Friday, April 8, 2011

500 posts - Time for the next step of writing

500 posts! Wow... it feels freaky really. I remember when I was happy about my first 100 posts, when I was happy about my first 1000 pageviews and when I choked on my morning tea when I saw I was being featured on Wowinsider (it still has that effect on me). I want to thank everyone who has been with me on this journey, which I have loved since the day it started. I would also want to take this opportunity to make some changes. But first I would like to tell you all a boring fascinating story about me and my writing.

I've loved writing my whole life. I started writing stories before I could even write. I've got a couple of old note books filled with just doodles, where I thought up stories in my head and pretended to write them down. My first readable story was written when I was 5 years old. My mom helped me out, and wrote down what I told her. It was a story about a lost princess called "Sitas Adventure". My joy for writing started there somewhere, and has continued throughout the years. I wrote a diary from 8-17 (ish, don't remember exactly) and I still jot down random thoughts whenever they pop into my head. I've written my fair share of horrible poetry. I've written butt loads of short stories, and started a couple of novels throughout the years. And here we have a blog which consisted of 500 pages worth of text last time I counted (which was october last year), by now probably close to 1000. Needless to say, I really like to write.

When I first started out writing this blog, I made a post every now and then, with months inbetween. I had initially thought it would be a pure WoW-related blog, but hadn't really figured what to write about, and how. Then one day in november 2009 I decided I wanted to give my blog a real go. My fingers were itching to write and I had loads of things to write about. I decided that my blog would be about just about anything that popped into my head, not limiting myself to WoW. It turns out it is 95% about WoW, but some other stuff sneaks in occasionally. To avoid getting into the trap of not posting for weeks at a time again, I decided to make myself a challenge. Would I be able to post one post each day for the next coming months?

At first I thought it was a crazy idea. Not only would the work load be rather high, would I be able to come up with enough interesting things to write about? I also thought that by replacing my posts each day, I wouldn't give each post a fair chance to be read. But I disregarded my own warnings. This blog was for me - it really didn't matter if people read it or not (and for the first 6 months, basically no one did). I wanted to see if I had it in me to produce all that writing, and if I could have fun while doing it.

It turned out to be easier than I thought. I quickly learned how to plan ahead with posts and to queue them up, allowing me to write plenty of posts one day and none the next. Initially I wrote one post each day, which gave little margin for those days where there just isn't time to put 1-2 hours into a post. By planning ahead I could take the time to do longer posts, and do more research for a post if I wanted to. The first couple of months just flew by. I decided to keep it up. I had no trouble whatsoever to find things to write about or time to write it. I put my next goal at keeping it up for a whole year. When that year came I evaluated the situation again - did I think I could continue my excessive writing? By then my blog had actually managed to attract some attention, and I yet again thought about the benefits about letting a post lie around for people to have the time to read it before I posted the next one. But I still had so much time to write posts on my hands, I could at times have up to 10 posts queued at once. I set my next goal at 500 posts.

And now I am here, evaluating the situation again. Has something changed? Yes, a couple of things. First of all, summer is coming up. I am planning to both take a lot of computer-less vacation and work during this summer. Last summer I also had a short break without posting, due to things like these. I am also working more overall, giving me alot less time to write my posts.

Did I overdo it? Did I lose the fun in writing? Definitely not! Quite the opposite actually. All this writing, and all the fun I've had with it and the feedback I've gotten from you guys, has given me the confidence to start up a couple of other projects, most importantly a novel which I intend to actually finish this time around. Depending on what happens with that project, I am seriously considering becoming even more of a novel writer than I already am (ok, I'm not that much of a novel writer yet). I won't be writing less, I will only divert some of my writing attention in other areas. Not to mention I've picked up a couple of other things I'd like to put more time into, like painting (well, drawing actually).

Did I run out of ideas to write about? Believe it or not, I've found that difficult to do actually. What with all the great blogs out there constantly giving me ideas to write about, and all the fun I'm still having with WoW, I've got some 15 things I could write about right now, and new ideas constantly popping up. That was never the issue and it hasn't become now either. I have less time at my disposal however, and some of it I want to place elsewhere. That is what has happened.

It is time for this blog to become a normal blog. I think for most of you this won't change much. I am probably just one of many blogs on your reader, and you'll notice whenever a new post pops up here just as with any other blog. I strongly doubt that not having a fresh Jinxed Thoughts-posts to read each morning will ruin someones day ;) This is really just the next step in my writing experiment - can I manage to continue this blog even without the incentive of posting each day? I couldn't see why not. As it is right now I intend to post a post pretty much as every other blogger does it, once or a couple of times per week or so. It wouldn't surprise me if I still was among the most frequently updated blogs that I've seen anyway, but it won't be each day!

It will feel odd to have a day without a new post on my blog tomorrow. I've been at it now for 500 days, and I've had so much fun with it. I've actually got a couple of posts ready to be posted right now, but I will intentionally hold them for a couple of days just to get into the feeling of it. Wish me luck!

4 comments:

  1. Awesome writing and gratz on the 500. Shows a lot of dedication to what ya love. Keep up the good work!

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  2. Woo congrats!! I was waiting for this post, I didn't want to say it in your previous one as it would be kinda anti-climactic. I love your blog, I have been so impressed by your posting regularity, and how you always have something interesting to say! Huge respect. Whether it's about buffs, healing strategies, old video games, you name it.

    I certainly don't blame you for wanting to tone it down a bit - I am amazed you didn't get burned out, I think I would have. Secretly I hope the urge to post daily is too strong so I have something great and new to read each day. ;)

    Regardless of how often you post, I will be looking forward to your updates!

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  3. You sure have achieved what you set out to and more. I think you definitely could have a career in writing. You have the skills for the craft and knows how to plan and manage a big project!

    I just wanted to say that you have earned my respect many times over and I think you deserve some sort of price for this 500 posts feat (and more importantly, 1 post PER day for 1 year!). I don't know what award would be fitting though and I don't really have anything to offer other than the Red Shirt Guy Award. :p

    Cheers,
    Gav

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  4. Thanks a lot (hah, I learned!) to all three of you :) There is no denying that getting encouragement from your readers and fellow bloggers does make a difference!

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