This is the 400th post on the blog I started in February 2011. Four hundred. With 365 days in a typical year, that’s the equivalent of writing a post each and every day for an entire year… and then, for roughly another month or so after that. I’m not sure what to make of this much writing. Should I be proud? Or, with the scant number of views of some of my posts, maybe it means I just don’t know when to quit!
One thing I DO know is that my approach to writing posts has changed over the years. I was editing two monthly newsletters five years ago, but many great stories and announcements were too late for a particular newsletter – and yet the item would have been “old news” for the next one. Frustrating!
As a result, I really loved using a blog to share timely information that just did not work to get into print. I also enjoyed making links in various posts “live”, so that a reader could just click on to it, to get to the site. This was as opposed to the cumbersome process of asking readers to type URLs from stories into their web browsers, which is about the only option one has in print.
Over the years, I’ve published posts about contests, monthly observances, and other special occasions. I’ve written about big events that were going on in the news, and I’ve read pieces about what types of posts are more likely to be read and tried to incorporate some of those ideas. Still other weeks, I have had a hard time coming up with something — anything — to write about! I’ve finally taken a colleague’s advice to heart and started writing multiple posts at any given time to avoid having to deal with “writer’s block” later.
More recently, I’ve shared a lot more personal issues and observations, and I’ve learned that people really enjoy that. I probably should have done more of this much earlier.
But you learn all the time when you write. While 400 posts seems like a lot sometimes, and I wonder if I should keep going, on other days I feel like I’m just getting started. So if you’ll keep reading, I think I’ll keep writing!