Thoughts & Things

One Hundred Blog Posts and Counting

Hello, and welcome to the grand one hundredth blog post of Thoughts & Things! Well, it isn't particularly grand, but welcome anyway. After eleven months of working on this blog, I have finally hit one hundred posts. I feel like that isn't half bad. It got off to a shaky start, picked up a little bit as time went on, and really got going once I started Give It 100.

In the past year, I feel like I have really grown as a writer. The progress I have made is finally the kind of progress that I can measure. Rather than my progress being an increase in my quality of writing (although while difficult to measure, I like to think I have made a little of this progress as well), my progress has been an increase in output.

I have made a hundred blog posts. I participated in a thirty-one day challenge that allowed me to put out thirty-one pieces of work I might otherwise never have written or shared (Promptly Potter: "Potterly Prompts"  ). I participated in an entire month of NaNoWriMo prep ( "NaNoWriMo Prep 2016"  ), the most NaNo prep work I have ever done. I wrote nearly thirty thousand words during November, and continue to dabble at the novel since then. I have participated in more contests, including a win in The Writer's Cramp ( "The Journals of Mary Brownstone"  ). I got some great joy out of WDC's Sweet Sixteen celebrations. All of the merit badges and awardicons I have received have been in the last year. I feel like my reviews have gotten better, although I am still trying to work on writing more of them.

This past year has given me the best mileage out of my WDC account that I have ever gotten, and I've been here nearly nine years now. I finally feel like this place is my home. I've started several blogs elsewhere over the past many years, and this is the most success I have ever had at one. Surely that can't be a coincidence.

As a writer, I think actually completing and sharing my various projects is the hardest thing. At least it used to be. I feel like I've gained a lot more practice in simply finishing what I start, and letting other people see it. Even if I have stayed the same in my quality of writing, the extra practice can only help me get better, and it is still a huge improvement for me.

It's honestly a pure fluke that I noticed this was my one hundredth blog post. I actually wasn't even sure what I was going to write about. I was feeling a bit down on myself, as if maybe I was out of ideas to write about. Realising that this was my hundredth post gave me a lot to think about, and it gave me a lot to feel good about. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have made tangible achievements in my writing.

(I have committed to blogging daily with Give It 100. This is Day Fifty-Eight. Seven days of leave taken total.)