One of the perennial ideas I get when I run out of ideas to blog about is the meta: namely, blogging about blogging. It's another aspect of the bottomless well of inspiration that comes of talking about myself, and so, when I find myself at a loss for something of actual substance to post, I can always ramble on about how I don't actually have anything to post, and yet end up with several hundred words anyway.
I'd rather not do this sort of thing too often. This is, after all, an anime blog, rather than a blog about blogging. I would imagine that what readers come to this blog do so in the expectation of seeing something about, well, anime. Having a self-absorbed ramble that is only slightly and tenuously connected to the merest hint of anime may be tolerated, perhaps once or twice, but it would be wise not to test the limits of the reader's patience by turning this into a blog about my life, online or otherwise, with the occasional picture thrown in for variety or something.
Still, I suppose I can indulge myself just this once, to get it out of my system or some such. And so, for lack of anything actually meaningful to say, I'll present the steps involved in creating a post for this blog:
1. Think of a topic.
This isn't actually the most difficult part, for reasons that will get elaborated on below. I can come up with topics relatively easily, but the trick is coming up with good topics. It's not really any use planning to blog Hidamari Sketch in order to show how much I love that series if I can't think of anything else to say other than "moe~ moe~ moe~ CHECK!Point moe~". And while I'd like to look into the various verbal ticks in anime of desu and nyo and nano and hoe and pagyuu, I simply don't have the expertise or sources to give the subject the full attention it deserves.
I need to come up with a topic that not only do I feel passionately enough about to blog, but which I also understand, and have something to say. This is not an easy task, but the next step is even worse.
2. Construct the post.
I write all my posts in a text file specifically for drafts of anime blog entries. Notepad++ is my default text editor, largely because I wanted something freeware that had slightly more functionality than the default Windows Notepad, and I randomly picked this.
Writing the post feels more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle than any other more linear activity. I don't usually go from start to finish, top to bottom; instead, I plan out the general skeleton structure of the post, and then fill it in with actual words. Sometimes the structure will change, as I inevitably find that my word-padding abilities are not, sadly, up to the task. And, more often than not, I realize that my meagre vocabulary has failed me.
The length of my posts tend to look impressive, but they are really a sign of a poor vocabulary. A good vocabulary would provide the right word for the occasion, instead of having to make do with far more than is strictly needed, poking and prodding around the issue rather than cutting right to the heart of it. Instead, I have to make do with words that almost convey what I really want to say, but have to now rely on my readers to develop psychic powers in order to glean my meaning from my words.
Generally I cover up all these insufficiencies with random geek humour. This, oddly, seems to go over fairly well, for some reason. I suppose it's easier to forgive when you're laughing.
3. Come up with pictures.
One of the reasons I decided to get a separate anime blog from my Livejournal is because I wasn't too enamoured of LJ's customization and ability to include pictures in a post. Pictures, therefore, are essential.
This step is actually fairly time-consuming in itself, largely because of the sheer number of pictures which kind of fit, but not quite. Sagubooru, the self-proclaimed semi-official successor to the now-defunct and legendary Danbooru, is my main source for random pictures like the ones in this post. The main advantage of Sagubooru (carried over from Danbooru) is that it's tag-searchable, which means that I can search for "game_cg" and be sure to get everything tagged as such. The main disadvantage of Sagubooru (also carried over from Danbooru) is that it's filled with all sorts of hentai, a large portion of it fetish, and pretty much every keyword searched for, save for extremely specific ones, will result in some porn. I had to get to the fourth page of results or so before I encountered a worksafe "game_cg" picture, for instance.
If I'm using screenshots, IrfanView and GIMP are my programs of choice for resizing pictures, which are usually all that I do to them (apart from renaming). Taking screenshots themselves is usually done in Media Player Classic, my primary video player. This is still time-consuming, since I have to actually go through the entire episode, sometimes rewinding to catch a scene just so, and then I have to cull the thirty or so screenshots I inevitably end up with even with restraint into half that number.
4. Proofread and post.
Before I post the entry, I look through it one more time in order to catch any spelling or grammatical errors that escaped me the previous run-throughs. WordWeb has been a lifesaver more times than I can count when I'm unsure of a certain spelling, and can't be bothered to look it up in a dead-tree dictionary, but I generally have to manually follow every HTML tag to make sure that nothing gets thoroughly broken.
FileZilla is my FTP program of choice, again mostly because it's the first one I tried and am familiar with. I prefer uploading my pictures in bulk using this method, rather than messing around with the Wordpress upload function in the Write Post page.
When I'm relatively satisfied that nothing blog-breaking is going to happen, I copy-and-paste the entry into the Write Post field, but do not delete it from drafts until I am absolutely certain that the post has gone through and is showing up fine. I save myself from some grief during times of Internet trouble this way.
And that, more or less, is how I create a blog post. It normally takes about three or four hours in total per post, not including the time spent distracted or multitasking. Usually, after I send an entry off to be published on the blog, I start work on the next one, but don't actually finish it or get the chance to post it until the next day, or the day after, or even longer.
Why do I do this, then, when it takes up so much of my time and gives me no end of troubles? Why do I bring onto myself yet another burden in this busy life? Why, in short, do I blog?
Well, because it's fun. And because I love anime so much that I just absolutely have to tell everyone else about how much I love it. The benefits, in my view, far, far outweigh the inconveniences.
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Instead, I have to make do with words that almost convey what I really want to say, but have to now rely on my readers to develop psychic powers in order to glean my meaning from my words.
Waaaay ahead of you…
Love all the Moe pics. If youve got nothing to blog about then post more and that will keep the punters like me coming back ^^;
I've only just started blogging about anime myself, but thinking about it, it does take me about 3-4 hours to write something that I only feel is at most about 80% of what I actually want to say, and about 50% of the effect I want it to have. It's hard but really fun, like you said. :)