For most of the world, it feels to me that people treat New Year’s like it’s about starting over; for me, it’s another day in the timeline. It doesn’t hold a fascination for me to celebrate or even to get nostalgic about. I either continue in the same direction or travel down a new path. When I look back and reflect on the previous years, it’s more about what I have learned, what I’ve done, have I felt good or bad, and what would I like to accomplish in my future. Mostly, it’s something I do every day, not just at the end of the year. I guess they call that “what drives me.” For the most part, I knew which direction was I heading before the end of the last year.

This post today is my way of sharing what I’ve accomplished of my previous goals set but what I think are the answers to these questions – where do I want to go, what do I want to achieve and who do I look like in the future. It’s something I do for my continued existence for not only this year but beyond.

For my followers who were with me last year, you know that I fulfilled my goal of posting every day. I primarily did this to challenge myself, but it was also a way to learn more about poetry. And boy, was it! But oh what fun I had! Because I was so diligent, I learned so much about poetry, other writers, other styles and managed to work through a lot of emotional stuff too. Imagine a rubber band ball – thousands of bands representing new ideas, discoveries, tales, emotions, and more, and you’ll get the gist of what I was wrapped up in all year long. It was lovely!

Writing every day also led to the idea of publishing my second book – Every Day I Pause. I achieved my goal of having it available at the end of last year despite getting sick shortly before Christmas. Don’t you love it when life hands you a detour? I don’t. Unfortunately, I did not recover physically until right before New Year’s but still published the book. 🙂

You’ve probably noticed that I updated the I Write Her banner photo. My mission is still the same – presenting written forms of my humanity – but I’m feeling a lot more fluid rather than square and rigid at the moment. Hence the shapeless feel of the image I chose. The previous one was intentionally more rigid to showcase my goal of being very deliberate and intentional about my writing during 2018. The banner will presumably change should my mood or purpose take on another shift.

I also made the decision to stop all WordPress ads on my site by upgrading with a paid plan they offer. The goal is so you won’t be distracted. I want you to enjoy the subscription. I’m committed to ensuring that everyone, be they occasional readers, followers or fans, have a rich experience here.

Now let me share where my initial intentions on I Write Her took me this past year. My goal was at the very least to have the readers from previous blogs join me here and hopefully grow it beyond the six followers I had with an average of 10 views per day. The WordPress community surprised me, and I mean surprised me big! At the end of 2018, I Write Her had 739 followers and over 14,100 views. The comments, the support, the love and generosity of the readership humbles me but also has given me more confidence than I ever thought possible. I struggled for a long time even calling myself a writer. But the support given me here has cemented it for me now. For that, I thank you all so very much!

Something that I’m tossing around in my braincase is the idea of collaborating with other authors/writers. Having participated in many challenges this past year, I enjoyed the creativity flowing out of me but also seeing the imaginations and skill levels of others excel when they were prompted to accept the challenges of other writers. My gut is telling me Let’s do this! I’ve not quite figured it all out yet, but I will be creating a challenge called “Interpretations.” I’ll explain more as I’ve worked out the kinks for my vision on it. Watch for a future post detailing how to participate! I’m looking forward to seeing writers rise to the challenge. 🙂

This year and beyond, my focus will continue to be on those posts which have a burning desire to get out of me. I do not think this will occur every day though, so you’ll probably see a little less of me. And I think I may actually take a short break as of today. Not sure how long yet but enough to let me feel like I can catch my breath. Rest assured, I will continue to read all my favorite blogs during this hiatus! But know that when I return, the content of my posts will be relevant. I’m feeling like there will be more intentional, immediate subjects that need to be addressed rather than just being creative. But I’ve also decided to contribute more to other venues as a means to expose myself to different platforms and their audiences. Writing outside of IWH will take me away from posting every day. But the hope is stepping into other areas of writing will continue to grow the readership here. Quite possibly it will also draw some fans to Patreon helping to support me financially. In other words, help me to keep living out my dream! Thank you in advance, should you choose to go down that path with me.

So let’s do what the title of this post says and Party like it’s 2019!!! WOOT WOOT