Tuesday, April 8, 2014

2014 State of the Blog Address

I know it’s a little late, but I was looking at my 2013 State of the Blog and decided I wanted to do another one this year. It’s nice having all of my accomplishments (and disappointments) up in one place so they’re easy to find.

Stuff I did:
Posted every weekday, except that one Friday that I forgot and posted the next morning but it says I posted it on Friday even though I didn’t. Found out that I apparently write poetry when I’m sick. I took Thanksgiving off and about a week off for Christmas. Two hundred sixty six posts in all, 187 in 2013 (since my last State of the Blog, that is) and 79 so far in 2014. Altogether, blogger says I’ve posted… five hundred one times. So that’s awesome! Yay me!

Stuff I wrote about:
My childhood memories. Stories that I love. My wonderful family. Games that are fun to play! Holding my published works in my own hands. CRAFTING!! Sports. The internet. History!

Stuff I was pleased with:
Most/all of my writing prompts! I never realized how fun it was to write a super short story (known in some circles as flash fiction)! I love to take a quote, a picture, or an idea and make up something about it. I’ve always loved doing that! I’m not sure why it took me this long to realize it. Specifically, I enjoyed writing Finding Fantasyland, which was meant to be super short but just kept getting longer… and longer… I loved writing it and couldn’t stop! The Tale of Lady Wolfsbane wrote itself. And I enjoyed The Girl from the Floating Forest so much that every time I look at it, I want to write more of it.
I actually gave in and joined tumblr a month or so ago just for writing prompts. I’m still using the tried and true prompts from writingprompts.tumblr.com, which is full of awesome things. But I’m also following a few other prompting tumblrs (is that what you call them? tumblrs? or is it tumbls? Only youths know). I haven’t delved too deep into the frightening black hole of the internet that is tumblr because I don’t want to get sucked in. But hopefully I’ll find more fun prompts there, and write some more cool stuff.

Stuff I was displeased with:
The many hours that I wasted whining internally about writing or not knowing what to write. Also probably a few things that I wrote, but going back and searching for them isn’t going to make me feel very good about myself, even though pointing out what was bad and talking about how to improve it is sometimes beneficial.

Stuff I accomplished:
Last year I wanted to promote myself more, gain more readers, get published, and get paid.
I did join twitter, which I used mostly to follow web cartoonists around and be silly with them, but I also made the acquaintance of a few awesome bloggers, who have helped me a lot. (Especially Jen, who answered my questions about work for hire! You can find her blogs here.)
By sharing things on google+, I got quite a few follows, but I’m still not sure I can trust blogger’s hit stats, so I’m not terribly sure how many people read my blog. I’m not too worried about it; the number is most likely higher than it was last year.
I got published. Twice. If you’d like to have a copy to hold in your own hands, you can get your very own Being a Grown Up: A User’s Manual for the Real World, they are available on bigcartel.com, and you can find Forge 7.3 on lulu.com.
Well, maybe I got published three times. But the third wasn’t a book. It was an amazingly fun project for my boss that let me hear a whole bunch of hilarious stories from the awesome DJs that I work with. If you’re in the Lincoln area and need a DJ, my words will help you pick one out!
I think I accomplished the goals I set for myself last year. I had a pretty awesome time working toward them!

Stuff I didn’t do:
I didn’t submit things for publication often enough. I stopped posting links to what I’d written on facebook and google+ and twitter around Christmas time; at first it was because I myself didn’t like what I’d written, and then it was just because I got lazy. I didn’t want twitter consuming my life (and believe me, you can lose hours and days staring at the inane things people put up on twitter), and so I didn’t want to log on just to tweet a link to some writing that I didn’t think was very good. If that sounds like an excuse, that’s because it is.

Stuff I plan to do:
Submit things I’m proud of. Find an artist or publisher or someone to help me put together a book. Keep writing daily. Be awesome.

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