing up and having to deal with the usual issues as well as attending a performing arts school. Definitely a book to check out if you’re looking for a light read this summer. There’s also a glossary included in the back of the book as usual for the terms that Americans don’t know (or that anyone doesn’t know because they do make up some words).”

bookshelves of doom: “But, I’m sure that all anyone really wants to know is how it measures up to the Georgia Nicholson books. Well, even though Tallulah is less of a caricature than Georgia, Georgia still has my heart. But Withering Tights was still wicked fun and it made me laugh out loud and there’s no way that I won’t read the sequel whenever it appears.”

Plus loads more here.

Notes

Credit
The author’s photo comes from Goodreads. It’s not mine! Book cover comes from Amazon. It’s not mine, either.

Footnotes

REVIEW: Withering Tights by Louise Rennison is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

Previous tips:
Tip #1: Don’t try to do everything all at once.
Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to make friends.
Tip #3: Interact with other bloggers (outside of your blog).

Tip #4: Scheduling is your friend.

This doesn’t work for everyone, as some people prefer just writing posts the day they mean to post them, but if you can schedule in advance even one post a week it’ll be a big benefit to you and your blog. Scheduling, for those who don’t know, is when you write a post before the date you mean for it to go live. So, for instance, if I wanted to schedule this post in advance, I’d write in on Friday and set the post date for today, Monday. To set the date as something different from the day you’re writing it, check in the “publish” options on whatever blog platform you use. WordPress, for instance, has a thing that says “Publish immediately Edit”; if you click “edit” you can change that to any date you want! Yay!

So, why should you schedule posts? Sometimes writing a blog post a day, or even every few days, can get really tiring. It’s hard to keep up momentum over a long period of time, and eventually you’ll want to take a vacation from blogging. The easiest way to take that vacation without making your blog go silent for a week (or whenever) is to schedule posts!

For instance: In December I scheduled about two week’s worth of posts in advance. I did this because I knew I’d be tired from packing for my move– too tired to write a blog post every day like I usually do. So what I did instead was: I dedicated about two days a week to writing as many blog posts as I could! I wrote reviews, discussion posts, and prepped my meme posts so I could fill in the details later. Once I did that, I didn’t have to write anything for days at a time (except for filling in the memes). That meant I could then spend my time relaxing, talking on Twitter, and reading books.

Do you like scheduling posts in advance? Or do you prefer to write posts on the day they go live?

Tips for newbie bloggers (4) is a post from: Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. If you are reading this on any other blog than Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.