Just recently, Yumeka and Kai reflected on how their writing changed over time. When I saw their posts, I became interested to share my experiences of writing about Anime since mine has changed quite a bit since I started blogging back in my freshmen year of college. (Image Source)
When I started, my blog was a big mess. I admit that my writing skills are not the greatest compared to my technology skills despite improving from all these years. However, in my earlier posts, my writing was filled with grammar errors because I don’t read over my posts and proofread them twice like I do now. In addition, my episodic posts consist of mainly synopsis and lots of screenshots, which is pointless nowadays with availability of broadband Internet and now legal streams. In addition to generic episodic posts, I made some pretty childish posts, which is kind of embarrassing.
Thankfully, with the feedback I received from the first Anime Blog Tourney, I took the constructive criticism to improve my writing. First, I read over my posts to check for grammatical or spelling mistakes before I actually publish them. In addition, I started to write more editorials since I have fun writing them along with the ability to think outside the box compared to episodic reviews where you can only talk about a specific episode. I feel that writing more editorials and other unique content (such as Video Game reviews, podcasts, etc.) can make one’s blog stand out a bit a bit more in a blogosphere filled with posts about X show and n Episode with similar opinions.
Another thing I learned from the first Anime Blog Tourney is that social interactions with other blogs and bloggers are important. Sure, we can write a bunch of posts and call it a day, but there are benefits of commenting on other blogs and interacting with other bloggers on social media sites like Twitter or Anime forums. Besides generating comments, you get to see other people’s thoughts or opinions on a certain topic. Not only that, reading other posts or comments can give you new ideas to write about. This is one of the ways I find topics to write about as I lurk around in the blogosphere or on Anime forums like AnimeSuki. Clearly, I don’t use just Anime to spark ideas for editorials, but in some cases, I also use real life events and personal experiences if I can relate it to a certain Anime. Some of these examples include Censorship in Anime, Violence in the Media, and Tiger Moms along with more specific focusing on one series such as discrimination of transgendered girls in Hourou Musuko. While the possibilities are endless with editorial writing, there are still some instances of writer’s block where a person loses ability to produce new works. While I haven’t experienced this yet, it’s best to take a break once in a while.
During late 2010 to mid 2011, I contributed a few guest music reviews for Anime Instrumentality Blog. From my experience, although writing about Anime music is fun since I enjoy and listen to a lot of Japanese music, it’s difficult compared to writing a review for an Anime series. Instead of reviewing the story, characters and other things, you are focusing more on the singer’s performance of the song, instrumentals and the lyrics. Since I didn’t understand Japanese back then before I started studying it, I focused only on the singer and the instrumentals. Through editing process, I understood and appreciate the writing process of writing music reviews.
In short, I felt that my writing has changed significantly from my messy and childish writing to become more polished and mature. My motivation to share my passion for Anime wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t interact with others. Blogging for me takes a good amount of time and dedication to maintain the web server that is hosting this blog, designing a good theme, etc. Despite the challenges ahead, I still enjoy writing about Anime and won’t be giving up anytime soon unless all the studios suddenly stop producing it.
Thanks for the mention! As someone who’s been reading your blog for a while, I definitely see improvements in your writing. It’s amazing what some proofreading can do…as well as the inevitable, which is simply growing older and wiser with time 😉
Like you, over the years I’ve also learned to value reader interaction and commenting on other posts. I used to rarely reply to comments or comment on other blogs when I first started blogging, but nowadays I make an effort to do so all the time!
While proofreading is a very good idea as it shows that the author took the time to make the post sound right. The problem is that there are some blogs that don’t check grammar and spelling at all when there is spell check in word processors and even WordPress! Even though Anime blogging isn’t a college essay or something, going over it so that someone can understand it can go a long way.
I learn that replying to other’s people posts is a good idea. Unlike the early years of Anime blogging, bloggers are using social networking not only to interact, but to promote posts. Commenting on other blogs can in a way promote your content as a reader will sometimes click on the name and view someone’s blog. This is why I have commentluv enabled so that the reader can view the commenter’s recent post, which is beneficial to other bloggers.
Indeed, it’s one thing why I was so particular in avoiding episodic posts. They are not bad, of cause, just hard to make them interesting. And being forced to post every week just doesn’t seem to fit my “my-pace” posting style.
I was also actually planning to write music reviews when I just started my blog, such idea was immediately scrapped though. Writing music reviews is harder then I thought – and I really had to take my hat off to the doods at Anime Instrumentality Blog. It’s kinda shameful too, since I actually studied music before, but just quite briefly.
A bit late, but thanks for the mention too ;p
I feel this way too since I have written alot about comedy shows that they are pretty much the same that I don’t have much to say. I’m shifting most impressions to a digest post so that I can focus more time on editorials and reviews.
I agree that music reviews are harder, but they are fun… Hopefully I get the time to write another music review before vacation.