Back when I started this blog a little over a year ago, I also launched an Instagram page.

It began as a place where I could put some of my favorite quotes, share all my photo/video projects, and talk about my journey to published author. It started just as this blog did—as a place for me to grow my audience and distract myself during the waiting game.

Having Instagram as an outlet was invaluable to me during the querying process. With each defeat, I was rallied around. With each victory, I was rallied around. While I barely have 100 followers, I definitely felt like I’ve gained a supportive community who truly care about everything I go through. It’s made up of both new friends and old, but it’s a place where I feel free to share my writing story—something I never could have imagined having the confidence to share a few years ago.

The way I ran the page was that I created all of my Instagram feed posts a month in advance and scheduled them out using a software called Planoly. It allows you to see how your feed will look and gives you some great options for saving hashtags among other things.

To be honest though, once I ran out of my favorite quotes and poems, it got tedious. It began to feel disingenuous, but I kept going because I knew the key to gaining a following is consistency. I didn’t want to mess up the aesthetic of my feed, so I kind of felt trapped to ever stop posting the type of content I was posting. It was a blog post every other Monday, a quote on Tuesdays, a photo of books on Wednesdays, a poem or song lyrics on Fridays, and a photography or videography post every other Saturday.

It wasn’t until these past two months full of mental health struggles that I stopped scheduling out content. I was afraid some of my followers would drop off; I was afraid that my feed would just go dark and I would never be able to pick up where I left off.

I’m sure you can guess where this is going…. It was truly a blessing in disguise.

I posted a couple stories just updating people on where I was, but my first real post came in the form of this photo of my nightstand drawer, and it felt like the first truly genuine post I had created in a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I am so proud of my Instagram and every post on there. But from now on, instead of just posting quotes to please the algorithm, I’m going to post what I want to.

Have those of you on Instagram dealt with this before? How do you feel about it?

Stay safe, guys.

Ps. In case you’re looking for people to follow, here’s a few I love:
@cierrasreads
@bethsbookshelf
@rebella_reads
@robbyreads
@opalsbookjems