From One Blogger to Another – Some Advice

I’ve been writing on and off about anime for over ten years at this point and have been enjoying a relatively fruitful run the last couple of months. It’s taken a long time for me to get back to this productivity level because I’ve been through some personal ups and downs and some major changes over that time period. I know first-hand how difficult it is to focus on side projects like this when everything else in one’s life feels out of control. Getting back into writing regularly just feels right to me, though; it’s a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings about something I love in a way that occasionally reaches other people (it’s definitely preferable to sitting at home and talking about anime to no one in particular).

There are a lot of guides out there that cover the ways in which one can be a successful blogger and make a side career (or actual career!) from their writing (I recommend starting with The Otaku Journalist). Because of the uncertainty inherent to that prospect I’ve never considered that to be an option for me since I appreciate stability and consistency over all things. However, I have intuitively happened-upon a few things over the years that have helped me out as a blogging hobbyist and I thought I might pass them along to any readers who are interested in following a similar path. These are in no particular order, and many of the items have as much to do with general online interaction as they do with blogging specifically (and likely stem from a specific incident or interaction I’ve had).

Spend as much or more energy talking about the things you like as the things you don’t.

I’m finding more and more that “hate-watching,” where people watch something they know they’re not going to like in order to comment on it in an entertaining way, is its own genre of critique and quite popular. I think there’s something valuable in knowing where a piece of media goes wrong, and sometimes you might be in a situation where something you wanted to watch takes a bad turn or you’re obligated to watch something you don’t care for (if you write for another website, perhaps). It’s good to be able to speak critically and competently about media that doesn’t pass muster. At least personally, though, as entertained as some people have been in the past to see me trash anime they themselves agreed weren’t good, the constant stream of negativity begins to wear on the soul. It’s exhausting! And eventually it starts to feel like there’s not much out there that’s worth watching, even though anime is abundant and a great series might be just around the corner.

Due to the format here I’m invariably put in the position of reviewing things that I don’t care for or which are even actively offensive to me, but it’s rare to encounter a show that has absolutely no good aspects and there are often just as many series each season that I can speak positively about. I also like to counteract the seasonal doldrums by talking at length about series that I’ve watched and really enjoyed (check out my recent Anime Book Club series on Kino’s Journey). I think it’s correct and helpful to be upfront about a series’ sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or other factors that are problematic. Heck, even just generally disliking something you’ve watched is a valid reaction and talking about those details might help inform others. But anime is something that I love even though it has many flaws, and I’d much rather expound upon about things I like about it than dwell on things that I didn’t. Since I do a lot of panels at anime conventions, I like to bring that viewpoint with me rather than unintentionally hurt the feelings of someone who doesn’t agree with my opinions. And along those lines…

Consider if your writing might come across as insulting.

There are anime series out there which I cannot legitimately believe have a fan base. I have a very low tolerance for media that insults and diminishes women, for example. In some cases, the existence of this material makes me very angry and I wonder how and why there are other fans who are willing to tolerate it and even celebrate it. As a younger writer, a lot of this anger manifested itself in my writing as both inarticulate commentary on the quality of these series (“this is dumb and crappy”) and broad insults toward certain types of fans. This being the internet, you can likely guess the type of backlash this engendered. I’ve been called the B-word, the C-word, been told that I should kill myself… some writers can tolerate this type of interaction and some might even find it amusing. I’m not one of them.

I won’t come out and say “don’t be insulting” because you may be the type of writer who can utilize bluntness effectively and don’t care so much about the backlash. And hey, people who are willing to comment some of the vile and terrible things that I’ve seen don’t really deserve to be coddled, in my opinion. But consider if that’s the type of atmosphere you want to cultivate with your writing, and understand that seeing and moderating violent and hurtful comments can be almost as exhausting as face-to-face confrontation for some people.

My personal approach has become to use the specific details of bad anime as a jumping-off point to write about some of my personal philosophies about life and writing (see my recent First Impression of The Master of Ragnarok for an example of this). This type of writing might not be to everyone’s taste, but it plays well to my own style and how I think about media, so to me it feels more successful than being angry without a proper outlet. To continue further with this thought…

Allow your own personal style to develop.

I think it’s common for new bloggers to read posts and watch videos by more established members of the community and think “man, I wish I could write like that.” I’m going to tell you something that might sound discouraging – sometimes those of us who have been around a while think those exact same thoughts. There are a lot of people whose work I read on a regular basis whose skills I truly envy. Individuals who can produce content more consistently, can speak more intelligently, and who just seem to know more than I ever will about anime. It’s easy to get discouraged when surrounding yourself with people who are very talented at what they do, especially when your self-esteem isn’t in the best place to begin with.

