fairy skeletons.: Blog Party: 'Bout This Blogger (Celebrating Paper Fury!)

I'm participating in my second-ever blog party! This one is hosted by Cait, a magnificent human being and tirelessly awesome blogger. I've mentioned her on this blog before - her post ideas have sparked some of mine, and that aside, she's simply too fabulous to not talk about.

Cait recently made the switch to Wordpress and got a shiny new blog name/URL, PAPER FURY. (Isn't that one of the best blog names ever?) To celebrate, she's throwing a party of Gatsby proportions (okay, okay, exaggeration, but still).



I figured it was only natural for me to join in and answer her super on-point questions. (You should consider jumping in, too.)

So without further ado, here's my 'Bout This Blogger post!

1. Why did you start blogging?

I've talked about this a few times in recent blog posts - it's just your average girl-meets-Blogger story. I thought, "Hey, I like to write!" Then I eventually came to the conclusion of, "Blogging is good for writing. RIGHT? So I should do that."

(The "how even do I do the thing?" part of blogging happened later, obviously.)

2. What’s the story behind your blog’s name?

My blog has actually cycled through several names. Off the top of my head, I remember a few of the pretentious French ones - "Je Ne Sais Quoi" was one of them, I think, and "Ca Ne Fait Rien" was another - I did this purely because I thought they would make me look intelligent. To this day I'm not sure whether they succeeded. I decided after a while that the whole French-is-cool-so-I-must-be-too thing wasn't working, so I changed my blog title to "Don't Be Daft", which pretty much summed up everything I do here.

Meaning that I'm daft basically 125% of the time.

Times changed, I changed, my blog design changed, my post style changed - in short, everything changed after a while, which necessitated a name change as well. I started becoming more and more interested in magic (this interest has now developed into a full-on raging obsession, thanks for asking), and suddenly the phrase "Fairy Skeletons" dropped into my head one day. Cue eureka moment and joyous squeaking/shouting/squealing/all of the above! I changed my blog name on the spot, as well as the URL.

3. How many designs have you been through since you started blogging? (Pictures! We demand pictures!)

Unfortunately, I've never thought to screenshot my blog! I'm sorry! *hides in corner*

*slowly steps out*

I actually have no idea how many designs I've been through. I've always had a bit of design restlessness in my system - I just feel the need to change it every so often. That said, I think I've had... maybe five? Six? They've been improving with each one, I think, and I do so love messing with my color schemes. My current one is by far my favorite, because it uses such a nice template that's so fun to work with.

4. Have you ever switched blog platforms? What made you move? If you haven’t ever changed… why?

I've actually never switched blog platforms. I suppose that part of it is due to laziness - I've been pretty satisfied with Blogger overall and therefore haven't had much interest in switching. But I also like the fact that Blogger is very flexible if you're looking for an easy, fun, free blogging platform. I've used Wordpress before, and if you don't pay, you don't get a whole lot (though Wordpress does have a much better post editor). But with Blogger you get almost total design freedom, lots of fun widgets, and all the functions a recreational blogger might need.

(That said, if I ever decide that this blog is important enough to go self-hosted, I'm most likely going to switch over to Wordpress.)

5. How long does it take you to write a post? What’s your postly process like?

Oh gosh, I'm so inconsistent when it comes to posts. I like to put some thought into my posts, because that's the real lifeblood of my blog, so I usually work on posts in short spurts. At any given time, you can probably bet money that I'll have anywhere from two to five draft posts waiting to be finished. This means that it can take a day to a week to a month for me to finish and publish a post.

6. Have you ever been super nervous about a post? Why?! What was it?

I don't think I've ever really been nervous - this blog is an outlet, and I blog for myself first and foremost. I also have the great privilege of knowing that my blog readers are wonderful, supportive people who will put up with any rambling I do here, so there's not much post pressure.

7. Do you have a blogging schedule?

8. Do you tell people In-Real-Life about your blog? Their reactions?

My family knows I have a blog, and so do a few (read: approximately 1.5) of my friends, but I don't really like to talk about it. I sort of mention it in passing sometimes, but I'm always pretty quick to change the subject. Mainly because if I do tell people, I have to explain that I'm a writer, and then I get all this unwanted advice about how I should write books and how I should base a character on such-and-such person and whatnot.

What can I say? Real life can be a pain.

9. Top ten blogs you read/comment on the most! Go! Go!

There are so many blogs I read... (although I'm rather bad at commenting because Blogger eats my comments and Wordpress just disintegrates them and it gets tiring). I love so many blogs and I have lots of blogging friends I absolutely adore. But here are the ten that come right off the top of my head that I don't think I've talked about on this blog before (most of these people are, like, bloggers I admire so much and want to be friends with but haven't worked up the courage to really talk to):

Ava @ Writability || Gillian @ Writer of Wrongs || Sky @ Further Up and Further In || Emily @ The Loony Teen Writer || Kara @ Diary of a Teen Writer || Shae @ Shae Has Left the Room || Grace @ Words Like Silver || Nikki @ Fiction Freak || Asti and Kelley @ Oh, the Books! || Hazel @ Stay Bookish

10. If you could change/improve things about your blog, what would they be?

I kind of wish I could post more often - people who blog daily seem totally superhuman to me, and I'd like to have their skills. But other than that, I'm really happy with my blog and all the ways I get to connect with lovely people and express myself using this platform.

That's all for today, folks - but be sure to stop by Cait's new blog, Paper Fury, and give her a good "Huzzah!"