The Most Popular Posts of 2017

Every year, my last blog post is a review of the most popular blog posts of the last 12 months. I’m not the only blogger who does this, to be sure. I love reading everyone else’s roundups, though, so I hope you enjoy reading mine.

I also love checking out what you, my beloved readers, enjoyed most this year. It helps me figure out what you appreciate and what you want to see more of.

So let’s jump right in and see what the ten most popular posts of 2017 were, according to all of you.

My Freeform Outline

I wrote two rough drafts in 2017, and I took a new approach then I have in the past. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to see happen in the story, and I had some plot points to guide me. But as I wrote, I just let the story go where it wanted to go. It worked really well. I hope that my freeform outline experiment helped you, too.

Facebook For Writers

While social media has changed a lot over the last year, Facebook is still a useful platform for writers to stay in contact with their readers and fellow authors.

Write a Ghazal poem

This is an old post, from when I still did writing prompt Saturday. I feel like I should do more about unique forms of poetry in 2018.

Living My Best Live

I’m trying to live my best life every single day. How about you? Hopefully, this post encouraged some of you to do just that.

What Scares People

I feel like I want to write a horror novel. I’ve done fantasy, done sci-fi, done horror collections. Maybe not in 2018, maybe not until Station 86 is done, but at some point, I want to write a true horror novel. Until I do that, I want to help you all do it.

What I’ll Leave Behind

We lost a lot of amazing, wonderful people this year. We had so many tragedies, so many horrors. I really understand that at no point is tomorrow promised to any of us. Coming home at the end of the day isn’t promised. So think about what you’ll be leaving behind.

Second-Hand Stores, a Personal Essay

I was so touched and surprised that a personal essay made it not only to the top ten but so high on the list! I definitely think I need to do more personal essays in 2018

An Open Letter To The Teacher Who Changed My Life

I really hope that this post was so popular because you all have your own teacher that changed your life. If so, please tell your story about them and share a link below.

Writing Dark Poetry

I hope that some of you found dark poetry therapeutic.

How I Messed Up My Book Launch

It’s incredibly humbling that this is the most popular post of the year. I mean, it’s literally a post about my worst mess up of the year. I actually pulled Starting Chains and decided to seek traditional publication for it. I want to make sure that what I’m putting out is the best possible product. And what I had out there in Starting Chains wasn’t. It’s too good of a story to sell short.

So those were the best posts of 2017. Now, I want to ask you something.

What would you like to see more of here on PBW in 2018? I have some plans, including talking more about world events and my personal life. I want to write more about poetry and in-depth writing techniques. But what would help you? What would make you a better writer or happier person if you understood better? Please let me know in the comments below.