[New post] The Journey So Far & What’s to Come (The 200th Blog Post)
keelyreeves posted: " Holy cow. I can not believe that this is my 200th blog post here. Just wow. That's insane to me. I started this blog when I started at UA Little Rock in January 2017. I figured since I was starting at a new school, I should start a new blog. When I was a" The Inner Workings
Holy cow. I can not believe that this is my 200th blog post here. Just wow. That's insane to me. I started this blog when I started at UA Little Rock in January 2017. I figured since I was starting at a new school, I should start a new blog. When I was at Pulaski Technical College, I had She Who Scrivens on Weebly, which ran from August 5th, 2014, to November 9th, 2016. In those two years, I had around 84 blog posts. She Who Scrivens was half diary, half whatever was in my head, and half nerdy things. The post lengths varied from decently long to very short. Most blogs have some sort of niche, right? Well, not for me. I half wanted to have a niche when I switched from Weebly (because fuck Weebly and just, ugh, I hate how it's formatted) to WordPress because I thought I could get more readers that way. But then I decided that I liked not having a niche. So far, I think the fact there isn't a niche has worked for me. It means that I get a variety of people reading my blog with different interests, whether that's movies, TV shows, books, poetry, politics, etc. Also, while I do enjoy when I get comments on my blog posts and get engagement, ultimately, my blog isn't for the readers. It's for me. It's a way to write about whatever I want to with no constraints. Sometimes it's more personal such as The Baby, or sometimes it's a poem, such as The Snow Family or even a movie review, such as We Don't Blog About Bruno, or maybe it's even a bit political as with Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down. Whatever the blog is about, the point of it is to write.
Where did "The Inner Workings" come from? Well, it came from a now-nonexistent MCU fanfiction I was planning to write. (Yes, the title is from a fanfiction I never wrote. Don't laugh at me.) Why "The Inner Workings?" Well, really, this blog is about me. Even if it's a TV show or movie review, it's about my inner (see?) thoughts on why I did or didn't like this movie. Or why I decided to write about this political issue. Not having a niche has thus far worked for me. I like that you never know what you'll get on my blog. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some themes regarding my blogs. I write about the things that I love, the things that I am passionate about. So, since this is the 200th blog post, let's take a look back at some blogs.
In the Movie/TV Review Category, I have done a whopping 32. Now a few of these have been legit reviews on movies like The Little Mermaid (2023), The Batman, Turning Red, Eternals, Encanto, Black Widow, Cruella, and several others. My most recent Movie/TV Review is Part of Your World, where I discuss my thoughts about the new live-action The Little Mermaid. (Spoilers, I LOVED it.) While other blog posts about movie/TV reviews are more of commentary rather than a legit review. Such as my recent blog on Stranger Things characters Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, and Billy Hargrove in The Hair. Or what about True Blood vs. The Southern Vampire Mysteries, where I discuss the differences between the show and the book. Or even my entire blog series on Twilight, where I do something different and blog with my friend Angela. It's very clear that I love movies and TV shows. Which I think should be obvious since I do have a bachelor's in motion picture.
At the beginning of this blog, I had a podcast called Keels Reels, where I did reviews on movies and TV shows. It was a short-lived podcast, but I did it. I chose to stop because having a podcast where all I did was talk wasn't very engaging. But that's okay because, during the pandemic, my BFF Caroline and I started our own podcast called Disturbed Nerds. Shameless plug here, but if you haven't listened to our podcast, please do. It's on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and, I believe, even Pandora. Check it out!
(Shameless plug over.)
Now, besides movie/TV show reviews, I have also done album reviews. . for Taylor Swift at least. She has her category, which honestly makes me laugh a bit. The most recent blog on her is Long Live The Walls We Crashed Through, which is a dual blog post on when I saw her in March, plus my thoughts on Speak Now (Taylor's Version). I need to write a review on 1989 (Taylor's Version). Also, I have a feeling reputation will be released next. I was right about 1989 being after Speak Now, so, we'll see if I'm right again.
I did something I'd never done before this year. I did a review on a Broadway show! That's right, SIX: The Musical. Check it out if you haven't.
