Blogging for a Year!

I just realized that I’ve been on Blogger for a year. This came about when I started looking for a topic that I wanted to blog about and couldn’t remember if I’d posted something on that topic before. The exact date was March 1, 2009 so it’s technically a belated birthday.

Initially I was on Live Journal. And while I enjoyed LJ, I realized I was coming over to Blogger more and more to read the posts of industry people, aspiring writers and just some all around great blogs. So I created a blog over here. At first I thought I would only talk about my writing process, maybe use it as a query tracker. I have used it for talking about writing, but it’s also been a place for me to learn and meet people.

Looking at my first post,--which going back to read it felt like more of a complaint than a post—I remember sitting back and waiting for some comments to come in-lol. I had no followers, but I wasn’t really sure how Blogger worked-lol. Then as I read a post by someone, I don’t remember who now, but she was saying how to make your blog more active and successful. She said you must follow people to get followers. I didn’t know how to follow people. I’d found some really great blogs and wanted to be a follower and once I figured that out, I started following like crazy.

I wasn’t doing it just to get followers. There were certain criteria a blog had to meet for me to follow. For the most part, the blog had to be about writing in some form, professional or just the love of it. Also, they had to be active, blogging a least a few times a week and then I’d follow them. But I also found followers from blogs like Miss Snark’s First Victim, Nathan Bransford, Colleen Lindsay, and Rachel Gardener. I’d read the comments on their posts and go to the pages of the ones who said something I enjoyed, agreed with or even some I didn’t agree with. If I like their blog, then I’d follow.

Over this year, I’ve learned so much about my writing, about the manuscript I queried in 2009 and about myself. So I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you out there who offered advice, encouragement and just a pat on the back when I needed it.

THANK YOU!