January marks the anniversary month of AvidBards, and we can’t believe it’s already been two years since we started this blog! We’ve learnt a fair number of things throughout this process that have helped us continue this blog with the passion that began it, as well as with motivation to improve it. But before we talk about what we’ve learned this year, here are some stats from 2019! This year we published a total of 74 posts, with 73,581 total words written. Our total number of views reached 10,843 with a total number of visitors count of 7,683. And to top it all off, we had visitors from 138 different countries!
What We Learnt In Our Second Year
Quality Over Quantity
Firstly, we had to come to terms with the fact that consistency is key for any blog, but quality trumps quantity every time. No matter how much we wanted to keep building our content, it was no longer good enough to just show up in the same way it was during our first year blogging.
Taking a Break is Okay
There were numerous points in the year when both of us felt close to burnout (it was a tough, but rewarding year!). We figured out very quickly that pushing ourselves through those times to keep producing content would not work. Not only would the quality suffer, but we ran the risk of turning this passion project of ours into a chore and we did not want to chance that. So, we took the breaks. This year, we have established pre-determined holidays in advance, almost like a semester system in schools, so we know when we can have a breather without feeling like we’re dropping the ball.
Keep It Fresh
This one goes back to the difficulty in coming up with fresh content. We love what we do, but we also recognised the need to evolve and change. What worked for us was looking back at the goals we had set for the first year and re-evaluating them to see if we were still attuned to them and what direction we wanted to go from there. This helped immensely to keep us motivated and gave us a starting point from where to start.
Confidence Is Key
An inevitability and the nature of the game when occupying a space online is that you find yourself comparing what other people are doing. Moreover, you can get sucked into the number of things as proof of your worth. It was an important lesson for us this year not to let what others are doing affect our confidence in our work. Really, this tied into the fact that this year was quite challenging for both of us, so while other people were putting out a ton of new content, we genuinely felt the importance of being confident of the content we were putting out and not just how much we were producing.
Follow your own pace
Finally, no matter how much ambition you have, following through with new ideas – even great ones – is not always easy. Be kind to yourself and take it at your own pace.
Posts We Loved This Year
Z’s Posts
This year, we’ve been more open with discussing topics that are pertinent to us, and that represent what we as individuals stand for. This made writing Representation in the Mainstream and discussing subjects like diversity in film and television really meaningful. This topic is particularly important to start dialogues about as there still is a lot of work that needs to be done in the way of representation. However, the spectrum of diversity is improving, and that’s something that deserves to be celebrated!
‘Game of Thrones’ Final Season Review was fun to write because everyone has so many thoughts about the rather un-epic finale to an otherwise epic show. Breaking down why we thought the writing failed the story and its viewers, as well as taking other peoples’ opinions into consideration, was super interesting to dissect!
Fleabag: Defying the Conventional reviews one of my favourite shows of the year (and perhaps of all time) – seeing onscreen mediums that actively change the game in so many ways are such a thrill to experience, and delving into the structural, visual and elemental choices of pieces like Fleabag allows me to connect to my academic writing roots.
A.I. in Sci-Fi was a book review of Lexi, a sci-fi novel written by Heidi J. Hewett, that we were requested to review. Since I’m not particularly well-versed in the Sci-Fi genre, this book helped to ignite my interest in the genre and, as always, it is so much fun to review a book wherein the author has personally reached out to us.
S’s Posts
Though we avoid negativity where we can, we still have opinions and are not afraid to voice them. Indeed, we believe we have a responsibility to call out issues that we think are problematic. That is one of the reasons I enjoyed writing 2019 Booker Prize Winner(s): A Cop-out? and On the Social Responsibility of Writers. The privilege that is inherent in a position in academia should never be forgotten, especially when that privilege can be used for a positive influence in political and social issues, which links into the importance of writers using the platform and voice they have.
This year we were much more open about talking about mental health and I am so thankful we made that decision. Whether diagnosed or not, mental health issues can be incredibly isolating and scary to go through alone. Talking more openly about them, such as in posts like 5 Books on Mental Health I Want to Read, can help other people understand that there is help and hope available. We will most definitely be continuing to write about mental health this year!
We’ve never been shy about voicing that we are feminists, and thus, it has always been very important to the both of us to see women’s stories reflected more often in popular media. It was such a joy to be able to write Stories About Women to Discover This International Women’s Day, a post that celebrates and recommends talented writers and their incredible stories.
Looking Forward
We’re thrilled to be two years old, and are incredibly hopeful about the future of AvidBards. In lieu of that, we’re excited to say that we have a few upcoming projects planned for the blog! Stay tuned for some big announcements coming soon!
As always, we want to thank all of you for reading, following, engaging with, and supporting us. Thank you for sticking with us through and through – our jobs are so much more rewarding because of you. We look forward to growing, learning, and becoming more innovative than ever before!
~ S & Z ~
