Challenges that I encountered during the project were either technical or personal. From the very start I was challenged with the creation and formatting of the blog itself. I went into the project knowing almost nothing about creating websites, and I had to spend a couple hours watching online tutorials and reading articles so that I would know how to properly operate Wordpress, the website I was using to host Reclusive Ramblings.

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Some more personal challenges that arose were a lack of motivation and inspiration. I struggled to come up with ideas for posts during the first few weeks of the project. However, the more I wrote for the blog, the more I found myself paying attention to my daily life and the easier it was to come up with experiences or topics that I could write about. Low motivation was persistent throughout the entire project, and I had a hard time getting myself to sit down and write. Another challenge was having enough self-control to not get distracted by social media or the internet; there were a few times when I sat down to write a blog post and I ended up wasting a few hours on other things. I found that turning off the internet when I wrote was the best solution to this problem, and provided less distractions.

 

Although Reclusive Ramblings had a small following, I received a few comments (both online and from people I knew who had read it) about how my posts were enjoyable to read. My blog was able to make a few people laugh and give them a few minutes of entertainment, which was one of the hopes I had for the project.

 

Managing a blog taught me self-discipline. I feel that I am better able to motivate myself to get things done, and I have higher self-confidence in both my ability to meet deadlines as well as to share my work. Reclusive Ramblings allowed me to get my writing out to a bigger audience, and gave me practice when it comes to entertaining a general audience. My technical skills have also improved, and I have made significant progress from before the project when it comes to creating a website and finding images online.