Hello Internet!
I hope all of you are doing well and staying healthy. I’m so happy to hear that people are actually getting the vaccine, starting with medical professionals and people at the most risk. It seems like we have been given a Christmas Present which most of us will get over the next six months or so. Way better than a lump of cool! Anyway, this is the last Weekly Blog of 2020 and although there will be other pieces popping up here and there, this is the end of the weekly stuff. I’m going to talk about the crazy year 2020 has been, but first let me quickly talk about the pieces I published this past week just in case you missed them. Last Sunday, I published a Weekly Blog about the movie “Miracle on 34th Street.” I watched the old, Black and White one from 1947 since I had heard it was a Christmas Classic but I had never seen it. I go into some depth explaining the plot of the movie and my thoughts, but my simplified thoughts are that I really liked it and I could definitely see why some people consider it a Christmas movie they have to watch every year. On Wednesday, I published a Poem titled “Almost Christmas.” This whole week felt so wintery and so festive it just made me wish Christmas would be here already. If you feel the same way, give the Poem a read and know that our waiting is almost over. Finally, on Friday, I published a Writing Prompt Piece titled “Long Winter Night.” This takes the festive holiday season and mixes it with a dash of horror. What if Santa Claus wasn’t this happy, jolly guy who gave presents to the children of the world and instead he was a supernatural being we had to appease with sweets or gifts or he’d kill our entire family? Well this piece answers that question you have never asked. Think of it as a bit of a nightmare before Christmas situation. Horror and Christmas cheer combined. If you missed any of those pieces and have some downtime this holiday season, I recommend you give them a read.
Now Christmas is fastly approaching which means it’s time for me to wrap up 2020 and talk about the year as a whole before I go on my Christmas Break. Like I said before, this is the final Weekly Blog of 2020 and for the next few weeks I’m going to be on a Christmas break. This will give me a chance to relax during the holidays and recharge those creative batteries going into the new year. There will still be some pieces coming out between now and when I officially come back in 2021, but they won’t be on a regular basis. I’ll put out a short Blog for Christmas as well as my best of lists for both my Poems and Writing Prompt Pieces so make sure you keep your eyes out for that. Also it’s not too late to bring some attention to your favorite pieces. If you read something of mine that you really liked, give it some more love in the next week as well as like it, comment on it, or share it. That will let me know that you enjoyed it and want to see it make the list. These lists are a good way to look back on the stuff I’ve published in the year and can actually help people find the stuff I consider better than the rest. If you are new here and want to hit just the highlights, I’d recommend searching these out or you can just scroll through my website until you find something you like. Either one works for me!
Obviously 2020 was a crazy year. It was divisive and polarizing. It was a lot for a lot of people. I can honestly say it was one of the hardest and exhausting years of my life, but also in some ways it was also one of the best. I feel like I’ve shared this sentiment before in a Blog or something, but it seems like year after year my life gets more and more exhausting, but writing here and publishing things lifts it up. It’s kind of like a rollercoaster with it’s up and downs getting more extreme. But instead of focusing on the lows, I want to look back on the highs. The biggest one is that this website/blog/creative writing out/whatever had the highest numbers of views and visitors. Thanks to all of you wonderful readers, both new and old, we had over 9,000 views which surpass the numbers of 2019 and 2018 combined. The number of visitors also surpassed the past two years combined. Thank you so much for making that happen! We also reached huge milestones in terms of Followers on WordPress. This year we shot past both the 500 and 600 Follower Marks. I mentioned in October how we were nearing 600 Followers and how awesome it would be if we hit it by the end of the year, and then you amazing people made it happen in a week. It’s so crazy and overwhelming in the best ways. I honestly can’t thank all of you for making these things happen. No matter if you are a long time viewer or if you just recently found me, I appreciate the fact that you take time out of your day to read the stuff I write. This year I’ve gotten views from not only the United States, but India, China, Canada, The Philippines, The United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa, Malaysia, and many, many more! Also I want to give a big shout out to all the lurkers out there. I know there are a bunch of people who just read my stuff without liking it or commenting or anything. You’re here, you read, and then you’re gone. It’s beautiful. In all seriousness, I do appreciate my lurkers and I’ll welcome you with open arms whenever you decide to stop lurking.
So what’s next? What’s 2021 going to look like? Well I don’t know for certain but I plan on just doing more of this. More writing. More publishing. If you have enjoyed the stuff I write, you’re going to get more of it. More Weekly Blogs, more Poetry, and more Writing Prompt Pieces. Plus I have some ideas in the work for a new form of content which I think will compliment everything nicely. We’ll see. Just know that I have no plans on stopping and I hope that 2021 will be even better than 2020. I’m going to keep on writing and improving my writing skills and I hope that all of you will be there to support me every step of the way.
Now I’m going to take some time off to prepare for the new year. More specifically, I’m planning on being back in full force on January, 17th, 2021 (accidentally wrote 2020…but I do not want to repeat this year) with a new Weekly Blog kicking off my fifth year writing on WordPress. Remember that between now and then I’m going to be putting out some pieces here and there including my “best of” for 2020. Thank you all again for all the support you send me and all you’ve done for me this year. It truly baffles me that there are people out there reading and liking my stuff and I will never forget how much all of you support me. I know I say it over and over again, but it’s only because I feel so strongly about it. Thank you!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday and I’ll see you in 2021!!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Pexels
https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-wrapping-white-box-3170939/
Allen The Writer 