A very popular category is Poetry. I tend to get the most engagement and comments when I post poems. So far, I have 40 poems on The Inner Workings. My goal is to turn this into a poetry collection. My favorite poems are "Bottles in the Closet" (which heavily inspired my memoir I Don't See You Anywhere), In Another Life, Snow, and I Should've Loved You. I haven't written a new poem since October of last year. Eek. I haven't been inspired I suppose. I did start a new poem, so look for that when I post it.
I got super personal on this blog this year. Not that I don't always do, but this felt different. This year, I shared parts of my digital memoir, I Don't See You Anywhere, which was my final project for my master's in professional and technical writing. The most popular part of this series was Mom, then Transparency of Lies. Eventually, I'd like to turn this digital memoir into a print memoir. I've been slowly working on it, adding a few more written pieces. I will probably have to redo the entire layout since, at the moment, it's not ideal for print. It's a work in progress.
How many words have I written this year? (Not including this blog.) That would be 35,641 words. Not bad. 2018 was my worse year. I don't know why, but it was. I only had 7 posts which totaled into 8,393 words. Eek. No idea what was happening there, but wow. In 2019, I had a whopping 71 blog posts, which totals to 44,374 words. Holy shit. I wrote a lot. I've picked up this year from last year which was only 16 blog posts and 28,870 words. So I'm rather proud that I've found my muse again. Go Keely!
What are some of my favorite blogs I've done? Well, excluding anything Taylor Swift, poetry, Twilight blog series, or I Don't See You Anywhere, I've got a few. Here are my favorite blog posts of all time. All the years I've had this blog.
Comic-Cons: Building Cosplays & Communities: I wrote this for my Writing About Culture class. It's about the culture of comic cons, giving a history of them and then the comic cons I've been to. It was super fun to write.
The Fandoms That Shaped Me: Listen, most of my tattoos are fandom-based. Of course, fandoms are important to me. This is a great blog where I explain how these books, TV shows, movies, etc, all had such an impact on my life.
Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: This is an interesting blog post. It related The Handmaid's Tale to what is happening in real life. It discusses Roe v. Wade being overturned, and the similarities happening in our reality that matches what happened in The Handmaid's Tale. It's a bit terrifying.
3:30 Am Thoughts on Friends: When I say I wrote this at 3:30 in the morning, that's legit. I couldn't sleep and these thoughts popped in my head. It's a very reflective piece on my friends and my friendships with them. How it wasn't until I got older that I really truly found a best friend. (Caroline, that would be you.)
Don't Be Afraid to Buy the Ugly Produce: This was inspired by the movie The Gleaners and I by Agnes Varda. We watched it in my film directors class in undergrad. It's about Agnes Varda and how she follows these people who "glean." It's very eye-opening and interesting. Also about food insecurity.
Dear Straight White Men: Ha. I forgot about this one. But yes, I love this one. This is a satiral letter to the straight white men in video games, but it also discusses how guys protest change in movies, TV shows, and video games. I just re-read it for the first time in a while, and yeah, it still holds up.
Those are some of my favorite blog posts. I think my best writing is when I am truly passionate or angry about something.
What have I learned in the past 100 blog posts?
Well, I learned that not having a niche? Yeah, it's still working for me.
I've learned that it doesn't matter if maybe what I'm talking about is a bit dated, as long as I am passionate about it.
I learned that people actually like reading my writing even if it's a movie review or just a rant about the injustice of the world or even personal.
I've learned that at my core, I am still a writer, and even if I don't blog for months, there is nothing wrong that.
I've really enjoyed this blog, and I'm gonna keep at it for as long as I can. Even if I only blog six times a year, I'm gonna keep at it. It's such a relief.
What can you expect for the next 100 posts? Well, probably much of the same. There's going to be fandoms and nerdiness. There's going to music and poetry. There's going to be random shit (lol). But here's a bit of a teaser of what I have planned.
Blogs Coming Up:
First new poem since last October (whoot!)
2023 in a review - all the mile markers that happened this year (seriously, so much happened)
On race/ethnicity - inspired by my 23&Me results
AI and why it's going to be a problem
So, here's to the next 100 blog posts. I hope you keep reading. I know that I'll keep writing.
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