The moment I click “publish” on this post, I will have done it. My goal of blogging for 31 days straight will be reached!!! So, I thought I would have some fun tonight and share some interesting (to me, anyway) stats and things I learned from this challenge:
On my blog this month:
– number of posts ever published doubled
– number of likes quintupled (I had 20 something before, from what I can figure out, and now I’m up to 117)
– number of followers quintupled (4 (mayyybe 6?) to 26 – and those 4 were all people I knew who followed by email)
-aaalllmost made it to 2,000 hits!! 1,996 last time I checked. I’m hoping to get over the 2,000 mark before midnight. 🙂
– the About page was satisfactorily completed and published – something I’ve been putting off for a year and a half.
I’m pretty happy about these stats- it’s encouraging to see the likes I get after each post is published (and interesting to see the posts that get few or no likes!) and it’s been fun to see what other bloggers are up to (believe me, I check out every blog that I get a like from!) and connect a little bit with a  few of them.
I was surprised to see the number of guys who have followed my blog – this summer as I was working on a worksheet to help design my blog’s brand (which I still haven’t really done – more on that in a minute), I had to write down the audience I was trying to reach. Since I’m trying to reach whoever is interested in reading what I write, my guess of the main audience that would be interested in my work was something like “middle aged women and teenage girls.” At present, about two-thirds of my blog followers are guys, and I think I might have one or two who are possibly teenage girls (but I don’t know that for sure). Hmm. Guess I got that one wrong. But anyway, thanks to everyone – male or female, teen aged, middle aged, or anywhere in between – who has followed my blog! 🙂
At the beginning of this month, two of my goals were to develop my own writing style and to get a web host and design my blog to give it a look that was more “me.” After I published the post entitled “The Story of Your Life,” my Mom mentioned to me that she thought the quote I gave at the beginning of the post was something I had written, because it sounded so much like my style. In the course of this conversation, I said that I didn’t feel like I had my own writing style yet, and she said, “Oh, yes you do.” In thinking about it later, I do feel that I have a writing “voice” that I am comfortable with and can call my own. Is it distinctive? I don’t know. Do I want to keep honing and polishing it? Of course. But I’m no longer worried that I’m just copying whatever style of writing that I’m currently reading. Yay for one goal met. 🙂
As to the second goal, after spending more time looking at my blog this month, I actually like the look of it and I’m okay with not changing it right now. I think there are more important things for me to focus on and invest both time and money in right now, so I’ve made the decision to just sit on the whole blog redesign thing for a while. I mean, really. The theme I’m using is red and classy – two features I most definitely want in whatever blog design I use. And it’s free. Win-win-win.
This month I wrote a little over 10,500 words, including this post. Not too shabby. Having nothing further to elaborate concerning this fact, I will continue my discourse.
Some of my favorite posts from this month:
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things {two}
On the Outside Looking In: NaNoWriMo Reminscing
Instant Gratification: The Demise of the Masterpiece
Probably one of the biggest things that happened as a result of this project was that I started thinking of myself as a writer. After reading You’re a Writer- So Start Acting Like One by Jeff Goins, in which the author encourages people who write to start calling themselves writers, I felt a little less that it was presumptuous for me to call myself a writer. The main reason I have felt it was presumptuous to call myself such up to now is because I didn’t write all that much – it’s hard to fit it in when I’m not pushing myself to do things like blog every day for a month. In addition to that, I’m not a published author. But this month I’ve been writing a lot, and I feel like I’m making more definite strides towards meeting the goal and getting published, so I feel okay with calling myself a writer now. Like maybe I’ve earned it. But then again not, because I know my ability to write is a gift from God and that every time I write, He is helping me. So calling myself a writer is rather a testament to God’s grace bestowed upon me, not a title that I have earned by reaching my goals.
So, by God’s grace alone, I did it! I blogged every day in the month of October! 😀 I’m going to go buy my Piano Guys cd now and then have a party behind my eyelids.
Soli deo Gloria.
“Not to us, LORD, not to us,
but to Your name give glory
because of Your faithful love, because of Your truth.”
Psalm 115:1
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