Thanks to Sara Letourneau for nominating me for this blog hop. It sounds like so much fun!
In her acceptation post, she says she’s been blogging for eight years. I feel so little, having blogged for just four years. It’s been a great journey, though, and I’m still enjoying it a lot, learning new things every day, meeting awesome people constantly.
I’m happy to celebrate this.

The Rules for the #MyFirstPostRevisited Blog Hop

1. No cheating. You must highlight your first post. Not your second post, not one you love… the first post only.
2. Link back to the person who tagged you (thank them if you feel like it or, if not, curse them with a plague of ladybugs).
3. Cut and paste your old post into a new post or reblog your own bad self. (Either way is fine, but NO editing.)
4. Put the hashtag #MyFirstPostRevisited in your title.
5. Tag five (5) other bloggers to take up this challenge.
6. Notify your tags in the comment section of their blog (don’t just hope they notice a pingback somewhere in their spam).
7. Feel free to cut and paste the badge to use in your post.
8. Include “the rules” in your post.
9. Completely silly rules that I’m making up as I type:
• Write your post while wolfing down your favorite dessert.
• Do 10 cartwheels after you hit “Publish.”

My first blog post – Storyteller

I subscribed to WordPress on 8 March 2013 after much thinking. I’ve always liked the idea of blogging, but for quite a few years, I let it be, because I really thought I had nothing to blog about. I lead a very normal life, I don’t travel much. I still don’t feel like writing about writing, because so many people already do it in such awesome ways. In short, I didn’t think I had anything interesting to share.

But in 2013 I was completing the total rewrite of Ghost Trilogy and I knew I was going to focus on the first novel and once finished I’d started submitting it. I also knew that today an author is supposed to have an author platform and that an author platform mostly centres around a blog or site. So, in spite of my doubts and knowing basically nothing about blogging or even WordPress, I sighed up and started building my blog.

It took me sometime. I wanted to write a few pages that people could explore. At the time, I didn’t know that I could make the blog private, and anyway I was sure that no one would know I existed until I didn’t start using social media (I was also subscribing to my first social media at the same time).
So I worked on the pages and left the blog alone.
But then, after a few days I was doing this, I realised people were already stopping by and I felt bad that when they did, they found nothing on my blog.
I decided to at least put a quote on, then, so that readers at least knew I was doing something with the blog. And I chose one of my favourite Michael Jackson’s quotes about storytelling.

I’ve always wanted to be able to tell stories, stories that came from my soul. I’d like to sit by a fire and tell people stories – make them see pictures, make them cry and laugh, take them anywhere emotionally. I’d like to tell tales to move their souls and transform them. I’ve always wanted to be able to do that. I sometimes feel I could do that…
– Michael Jackson

How my blog has changed

It’s only four years, but because back then I really didn’t know that I was doing, and because I’ve learned so much, if feels a lot longer.
A first big change came what I realised that blogging isn’t really about me, but – just like stories – it’s about the reader. It’s a way to connect, not a way to express. It was very important to me, that realization, because it changed my way of blogging completely.

It is thanks to the readers of this blog if my content now is more about sharing what I’m passionate about than just telling about myself and my stories. I would have never started writing about the 1920s if it hadn’t been for your awesome people who read this blog and who are passionate about history as much as I am.
In the beginning, I actually decided I wouldn’t blog about the 1920s, because I felt I was no expert. And even if I still think that, I wonder what I was thinking: blogging is about sharing and we can only share what we know and we love. What I know may not be much, but I love it and I love to share it with you.

The blog has also change visually. Not just the theme I’m using, but the idea that is behind my choosing of this theme. Although I’m not at all a techy person, I like learning about how to best manage a blog, because, like writing, the structure is part of the message, in my opinion.
I’ve learned about widgets and plugins, about SEO and images optimization, about article composition. I’m still learning and I’m still having lots of fun.

Only one thing hasn’t changed.
When I posted my first blog, one of my friends told me, “Welcome to the blogosphere, this is a fantastic place.”
And it is. Thanks to you people.

So really, if you are thinking about starting a blog, don’t do like me, don’t wait, don’t overthink. Just start. It will all come together and it will be great fun.

My Nominees

Ali @ Ali Isaac Storyteller
Megan @ Megan Morgan Author
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
Holly @ Holly Gonzalez
Tiyana @ The Chandra Tribune