Post #1,000: A Look Back at 4.5 Years of Blogging

And here we are. Post #1,000. My first post was back on January 16, 2007. It was really short, and fairly stupid. Why did I get into blogging to begin with? At the time, I was in Brandon Sanderson’s writing group, and he encouraged me to start blogging before I got a book published, so that once I had a book published, I’d know what the heck I was doing.

Always one to cave to peer pressure, I thought it seemed like a good idea. If you look back at the first few months of blog posts, you’ll see me start to find my feet. The posts were still short, and most of them didn’t have much to say when you got right down to it, but I was posting about my writing (Ichabod at the time), I started to throw in some movie reviews (The World of Henry Orient was the first one, it seems), I began opening up about events in my life (applying for library jobs). Bit by bit, the posts got longer–more involved and more specific. It really does take some time to figure out what blogging’s all about. I’m certainly by no means one of The Big Bloggers, but I do feel like I have something to offer on a consistent basis. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlight posts I’ve done over the years.

• How I Got an Agent/Book Deal–This series of posts (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) has attracted its fair share of viewers. Once my book actually gets published (March 2012!), one could project it will attract more.
• The Dialect of Jar-Jar Binks–An oldie but a goodie. It still draws people every day on my website, years after I posted it. Star Wars people hate their Jar-Jar. What else can I say?
• Board Games on the iPad–People keep coming back to this one. Because board games are awesome, and so is the iPad, of course. For those of you interested, Boardgamegeek now has a iOS/Android board game section, which makes it ever so much easier to stay up to date on the news in this vital area of my life. 🙂
• A Look Back at Eloping–Lots of people flocked to this one when it was posted. Of course, it helped that Denisa reposted it on her Facebook page. Amazing what a few reposts will do for the visibility of a blog entry.
• What Happens Whey You Go Bankrupt–I have to assume this one was popular more for the people-who-thought-I-was-actually-going-bankrupt title, and not for the content itself. I’m not bankrupt, folks. Hate to disappoint you.
• Way of Kings Review–I posted this one before Brandon’s Way of Kings officially was published, and for a long time, it was easily the most read blog post I’d done. That is until . . .
• The Book of Mormon Musical–Actually, my Mormon/Religion posts have been popular over time (Faith and Metaphor, Tithing, and Elizabeth Smart and the 110% Mentality are a few). But my South Park/Book of Mormon Musical posts have blown everything else out of the water. It helped that for a while it was one of the top results on Google for any combo of “believe” “lyrics” and “Book of Mormon.” Nice to see such a good showing for a topic I felt strongly about.