One year ago today, I made my first blog post. \u00a0It was a pretty big step. \u00a0I’d deliberated over setting up a blog for more than 10 years, mostly because I thought that I wanted to write blog software. \u00a0I wanted to do everything myself, and I wanted to do it the hard way. \u00a0There’s a lesson to be learned in that, I think.<\/p>\n
So as I sit in my hot garage, procrastinating over my epic fantasy, let’s take a moment to look at the journey so far.<\/p>\n
A year ago today, I set myself the lofty goal of writing a little bit every day. \u00a0I fell a bit short on that goal, but I did keep writing. \u00a0I kept to a schedule for most of a year, going out at least once every week to a Starbucks.<\/p>\n
I attended conventions, taking notes and posting them to my blog, so that all of my viewers could learn what I have learned.<\/p>\n
I installed some plug-ins so that I could keep track of how many people came to read my words. \u00a0To all three or four of you, you have my heartfelt thanks for showing up.<\/p>\n
I rose and I fell. \u00a0I was diligent, and I was slothful. \u00a0I procrastinated, and I pushed myself. \u00a0The year was definitely full of ups and downs.<\/p>\n
There were two challenges that I rose up and faced valiantly. \u00a0In October, I succeeded in 31 blog posts in 31 days. \u00a0That led into November, where I managed to get 50,000 words completed late in the evening of the last day. \u00a0My first successful NaNoWriMo.<\/p>\n
I tried a self-imposed challenge in March, which fell flat. \u00a0I attended writer’s groups, where I was both wonderful and terrible.<\/p>\n
Fiction was created in good ways. \u00a0Drama was generated\u00a0in bad ways.<\/p>\n
This post is mostly written in generalities, for various reasons. \u00a0In less general terms, what do I have to show for this last year of writing?<\/p>\n
I finished the first draft of an Urban Fantasy novel. \u00a0In terms of writing, this is my biggest accomplishment. \u00a0A long time ago, I’d written a novel, but it was before I knew how hard it could be. \u00a0It was before I’d developed a good sense of taste, and while I was still young enough to know everything. \u00a0It was before I’d created a demonic, mean-spirited inner editor. \u00a0Somehow, in the month of November, I managed to get over myself enough to sit down, shut up, and write. \u00a0And it was glorious.<\/p>\n
I’ve grown as a writer. \u00a0I can see many of the mistakes I was making a year ago, and I know how to correct most of them.<\/p>\n
I haven’t given up. \u00a0There have been times where I’ve considered it. \u00a0It would be easier to just work during the day, play games at night, and accept\u00a0my life as it is. \u00a0I have a good, comfortable life. \u00a0There’s nothing wrong with it. \u00a0I just know that if I stopped writing, I wouldn’t be happy.<\/p>\n
My journey as a writer over the last year has been pretty good. \u00a0Let’s make this next year even better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One year ago today, I made my first blog post. \u00a0It was a pretty big step. \u00a0I’d deliberated over setting up a blog for more than 10 years, mostly because I thought that I wanted to write blog software. \u00a0I wanted to do everything myself, and I wanted to do it the hard way. \u00a0There’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}