Can I level up in writing in 2016?

As of now, this blog has been running for around five and a half years. I've clocked up over 500 posts or, to put it another way, a post every four days or so.

Not a bad innings at all. :)

The blog serves a number of functions for me. 

- A scrapbook of thoughts, images and reflections. 
- An exercise in writing practice 
- A space where I can express some of my own ideas and opinions in long-form 

I could (and did) do all of those things in a written journal when I was younger, but what a blog brings to the table is interactivity: it's a place where people can read what you've written and tell you what they make of it.

It's a way of taking a risk and putting part of yourself in the public domain - even if only a small part. And I've really enjoyed doing it.

The blog also is a fair reflection of my various interests - artistic and political - although I imagine that it lacks some coherency as a result. I haven't really pursued a single theme, and it follows that I've not really chased a specific audience either. That inconsistency has probably contributed to the fact that I've seen at best a modest growth in page-views over the years. 

Now, that doesn't take anything away from the blog - everything I've done has been worth doing for it's own sake. And thank you to everyone who has read any of my posts - it's very much appreciated.

But it does bring me on to the question of where I go from here, at this time of resolutions. Can I level up in writing in 2016? Can I write more ambitiously, in a way which gives the blog more focus and brings in readers and new opportunities?

I think I can, and there are three areas I'd like to focus on this year.

1. Fiction: this is the year I want to start regularly writing short fiction/spoken word/poetry to really build that creative muscle. I'm confident enough in the fragments I've left on the blog to feel that here is something worth developing, but I won't know unless I try. 

And I had a lightbulb moment towards the end of last year when I realised who and what I was writing for, which I think will help a great deal. :)

2. 'Decadent environmentalism': [UNDOUBTEDLY SELF INDULGENT KLAXON] at the risk of coming over like a pseud, I've been trying to work out my relationship with the environmental movement through a humanties/arts-based dialogue and I think I'm going to need to put it in long form if I'm going to get any answers. This post back in November points the way.

3. Narrowing down the reviews and criticism: the two good runs of reviews and critical reflection I've had over the past year have been around science-fiction, fantasy and especially the Hugo Award controversies and the ongoing culture clash of being a right-on ageing indie kid and learning to appreciate metal. Both good stories to tell, over and above the joys of reviewing for its own sake.

None of this means that I won't continue to use this blog as a convenient location for personal pieces or other things that don't fit the above description. But it will help providea direction of travel for my writing which will allow me to plan ahead, promote my work a little more beyond my friendship circle and hopefully connect with other like minds.

And like getting ready to run 5K - another ambition for this year - it will mean getting more organised. About what I write and when I write it.

What it could also lead to - if these strands become too disparate - is setting up another site to cover one or more of them. But we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.