When I decided, pretty much on a whim, to join the NaNoPoblano team this year, I thought I would be struggling for ideas. I mean, for the last year or so, I’ve mostly posted book reviews. I love book reviews, and they will always remain a staple of this blog, but outside of that I had become pretty uninspired. I had somehow convinced myself that what I had to say didn’t really matter or wasn’t good enough. I felt like that trend would continue this month, as I tried to post every day, but it didn’t. As it turns out, I’m ending the month with several ideas and half-begun posts that I am looking forward to writing. My goal now is to go to a weekly schedule – if I can post almost every day for 30 days, weekly will be a breeze.

I am so, so glad that I decided to join this challenge. NaNo has been a fun escape in a year that has been dumb for all of us and has helped me reclaim the passion for writing that made me start this blog in the first place. WordPress is my favorite place on the internet. Here’s a giant thank-you to Ra for putting this together year after year.

And Now, Some Stats

I like charts and data. I blog mainly for myself, and thus try not to let my blog stats dictate what I post or don’t post. But I really enjoy looking at them regardless. Posting every day in November has changed my blog stats WILDLY (when they tell you that consistency is the key to getting views and making connections, they mean it). I love when other bloggers share their interesting stats, so here are some of mine.

Views & Visitors

Here are my views by month from the past 3 years or so. Thanks to everyone, especially NaNo folks, who read my posts this month. It’s always nice to feel seen!

My Posting Schedule

This is from the last twelve months. I missed 5 days this month, mostly in the first half. After the first half, I got into a rhythm of blogging at lunch. I do like to get out of my office for lunch, so won’t be continuing that every day, but ten or fifteen minutes at lunch would be doable and will still allow me to run errands or pick up food. So I’ll likely continue to work on posts over lunch for the forseeable future. Other than November, though, it’s been a slow posting year for me. November has given me the kick in the butt I needed.

Views From Previous Years

I find this graph fun to look at from time to time because it’s a bird’s eye view of my life. My best blogging years so far were 2017 and 2018, which were my senior year of college and the year after graduation. Life felt really big and full of possibility. It does still, but I’m busier than I was then and am no longer surrounded by peers or people whose job it is to teach me. That transition has been more challenging than I expected.

I also like looking back at my other top months or views. After this month, my blog got the most views in May 2020, January 2018, and August 2018. The posts that brought in most of those views were my post about antiracism, what I wrote when Aziz Ansari got accused of sexual assault, and when I talked about how people read blogs. However, this post about prayer remains my most popular post of all time. It’s endlessly interesting to me what draws people in.

Words Around the World

However, while views and visitors are interesting, that’s not really why any of us blog. We put our words out into the world in order to connect with people. Everyone wants to be heard, and we do that by hearing others. I’ve felt more heard here on my own blog in the last 30 days than I have in a long time. Part of that is because, I think, I opened up a bit more. But most of it is because people from all over the world took the time to read what I wrote. I hope that in the last 30 days I have helped make others feel heard, as well.