MandarisI really wanted to focus on doing more blogging on my blog. Looking back at the 416 posts from last year, I feel that I did it.
One of my proudest accomplishments was writing a response to all the 50 blog prompts by Lou Plummer. I had originally attempted to do one every day, but I didn’t have a regular writing habit so it didn’t take much for life to get in the way of doing it. It wasn’t until September/November that I really got serious about making this a goal.
I really enjoyed the prompts because it allowed me to write and think about things that I normally wouldn’t put on my blog. It also doubled as a conversation starter with my family.
One draw back about my approach of attempting to finish this by a deadline is that I didn’t give myself and readers to a chance to discuss different topics. For example, someone might respond to a prompt and I wouldn’t see it because I was so focused on a prompt that came later. I feel, that I could probably come back to different prompts to see if I feel the same way about them.
Another thing that I can attribute to doing more posting, is that I’m not as stressed about typos and grammar. I’m still feeling friction when it comes to the writing process, but I don’t agonize over trying to make things perfect. I’m in the mindset that writing more will make me a better writer versus the sitting in the draft folder and not doing anything to it.
Making new friends
I started going to IndieWeb meet ups infrequently last year and I feel that’s helped me increase the functionality of the website and give me a place to be social. Mark and James are great hosts and the time seems to fly by.
I also started to interact with Leon quite a bit. He’s got a lot of cool stuff going on.
Somethings that didn’t go as plan
I attempted to start a weekly podcast, but didn’t actually schedule the time to plan, record, and edit it.
I’ll probably make another attempt with this later this year, but it’s not a priority compared to other things in my life. Sometimes, it’s important to say no to things so that you can work on the things that are important.
What do I want to do on the blog this year?
I want to continue responding to more prompts and making my site something that I would like to read on the internet. I looked into different sites that offer a daily prompt, but I think I’ll stick to responding to different topics that I see pop up from people writing on the internet.
I’d also like to work on a longer piece of writing that is not related to changes on my blog or writing about writing. My longest post is about me debating on whether I should use popovers for footnotes. I’m proud of the writing and the journey it took to make it, but I want to have other things too.