Okay… So I’ve had this blog now for about 4 years with a very on-again-off-again activity. For my 100th blog post of 2020, I wanted to share a bit about my WordPress writing experience, and say a huge thanks to some folks who have been integral in my journey.
It all started with Whimsy and a Pocketwatch on a poorly formatted, very obviously first time blogger back in April of 2016. I made four posts (plus my obligatory “Hello/First Post) in April, then not again until September. And then again in December.
Finally, in February of 2017, I realized the potential escapism I could sink into by writing poetry or short stories in the morning before I started work, appearing to be incredibly productive as I slammed away at the keyboard in my little gray cubicle at a job I’d grow to resent (that resentment really started to appear in my Ruminations of a Working Man series of posts, which are quite honestly, some of my favorites.) I didn’t start posting regularly, however, until June, when I discovered an opportunity for joining the WordPress writer’s community, The Daily Post. It was a daily one word writing prompt that you could hyperlink to and send a pingback so your post could be on display alongside other writers’. The first prompt I responded to was “Wheel,” to which I responded with A Rather Silly Thing, Really. From then on, it was unusual for me to miss a day, and I became very active in the WordPress community.
I made thank you posts when I reached 100 followers, and again when I reached 200, but then The Daily Post shut down in May 2018, which meant there was no more daily prompt, and the community that I had been so connected to had scattered, to a degree. I kept writing, but it felt a little more lonely without the daily comments and likes and feeling of community, save the people I had met that stuck around a little whole longer.
I lost my job in March 2019, and found a new one in April. Between feeling disengaged from writing and adjusting to the new job, I was far from posting every day, but I never missed a whole month. Since January this year, I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of writing daily if for no other reason than to keep my writing legs stretched and in good form.
And I say all of this not because this is the high-quality content you’re clearly here for (if I still have your attention), but because I want to say thank you to everyone who has been around for any or all of that journey. Within that broad overview of my writing on this platform, there has been self-doubt, self-deprecation, and lack of self-esteem, and while I often told myself I should give up, I hung on because of some of the writers and readers and encouragers (not a word) that you most certainly are simply by making it to this point in my post.
My first thanks are to my first ten followers, who have been with me from my very first days here:
- Motherish Childish
- Moonlight Scrinever
- Speaking through a lens
- The Stories of a Life
- Apricity All the Way
- Cristian Mihai
- disturbedclove
- tjtiffany
- The Symptoms of Insomnia
- Colombage’s Corner
My second thanks is to my current top 5 commentors, who never fail to remind me that I’m seen and heard in this corner of the universe:
And finally, thank YOU for being here. It’s because of you that I’m still here, quite literally. Now, I am asking you to pay it forward and visit every single link I have posted between my followers and top commentors. Build community, show people you care. It’s so very important that we take time to acknowledge and encourage one another if in no other way than by simply being there, especially with the strange year it’s been for the world.
*Roll credits, cheesy music playing*
*Post-credit scene*
Honorable Mention Posts that I rediscovered while making this post and either laughed at or genuinely enjoyed:
- Little Miss Hobbs (short story series)
- Beautiful
- Without
- Chapter 1 – Fire Escape
- A Most Inopportune Time
- Utterances of a Weary Soul
- An Evening Pondering
Oh, btw, I’m working on a book. Kthxbye.
December Rose 
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