Every blogger, when they look back at how they started out, has things they would do differently.  I am no different!  So what would I change if I could go back in time?

1.  I would learn more about the technical aspects of blogging.

Sure, I actually planned out my blog, but to be perfectly honest, I had no idea what the heck I was doing.  I had read some blogging articles, but I was absolutely clueless about all of the blogging terms and still decided to have a go at it.  Patience has never been one of my virtues.

Looking back, I was pretty pathetic.  I’m ridiculously grateful to everyone in the forums for helping me when I asked dumb questions like “What’s a pingback?” and “Is this a spam comment?”  Now, with a lot more experience, I know what these things are.  However, I should have done a lot more research beforehand.

2.  I would network more.

I admit it: I was arrogant at the beginning.  Why should I read other people’s blogs?  Other people should come and read my blog!  The thought that no one would find my blog never crossed my mind.  I was going to be the greatest reviewer ever!  Uh-huh.

Now that I’ve actually taken an interest in the book blogging community, I’ve ‘met’ so many people and discovered so many new books I never would have found.  I have some amazing guest posters in The Streetlight Reader and Caleb Flanagan, but I never would have found them if I hadn’t been commenting on other people’s blogs.  I’m also glad I finally caved in and entered the scary world of social media, even if it’s only Twitter.  Twitter has allowed me to catch up with my favourite authors, fellow book reviewers and some pretty passionate readers.  If I had the choice, I would have started networking much sooner!

3.  I wouldn’t spread myself so thin.

I get stressed out about my blog occasionally.  But the height of my stress was when I was guest posting for We Heart Reading, 20four12, The Streetlight Reader and trying to get through books authors have been asking me to review.  I tried to do everything and in the end, I didn’t get much quality work done.  Now I am no longer an author at We Heart Reading and I only post for 20four12 every other Friday.  The Streetlight Reader and I exchange reviews about once a month now, which suits both of our schedules just fine.

The anthology hasn’t really got going yet, but editing short stories is really no big deal now that I’ve got a ton of guest posting off my back.  Besides, I enjoy making money (hopefully) doing what I love.  And I get to help out authors.  What could be better?

4.  I would review a larger variety of books.

As you probably noticed, I do review a lot of darker, more serious genres like fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction.  If I could go back, I would review some more light-hearted books that are guilty pleasure reads.  I’m working on getting more variety, but I should have been doing that to begin with.

I would also take a stab at some more classics.  I’ve read many classics and enjoyed them, but my family’s library (passed down through four generations) holds so much more potential.  Half of the books down there are antiques and as my ancestors loved their classic novels, there’s whole new worlds down there waiting to be discovered.  My personal tastes tend to lean more toward Roman and ancient Greek literature as well as later books influenced by that writing style, but it’s about time I read some Charles Dickens.

5.  Last of all, I would write a larger variety of posts.

Book reviews, rants and interviews are all well and good, but I do get tired of writing the same things over and over again.  As I said, patience has never been once of my virtues; I’m always looking to change things up.

That’s why I’m going to play to my strengths and write articles about how historical figures are portrayed in fiction, the best and worst…in YA and other such articles.  I also want to do some in-depth articles about my favourite characters in fiction as well as maybe 1-3 chapter-by-chapter posts a  year.  These chapter-by-chapter books will likely be on books like The Hunger Games that nearly everyone has read and I obviously won’t be doing them very often.  However, they do offer a bit of variety to keep both you, my readers, and myself interested.

Well, these are my 5 biggest blogging regrets.  What are your biggest regrets and why?  What would you do differently?