Kernels of Nonsense: Giving the Feature Both More and Less Direction

Kernels of Nonsense was originally created as a discussion feature that once upon a time was posted twice every month. Back when I was a newbie blogger, I thought it would be a piece of cake coming up with ideas and writing a discussion post every two weeks or so. And I actually succeeded…for a while. But blogging is a really time-consuming hobby and when it’s paired with reading (another time-consuming hobby), things don’t always come easy.

Soon Kernels of Nonsense was only a feature I posted once a month and can you believe it? That even became something I struggled to do. Over the past year and maybe even earlier, my discussion posts kind of became an urban legend. In 2017, I only succeeded in posting four discussions posts. That’s a far cry from the twenty-four a year I had going originally.

I’ve wanted to be able to have more discussion posts on my blog, but wanting something and having the ability and time to do so are two different things. I’ve come to the realization that I may never get back that same kind of enthusiasm (and let’s be honest, I’m not really eager to get back the stress either) that accompanied those regular discussion posts. I no longer feel comfortable giving myself a strict schedule with said posts and I feel even less excited about making myself write when the words just aren’t coming. As a result, I’ve decided to revamp this feature a little.

Kernels of Nonsense will still be the home of bookish and blogging related discussions, but I also want to allow myself the freedom of playing around with the feature more. There may be times where I simply talk about five recent books I’ve added to the TBR, or the fact that I happen to hate a certain element on book covers. They won’t always be long discussions and sometimes they may be incoherent (I get a lot of my ideas when I’m suffering a bout of insomnia and I’m not exactly lucid during those times). But there have been blog post ideas I’ve had that never really fit any of the features or memes I have on the blog and I’ve had no idea what to do with them. Hopefully, this will allow me to finally get to these ideas.

Ultimately, I am hoping that this feature appears on my blog more frequently. I can’t promise it will appear every month or even every other month, but I want it to be there when I’m struck with an idea or I’m struggling with writing reviews (this is me right now, I’m just sort of feeling bleh about them) and I still want content on the blog. Funnily (I can’t believe this is an actual word), I feel like this new direction captures the essence of “Kernels of Nonsense” more than my original vision.

Do you write discussion posts regularly? Do you ever struggle putting discussion posts together? Is there a new feature on your blog that you want to try out this year? Let’s discuss in the comments!