Lolita Blogging: Keeping Yourself Inspired

My posts have been pretty sporadic lately due to a bit of a blogging slump, as much as I hate to admit it! Most bloggers get them every now and then and I've been trying to get reinspired and remotivate myself into posting more frequently. For me, this has lead to a lot of googling around for blog posts about, well, blogging. I've found that the Lolita blogging world is quite different from the rest of niche blogs out there, we're not quite as quirky as your average fashion blog, and we're not as serious as other hobby blogs, for the most part, Lolita bloggers are somewhere in the middle. I'm not trying to sell you the brand of my particular style of cool with instagram photos of cat-themed shirts and cute food, nor am I interested in creating a site that's engineered to get the maximum amount of hits possible.

 So taking a little bit from both camps, I've decided to make my own how-to list to becoming a better blogger. Will I follow it? I hope to! 

• Read other blogs- To be honest, I feel like this was one of the large reasons why I sort of slipped off posting, I got out of the habit of checking out all but a few specific blogs. I love reading blogs an seeing people's opinions on topics and seeing someone post something really cool usually inspires me to make a blog post in response to it, or to blog about my view on the topic.
• Schedule- Ha! Hahahaha, good one! I am so bad at this. So many times I'll sit down and make a cool and easy schedule to post by and I'll be good for about one post before just totally skipping on it. And I don't know about you but I sort of feel like "Well, I already broke one rule, so now let's break them all!" so when I miss my first scheduled post, I tend to miss every single one that comes after that.
• Try something different- This is definitely something I need to do! I know I sort of fall into ruts with posts and will be afraid to try something different because I feel like people might get blog-whiplash. I would like to do some more personal posts about my own coordinates and Lolita activities (Got to remember to start bringing my camera places again!) as well as possibly start trying to do a few vlogs. 
• Stop spreading it all over the place- Usually, when I'm not blogging here it's because I'm too busy goofing off on Tumblr. Sometimes I'll make a post of useful information over there, either answering a question or just because I want to share it, then I'll realize that with very minimal work I could have made it into a pretty good blog post. But since it's been posted on Tumblr no one is ever going to be able to find it in a weeks time. Instead of making fluffy quick posts about stuff on Tumblr, I should learn to consolidate them into a single, meatier, blog post. 
• Actively search for inspiration- If I'm feeling like I'm in a slump, I'll usually google around for some sort of inspiration on what to blog about, and 9 times out of 10, I'll find something, whether or not I end up making a post about it. Personally, I absolutely love lists and finding great big lists of even generic things to blog about is usually enough to spark a chain reaction of ideas. I've actually been hoading links to Lolita memes for quick ideas on what to talk about, you can find them on the resource page linked in the header!
• Discuss something- I find that by leaving comments on other Lolita blogs or engaging in a conversation about something with other Lolitas it helps get the creative juices flowing, and sometimes once they start, it's hard to stop!
• JUST POST IT!- My number one post killer is when I just stop writing it! I have tons of posts that are practically finished laying around. They usually just need some sort of wrap-up and some pictures, but for whatever reason I stop just before I'm completely finished and they just sit around forgotten. I need to just learn to just finish these posts up and get them up!

 

  As I've mentioned, it's really easy to bring up a list of generic ideas to blog about. A quick google search will turn up dozens! While most things are generic enough that there's a Lolita version of them, wouldn't a list of Lolita specific blog post ideas be great? You can start by trying to come up with your own list. These are great because they're something you can reference at any time, and I've made a number of blog posts from pulling from my big list of ideas. Too busy to make a list? Well I'll share one of my own with you:

• Share a collection- Do you have an impressive collection of socks? Or maybe some unique brand novelties? Or perhaps you have an unusually high number of purple dresses in your closet? Whatever it is that you happen to have a Lolita collection of, share it with the rest of us!
• Give some advice- Lolita is a learning process, and even those of us who are very new to the fashion have still learned a lot! Pick something particular that you learned about, be it how to keep bloomers from bunching up, how to keep warm in the winter, or how to untangle a wig and teach someone else to do it.
• Attempt to define or pinpoint something- Maybe it's general musing on what makes an outfit spooky cute, or the differences between Old School Sweet Lolita and OTT Sweet Lolita, or perhaps try to pinpoint the exact moment in time when knee high socks went out of fashion.
• Share something personal- For many of us, Lolita is a personal fashion and we experience a big chunk of our life through the lens of Lolita in one way or another. Perhaps it was the nicest compliment you ever received while wearing Lolita, or the worst postal service mixup you ever experienced, share something personal with the Loliblogging world.
• Share something interesting- In contrast to the above, this can have nothing to do with you, just something that you happen to find interesting. It can be a tutorial you stumbled across, a post on someone else's blog, or a particularly creative photoshoot.
• Discuss a new print/release- The Lolita fashion has been releasing new pieces on a frequent basis for well over a decade now! And we have all sorts of opinions about what these brands are doing, even if you only ever blogged about new releases, you would never run out of things to talk about.
• Discuss a trend- There's always some sort of trend sweeping through Lolita fashion, I'm sure you feel one way or another, even if that feeling is "meh". Why does it make you feel that way?
• Make a prediction- Where will Lolita go in 6 months? A year? Two years? Five years? A decade?
• Solve a problem- Just as sure as there will be new releases and trends, there will be problems with the fashion. How would you solve the lack of Lolita stores outside of Japan? How would you solve the problem of internet drama? How do you keep your petticoat from deflating?

 These are the sorts of things I've been trying to do to stay inspired, and the sorts of things I think about when I'm stuck in a blogging rut. Often times I find the motivation and inspiration to get out of a rut just by going around and searching for tips, whether or not I follow through with the actual tips. I see so many people being so enthusiastic about blogging that I get myself really hyped up about it, blogging is definitely infectious!

To all the Lolita bloggers out there (and regular bloggers as well!) what sort of things do you do to get back into the habit of blogging once you find yourself in a creative rut? To those lucky few that never find themselves in a rut, what is your secret!?