Blogging Anniversary: Stat's Entertainment!

The traditional takeaway curry celebration with Rachel, followed by the final episodes of Bridgerton on Netflix

Today is the 14th anniversary of the "birth" of HeroPress, and for the first time in an age I have no concrete plans as to where I'd like to take the blog in the next 12 months.

I've come a long way (blogging-wise) since those first tentative steps in 2007, but clearly still have a long way to go.

I just feel I need to find the right path to take.

This current dithering is largely down to the unusual year we have all just just endured (and I believe will remain the 'new normal' for another 12 months, at least), which upended the world's plans, as well as my own.

As is my habit on this annual day of celebration, I like to take a brief, self-indulgent, dive into the statistics of my blogging topics.

Perhaps, this will inspire me or point me in the right direction.

Unsurprisingly, year-on-year, theses numbers have remained pretty consistent, with the only real change being the Doctor Who tag slipping out of the top ten, to be replaced by "flashback".

I suspect, in part, this is because the older I get the more inclined I am to look back and reminisce about past glories (and missed opportunities).

Breakdown of top 10 blogging topics of 2020

Breakdown of the top blogging topics of 2019

I'd like to try and increase the percentage of RPG coverage on HeroPress in 2021.

But this isn't the first time I've expressed that ambition and it has yet to truly manifest itself into anything to rival my fellow roleplaying game bloggers, who do a much better job of sticking to their main topic.

Ultimately, a blog is a reflection of its creator's personality and that's why HeroPress tends to be all over the place, one minute enthusiastic about one thing and the next moment my eye has been caught by the new shiny and I'm off cheering for that.

I'd love to be able to concentrate on one (or two or three) main topics, but I know, in my heart of hearts, that's not me.

My attention span is so fleeting and my passions are so fickle (yet always earnest): one minute I'm adamantly in love with the Star Wars universe and want to consume everything available for that setting, the next I'm all about superheroes, reading Marvel and DC comic books, and reopening Knight City for business, and then - sometimes within hours of my last eureka moment - I'm suddenly knee-deep in the world of dungeoncrawling, fantasy fiction, 80's swords and sorcery movies, and slaying scary monsters.

Each change of focus comes with a conviction that THIS IS IT. 

And the belief that once I've found that magical, elusive "it" then I can focus all my plans - blogging, gaming, reading, viewing - on that single theme for my remaining years on this beautiful green and blue planet of ours.

Will 2021 be the year I find "it"?

I doubt it.

But hopefully, the journey will be fun ... and along the way I can pique your interest every now and again by straying onto something that connects with a random reader of this on-going voyage into the deepest recesses of my soul.