Hello Internet!
I can’t believe I haven’t written a blog since last year!! Sorry, but I had to do it. I am that person that makes that joke every New Year’s Eve and I won’t stop now. I have many resolutions for 2018, but that is not one of them. One of my resolutions; however, is to grow this website and the community around it. I don’t know if you follow me on Twitter, but I tweeted out some stats about 2017 as a whole. We had 158 pieces published, 682 visitors, 1,219 views, 197 likes, 39 comments, and 94 followers. Not too bad for a year, I think. But I know we can do better. 2018 is here and we have 12 months to make this website bigger and better than ever. I think we can do it!
One improvement, that I know is going to bring in the viewers, is our updated look. If you’re new here, you might not have noticed, but if you’ve seen the website before, you should be impressed. I’ve updated the website to make it a little more user friendly and I think it looks a lot better. I’m still learning stuff about WordPress and the current theme I’ve switched to, but I think it’s a major improvement. The other thing is that I’ve changed up my banner and added some new “categories.” I’ll be putting out another post later today giving details about the categories, but I’ll just summarize real quick. First, “Poetry” is where I’ll be posting poems every Wednesday. Things like Haikus, Six-Word Memoirs, and freeform Poems will no longer be under the “Creative Writing” umbrella. They have their own place now. Another thing I added was “Bulletin Board.” This is something that I’m trying out. We’ll see how it goes. Basically this will be a community space where I can talk to you and make announcements while also being a space where readers can talk to one another about me, the website, or a specific post. Again, this is just something I’m trying out, so maybe I’ll drop it or maybe I’ll keep it going. It all depends on how useful you find it and how much use I’ll make of it. I’m hoping that the “Bulletin Board” will reduce the amount of explaining I’ll have to do and I can cut down on these lengthy paragraphs talking about things like category descriptions within my Weekly Blogs.
Now that we’ve talked about that. I want to look back at 2017 a little bit and talk about 2018. 2017 was a very controversial year. I know that is probably said about a lot of years and will probably be said about 2018 as well, but it just seemed like 2017 was the year when everything came to a head. It was the matchstick that set the whole world ablaze. Personally, 2017 was a very hard year for me. It seemed like it was the same vicious cycle over and over again that left me beat up and bruised. Every day had a new, terrible thing that affected me personally. I was stuck in a rut and was unable to get out of it. One shining moment was that I started this website. I stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote stuff for the internet to see. People from all over the world as well as my own close-knit circle of friends and family spent time to read the stuff I wrote and actually like it. Not every piece was a masterpiece, but there are some pieces I am genuinely proud (See Writing Prompt Pieces: Best of 2017) of which would have never been written, if I had not taken a chance by creating this blog/creative writing outlet. This Blog has allowed me to write some amazing things while also reading the works of other amazing people. I’ve seen fantastic poems, awe-inspiring artwork, and other pieces of art which made my day. Stuff I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
So what does 2018 have in store? Well I don’t have anything crazy planned (yet). This week we’re coming back in force with a whole week of new pieces including the Weekly Blog you are reading right now, a set of wintery Haikus on Wednesday, and a Writing Prompt piece all about Santa Claus and World War III. So make sure you check those out. From now on the regular schedule will be Weekly Blogs on Sundays, Poetry on Wednesday, Writing Prompts on Friday, and then other stuff sprinkled in throughout the week depending on how much time I have to write that week. I’ve taken in suggestions from you as well as looked at my most popular pieces on the website, and I’m going to use that data going forward to write things that I know I’m going to love writing and that you will love reading. 2018 should also hold our 200th piece published and maybe 300th piece published if I can match the same number of pieces published in 2017. If not 200 will happen this year and 300 should happen right around our two year anniversary in 2019 so that will be exciting. I’m not sure what I’ll do to commemorate such an occasion, but I guess we’ll have to see when we get there. 2018 should also hold the threshold for 100 followers on WordPress. Right now we are at 96, so we’re only four away from reaching 100 followers. Also crazy. So yeah 2018 should have some amazing moments as well as some fantastic pieces. I’m pretty excited for the stuff I have coming up in January and February, so make sure you keep coming back to read those when they are published.
I also have some more personal goals I’m looking forward to accomplishing in 2018. Now I won’t go into too many details and bore you with my resolutions (like I did in 2017), but I’m focusing on my physical health, mental health, my career, and adding some personal skills in 2018. On top of writing and maybe moving to a new place and getting a new job (fingers crossed), it looks like 2018 could be a really busy and chaotic year. I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned and find out as things unfold.
So what are some of your New Year Resolutions for 2018? Any big news or events on the horizon for your life? Leave me a comment down below summarizing your 2017 or talking about what you’re excited for in 2018. Or leave me a comment talking about the website, this piece, or really anything. I love talking to everyone down there in the comment section. If you really liked this piece, give it a “like” or even share it. All of the viewership makes my day no matter if this is the first piece you’ve read or the 100th. I really appreciate all the support through your likes, comments, and views.
So that’s all for my first Weekly Blog for 2018. I hope you had a wonderful New Year and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to The Annapolis Patch’s Guide to New Year’s Events
https://patch.com/maryland/annapolis/annapolis-new-year-s-events-2018-guide
Allen The Writer 
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