Would you describe your experience as a book blogger as difficult?

Bookish Verbosity is a non-regular feature at AEROPAPERS where I talk about topics that are related to books, blogging, and the book community.

This question was prompted by a tweet; I think it said: “Blogging is hard.’ And I automatically asked myself a question: “Is book blogging hard for me?’ Honestly, hard or difficult are one of those adjectives that I rarely use when describing book blogging. But if it’s really necessary to answer that, I’m going to say… no! But that answer doesn’t mean that blogging is effortless for me. It needs tons of effort and time to maintain, so basically, it’s not easy. But to associate the words difficult andhard,” which for me are negative, sounds off. I describe a math equation as hard to the point of me wanting to tear the test paper to pieces (I hate math, which is ironic since my mom is a math teacher). Going to work that you don’t like is hard. Doing something you don’t like is hard. These scenarios have one thing in common: I don’t like what I’m doing. It’s hard for me to continue if my heart’s not in it, hence the difficulty.

But so far, I have yet to experience that with book blogging. It’s not easy; that’s a fact. I don’t see myself as always creative and prepared, but bumps here and there didn’t take away the fun of it. Yes, I have to prepare my content. I need to make sure my blog is functioning properly. I need to come up with interesting posts, etc., etc. So no, it’s not easy, but it’s not difficult either. Because I’m content and optimistic about it! And every time I post content, every time someone comments on my post, whether it’s a bazillion people or just one; or just to see some people reading my content whenever my statistic report emails me every month—the appreciation somehow makes it easy. But more than the extrinsic factors that I get from it, book blogging simply makes me happy.

You know, the only time I’m going to describe blogging as hard or difficult is if I’m pressuring myself to do it; if I’m not happy anymore and I’m just forcing myself to continue. Those things will make it hard for me. And because I love what I do and am happy with it, my experience has been positive. As I said, I give tons of effort, I devote a lot of time, and I even spend money on it, but no, it is still not hard. If I feel like I’m pushing myself to do something, it’s time to rethink my goals.And if at this point I’m associating it with negativity, then perhaps that’s where the problems lie.

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So it’s your turn, bookish peeps—would you ever describe blogging as hard? If yes, why? Do you have tips to help struggling bloggers? Would you care to share them?