Monday, 5 January 2015

2015: Looking Back and Looking Ahead


Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas. I’m back from my blogging break and am all refreshed and ready for another amazing year. Last year was fantastic, thanks to you all. If you’re interested in what happened in my blogging and writing last year, I made a handy dandy little video wrapping up all the important stuff. It’s only about a minute long, so if you have a few moments to spare I’d love for you to give it a watch




Now that 2015 has begun, I’m looking ahead. During my blogging break I took some time to start planning what I want to do on the blog this year. I have some ideas for what I’d like to do, but I’d love to hear from you guys as well. Currently I post about writing, writing music, and the occasional bookish or writerly tag. Would you like more content on the blog? I’m thinking about adding in the occasional book or writing resource review to shake things up. What do you think? Is there anything else that you would like to see? And what do you want to hear about? Is there anything in particular you’d like me to write about? Let me know!

Another thing I’d like to do this year is to host some guest posters. Last year I was lucky enough to have three amazing guest posters on the blog, and this year I’d like to host a few more. If you’re interested in guest posting, send me a message through my brand new 'Contact' page with a link to your blog, a couple of ideas for what you'd like to post about, and an email address I can contact you at.

And one final piece of news, we passed 50 followers while I was on break. I’m so excited that so many people have joined Gossiping with Dragons! That got me thinking about how people celebrate milestones on blogs. I’ve never really celebrated them, and I’d love to hear how you guys celebrate follower milestones, or blog anniversaries. What ideas have you seen and loved? What have you done in the past?

So, that’s about it. Now it’s your turn. What do you want to see on this blog? What are you doing differently on your blogs this year? Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions? What did I miss while I was gone? Tell me all the news!

Want more? Check out the best of 2014:

Top 3 Posts

10 Tips for Building a Regular Writing Routine

Guest Post: 5 Ways to See Your Novel Through

Top Ten Books I Would Give to People Who Have Never Read Fantasy

Blog Series

Writing Music

NaNoPrep

Favourite Blogs

Paper Fury

Sometimes I'm a Story

(Almost) Completely Mad

Called His

Go Teen Writers

Writability
Guest Posts

Gemma Rose's NaNoWriMo

5 Ways to See Your Novel Through

Five Tips for Surviving NaNoWriMo

9 comments:

  1. Awww I loved that video! It seems like 2014 was an awesome year for you. I know many bloggers do giveaways or 'blog parties' to celebrate anniversaries, but I think some sort of blog game would be fun. I don't really know any though. XD. It's great to hear that Christmas break helped you to plan your blog content. My Christmas was far too busy for me to do a huge amount of planning, but I DID put together some reading challenges! I've never hosted a challenge before but I decided to host 3 this year O_O

    To be honest Imogen, I can't tell you HOW many book review blogs I follow. There's so MANY. And, weeell, you should do what you enjoy best but SRSLY e_e Don't be pushed to do book reviews or anything (unless you want to). What I love best about your blog is that it's different: your little writing tips, motivations and music that you share. So keep up with those! Nice to have you back.

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    1. Thanks so much for your lovely comment Ashana. Ooh, a blog game sounds like fun. Maybe I should consider doing one of those sometime. It's something to think about. A reading challenge sounds like a great idea. Will those be link-ups? I'm really glad to hear that you like my blog because it's different. I definitely won't decide to do anything just to follow the crowd. I might incorporate a review occasionally, but I may try and put my own twist to keep it interesting. There are so many interesting book blogs out there already reviewing great books anyway. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion!

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  2. Wow! What a lot you did last year, but I hope this year is just as good, if not better, if possible.
    Aww, thanks so much for putting my link up there. It means so much to me!
    I had a great time reading back through your posts. It was nice to get a chance to refresh my memory on some of these again. Thanks for sharing their links:)

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    1. You deserve that place in my favourite blogs. I've read every single one of your posts pretty much since you started and loved them all too, even though I don't always get around to commenting on your blog (bad of me I know.) You're welcome. I had a great time reliving 2014 while I was putting those links together.

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  3. The video was great! :) You had a great year, and I'm so grateful you thought to put me in your Favorite Blogs list. Thanks! :') BUT in response to other things: Yes, I would always love to read more from you, but I don't have anything in particular. Test out what you love, try things you haven't before, test the waters. I do always enjoy reading discussion posts in general, but that is my cookie-cutter response so you can take it or leave it. Best to your 2015. :D

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    1. Also, where is the contact page?

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    2. Thanks Heather! Your blog has been amazing to read, so I dearly wanted to share it with my followers. Thank you for being so amazing. I'll have to do a bit of experimenting, see what will fit this blog. Thanks for stopping to share your opinion. Hopefully your 2015 is awesome too. Also, thanks for the reminder. I published the contact page, and promptly forgot to make it visible on the blog! The sad thing is that I did the exact same thing when I published me 'About Me' page. You'd think I'd learn. Anyway, the 'Contact Me' page should be visible in the sidebar with the other pages now.

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  4. Yay, it sounds like you had a wonderful year! I haven't commented much before, but I love reading your posts about writing, whether it's writing advice or about writing process. I especially love hearing about other writers' and authors' processes. As for celebrating blog follower milestones, I suggest hosting a giveaway. When I hit 100 followers on my blog I hosted a first page critique giveaway on the blog.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Ana. You made my day! A giveaway sounds like a great idea, especially a critique. I don't have a lot of money to giveaway books, but a critique or something writing related like that would be a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion!

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