2011-01-23

1,428

This is post 1,428 at Cromely's World and today is my 5 Year Blogaversary.

Since I started blogging, this past year has had the fewest posts (just 173).  I moved from trying to post a minimum of 5/7 days to targeting just every other day.  Sometimes I even missed that mark.  The posts I have done tend to be longer so I may still be up on total word count.

I keep writing not because it's fun (although it usually is) but because I need the outlet, and I need the practice.  When my posting frequency began drying up in the fall, walking away would have been easy for me, but it felt wrong.  Continuing to post became a personal exercise in discipline.  I'm glad I stuck it out.

The idea of writing a book has always both intrigued and scared me.  It still does, but for slightly different reasons now.  I don't know how long my average post is, but using 500 words as a conservative estimate, then I've written more than 700,000 words.

If the average novel contains 75,000 to 125,000 words, then the idea of filling the pages is suddenly a lot less daunting.

Of course, there are still a few things that keep me trying to write a book. I would need "characters" that have a "story" that unfolds through a "plot" that's part of a "genre" and then I would actually have to write it.  Before I get that far I would need to choose between fiction and non-fiction yet.  So I've got a ways to go before I start worrying about how to get from the airport to the bookstore in time for my signing.

My blog plans for the coming year are pretty simple:

  • Regularly post every other day with stories I want to tell
  • Finish my Tokyo Travels series before 2011-05-15
  • Evaluate a shift away from Blogger
  • Consider reducing my typos (I dowt that will happen)


Thank you all for reading over the years.  I hope to keep you coming back for years to come.


Previous Blogaversary posts:

7 comments:

Daisy said...

Happy Blogaversary to you!

-Converser- said...

Good luck with achieving your goals. I've never been the greatest blogger ever, but I do try and do my best, nd even if you don't think you've done well, you're far better than I am. I've also dreamed of writing a book, so I wish you luck with that as well.

EdZee said...

Happy 5th Anniversary. It's still a long way for me to reach such feat but I want to be like you. Keep it up!

Lainy said...

WOW! That's a lot of blogging. Happy blogoversary!

Goodluck on every endeavor that you wish to undertake.

CHEERS!

LAINY

Cromely said...

@Daisy: Thank you very much. It's always a please to see your paw prints here.

@-Converser-: Thanks for the encouragement. I had no idea I would still be at it 5 years later. It's just 1 post at a time.

@EdZee: Thanks. I'm sure the time will fly by for you.

@Lainy: Thanks. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the content.

Kathy said...

Congratulations! Damn. Five years is like 20 in blogging years. It's hard to keep it up that long (unless you're having fun).

I like that you mentioned how much you've written over the years in terms of how it would translate to a book. When you look at it that way, we can BOTH do it! What's taking us so long?

Cromely said...

@Kathy: Thanks. I think it comes down to the old story about how you eat an elepahnt -- one bite at a time. All the words in the blog show me that we can both do that easily -- it's just one word at a time (whether or not they're good words is another matter). But before I can dig into that elephant, I need to find a fork.

Once I have the right fork (or right idea) then it's feast time. Perhap I simply have to empty the dishwasher. Or figure out how to use the literary chopsticks. Or learn to extract myself from ridiculous analogy before it's too late. Like stepping in too much honey...