My 100th Blog Post

When I started the blog in the fall of 2013, I admit that there was a bit of apprehension as to whether I would be able to stick with it and write consistently. Well, here we are… the 100th blog post. I guess I succeeded!

The other apprehension was having enough to say and the risk of eventually running out of material. That seemed to take care of itself as the more I wrote, the more I would go through my day-to-day business with the inner narrator voice saying “What about this?” and “This might be a good topic!” With that enthusiastic little voice in the background constantly pointing things out, there never seemed to be a shortage of material or inspiration. Also, the more I wrote, the sharper my reflexes became for articulating the points I wanted to make in exactly the way I wanted to make them.

Developing my point of view and my voice as a writer has been a journey in itself. I admit that with having a blog, the temptation is there to use it as a platform to vent or air dirty laundry, but I consciously chose not to do that. Personally, I do not want my friends, family and co-workers to cringe when they open my blog to find I have turned it into a gossip column. The same goes for strangers. Aside from the random humourous observations of human nature to which I believe a strong majority can relate, picking on innocent bystanders is not my style.

I have enjoyed using the blog to hone my writing skills and tell stories that are more positive in nature and create a safe place for readers.

Life is short and life can get ridiculously serious. I would rather see my blog be a welcomed four minute escape and something to which readers look forward for a smile, for a chuckle, or for a humourous look at day-to-day life. I much prefer to use my space for celebration and for tribute and I take pride in maintaining a fairly stress-free space on the Internet.

I apologize to those who may think that my blog might be boring because of the lack of controversy, strong opinion or celebrity gossip. I think it is a bigger creative challenge for me to find the humour and positivity in life, especially if I experienced a less than positive day. This is not to say I cannot tackle delicate or sensitive material, it is just that I am trying to uphold the adage, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”.

Over the course of these 100 posts and the journey of learning about the writing business, I noticed two seemingly contradictory trains of thought. On one hand, writers need to be well-versed in the rules of grammar, spelling, structure as well as some of the “formulas” to writing, in order to gain and maintain credibility as an author. From what I gather, on the other hand, publishers are looking for innovation, creativity, unique points of view and original storytelling style.

At the moment, my way of finding a happy medium is to write what I think works best and potentially resonates most and then let the resulting statistics, shares, retweets and comments be my compass. In the end it is not about the statistics themselves, but whether a story touched hearts and minds. Personally, I find I can achieve that most genuinely with the more positive stories.

With over 100 blog followers, 100 likes on my blog posts, 2100 Twitter followers, the support of my Facebook friends and family, and countless new acquaintances and friendships formed with authors online, the support and encouragement has been overwhelming and for that I will always be deeply grateful.

Thank you everyone for joining me (and indulging me) on this journey that has already exceeded my wildest dreams. Please stay tuned as the first 100 posts were just the warm-up!

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André