2016 has proven to be an interesting year for myself. It was a year of many ups, along with many changes. From finishing my first year of college to earning my black belt, I have changed quite a lot as an individual, especially after black belt grading, in which my old self was shed and out came a new, more lively and outgoing individual, but one who was determined to get the job done, no matter the cost. However, it has also been a year of tremendous growth for both my writing skills and the blog which has been staying strong since its creation last year. In an essence, 2016 was the year in which I hit my stride.
When the year began, things were relatively routine, as it began with a month filled with reviews of Wii games, then in early February, I got the letter. While pulling up my GameFaqs account, I noticed I had received a message back in November from Aaron Elias of Cubed3, asking me if I would be interested in writing reviews for their publication. After responding to the letter, I got the gig. Currently, I have seven reviews published at their site, and I plan on continuing to be a freelance writer for them as long as possible.
In fact, this was a year that saw many changes, among them, the summer line-up, which called for two game reviews, one movie review, and one anime review during the months of June and July. Initially, I had planned on covering television shows both live-action and animated, but I'm only focusing on anime in order to keep things in line with my schedule. In October, I conducted an interview with Jayme Schmitt and Bishop of DreamScape Reality Productions, which would see publication later in December. I had a great time doing the interview with the two, but the question that remains is will I continue to do these? Yes; the plan, starting from 2017 and onwards, is to have one interview done in the summer, and another in the winter, who gets questioned, however, is all on the table. I have a list of potential candidates written down in a journal, it's just a matter of whether or not they would be up to doing an interview.
Although this year was a great one, there were a couple of missteps. While my output of reviews was largely consistent, it started to slip during August and went on a downward spiral up until October. The reason was simple: reality. The thrill of getting back into school, combined with the added work hours, handicapped my creative processes, as I lacked the urge to write during those months. As much as I like writing, there are other things I have to do in order to ensure that I can continue with what I do, such as doing strong in school, keeping my job in order to have a source of income, and continuing my training at Purple Dragon. Things picked up in October with Drive-In of Terror, but even then, I only got four out of the six planned reviews published. Fortunately, doing the interview got me back into the groove of things, and now things should be stable.
With that said, what's in store for next year? There are some changes coming to the blog, namely, in the months of August and September, only two reviews will be published as a means for me to focus more on getting back to school and work, without having to feel much pressure about writing, though in October, Drive-In of Terror will return with the slate of reviews on horror-related films and games. Additionally, there will also be reviews of older games, specifically ones from the PlayStation 2/Xbox/Gamecube era, but don't expect to see any until later in the year.
I'm glad with how much the blog has grown and I want to continue on with what I do. In the summer, my blog surpassed one thousand views, which I was extremely grateful for, but at the same time, I realized that I have to keep on doing what I do in order to ensure that readers get what they want and that they aren't disappointed by what they see. Till then, I'll see you in 2017, so long as the Ravager invasion doesn't derail things.
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