One thing that’s helped me is to just accept that I will never be “the best” at certain things. I will never be able to memorize the names of voice actors, of most animators, or most anime directors to the point I can cross-reference them with their various contributions without doing some research. But I am very good at passionately following a few of my favorites and getting excited for their upcoming projects. I will never be a complete expert on film theory and technique, because that’s not where my interests are. But I am an expert on my own feelings an emotions, and because that’s how I tend to consume anime, being in touch with my emotional reactions provides me with an anchor for my writing. I’ll likely never be an expert in web design. But I am pretty good at reverse-engineering and utilizing tools that exist for non-professionals. I have my own set of strengths, and knowing what they are allows me to take advantage of them and let them shine. Your style and skill set will eventually become your voice, and if you’re genuine there are plenty of people out there who will be drawn to that.

It’s all right to say “I can’t…” about something, as long as you do enough soul-searching to realize when to say “I can!”

You can listen to advice without accepting it.

This might sound silly as part of a post that’s literally about providing advice, but I think it’s valuable to realize that just because advice is offered doesn’t mean that you have to take it. When you make your work available for free on the internet, there will be people who interpret this as an opportunity for them to provide feedback on how they believe you can make some improvements. It might be the addition of a certain type of content, an element of visual design, or some new plugin or form of web technology. Whatever it is, I like to think that these suggestions are usually offered in good faith and for the purpose of trying to help (even if  it’s a little presumptuous). It’s important to remember, though, that even if what someone is offering is a good idea, you aren’t obligated to use it.

Some years ago, an attendee at one of my panels came up to me and said that they enjoyed the presentation, but that I might want to consider using PowerPoint (or another slideshow program) to organize my clips and make things look more polished. At the time I felt that there was no need to change what was already working for me, but a couple of years later I came around to the idea and implemented it. To no one’s surprise but my own, it’s much easier to have an entire presentation saved as one file than it is having to dig through a folder of video clips in the midst of talking about a subject nervously in front of an audience. That person’s logic was sound at the time, but I wasn’t really in the correct head-space to utilize it. It might be the case that, for various reasons, a good idea may never actually become a usable one, and there’s no shame in that. And if someone tries to bully you into doing something a certain way (which has happened to me), well, they can go jump in a lake.

Don’t hold yourself to unreasonable standards.

There was a period of time where my goal was to post one article a day, every day. When I’d just started blogging about anime, I could post several impressions and reviews per day, so producing one post per day of decent quality was certainly within the realm of my abilities, right? For me, though, this was an unreasonable goal. I can sustain this level of creation for one, maybe two weeks at most before suffering burn out. Attempting to achieve beyond my abilities has been the cause of several extended hiatuses; it’s taken me to this point to truly understand that “slower but more consistent” is the key to success.

Take some time to identify what your maximum level of production is. It might be one post a day, it might be one a week or every two weeks. If you’re someone whose writing requires a lot of research and preparation, it could be even more infrequent than that. You might prefer to write shorter, more frequent posts rather than lengthier posts. Your “day job” (if you have one), might only leave you with enough energy for a rare post here-and-there. Whatever your schedule ends up being, try to be comfortable with the fact that productiveness is personal and depends on many different factors, and don’t try to compare yourself harshly to others. If you’re a solo content creator, please please don’t measure yourself against websites with multiple contributors; one person can’t and shouldn’t be as consistently productive as ten writers. You are you, and what you’re able to accomplish is good and worthy.

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My last thought is less concrete, but I think it’s just as important. Anime fandom is my main hobby, and because of this I want it to continue to thrive for a long time. It might be a little arrogant for me to say so, but I look at my writing as not just an outlet for me to talk, but also a something I do because I want the fandom to be welcoming to others. When I was a young fan I had a lot of trouble engaging with fandom despite really liking anime; at the time the internet wasn’t as big a place and there weren’t that many resources online. It took me several years to find an in-person group, and I was lucky to do so. Now anime has grown to be a much larger and more popular fandom, with all the pros and cons that come with that. There are plenty of online spaces to get information about anime and to interact with other fans, but disagreements can turn nasty and there are people who utilize forums and blogs to push hate-filled agendas. It’s an internet-related problem that we haven’t been able to solve just yet.

Now that I’m older and have the ability to do so, I write as a way to tell other anime fans that they don’t have to “age-out” of the fandom and that there’s an abundance of anime out there that’s great to watch even if you’re trying to be conscientious about real-life social issues. Anime fandom can also exist without internet drama and argumentativeness, and I want my space to be one that represents this. I think that those of us who engage with anime in this way are helping to maintain the health of a fandom that can be very rewarding to a lot of different people, and that’s something important to remember when writer’s block hits or the well of ideas has temporarily run dry.

If you’re also a writer, do you have any valuable advice to pass along to others? Normally I’d ask for you to post a comment… but maybe this might give you inspiration to write something in your own space. Thanks for reading and doing what you do!