Oh my gosh, it's been a year already · 8:13pm Jun 13th, 2018

Just wow. I read the date and suddenly realized this.
Almost to the day one year had passed since I first found the courage to post something here.

What have I been doing of this time?
10 and 1/2 stories with about 100 views on average, maybe slightly more.
I've gathered about 50 comments (though half of them are my responses, so yeah ).
In total, I've been awarded with 46 thumps up and 3 thumps down so far.

To be honest, I was floored by this. I never expected this kind of positive feedback.
That said, most of the stories I see while browsing have ten or more times as many views, double the amount of comments and thumps on a single story than I have on all of my library.

Naturally, I wish I had more feedback as it would help me improve as a writer. I wish I had more people to share ideas with sometimes.

So far, my oldest story is also the one with the most views. It's also focused on one of the fan favourites (mine as well ). I haven't updated this one in ages and I asked myself why not?
Truth is, I wrote this down in a storm when I had the idea. I thought it was good enough to share, so I signed up this accounted and posted it out. When I got views and feedback on the very first day, I was putting more effort in it. I tried to find the flaws in my writing and smooth them out. English is not my native language, so it was an added challenge for me.
I knew where I wanted to go with it, I still do. But between my own writing, I also read up on more and more other stories by so many great writers and, unsurprisingly, nothing I came up with was really knew. Even more so, they had also made far better jobs in creating the scenes I wanted to put into words. So I stopped updating. There are four more complete chapters on my desk I haven't bothered to post yet. I felt discouraged.

But I didn't stop writing, because I enjoyed it. One of my ideas turned out to almost write itself and Crystal Note walked into the scene. A new character in a new setting. It was and still is very satisfying to write about her and push her a little further towards the image in my head with each story. I felt confident enough to post the first stories and again, there were some wonderful people who gave me feedback and faves.
Although I highly appreciate each and every one of them, I'm still mostly writing for myself. Even the name I chose for this account says so.

Writing is now something I do regularly, almost every night. It's a little ritual for me now, even if it's just a few words each time, but I found it helps me a lot. It helps me deal with things I've shunned for far too long and it gives the a way to think about things I wouldn't otherwise. And it helped me move forward, as a writer (hopefully after one year I've at least improved a little ) but also in the way I approach other people around me.

Each of my stories has something in it that kept me awake at some point. It might be mundane for some or boring to read for other, but writing it down helps me immensely. So I will keep writing in the future.

But if I'm writing for myself most of the time, why even bother posting any of it? While all of my stories deal with very personal things for me, I still put a lot of effort into them, as any author does. Being able to share it with others is a wonderful experience. And, as cheesy as it may sound, but if there's just a few who get a smile out of my writing or maybe find something they really like, it's already worth the effort.

That's something the stats on my user page can't list up. During my year here, 21 people decided they'd like to hear from me again. Thank you very much for that, you guys are awesome!
Dozens of people have faved one or more of my stories, thanks a lot to each of you as well!
Special thanks I have to give to Echowing who helped turn my gibberish into proper English. Thanks dude!

So how will the next year turn out for me?
I've got about ten stories on my drive right now, in various stages of completion. I want to finish them, of course.
I want to return to Two worlds colliding and rework the chapters a little, mostly editing though, then add the new chapters and see where it leads me.
I would also love to find an artist who wants to work with the things I wrote, so I get to see the scenes from my head from a different point of view. Maybe someday.

Wow, look at this wall of text. I really have to stop rambling so much
So, in conclusion, the year I spent around here was one of the best so far and I'm eager for the next one!
Thanks again for everyone who went along for the ride and I'll see you all soon!