Writing 101: a map and a stat

aww hell, y’all. i just realized Blogtober starts tomorrow. looks like Helene and Tay are maybe not playing this year, so not sure which group i will link up with. (alternates, anyone?) with a backlog of Writing 101 posts, plus an urge to get back to some of my normal posts, maybe not finding a prompt list and linking up is a smart thing. but whoever said i was smart?

at any rate, figured i should crank out some more of the assignments i already have, while i can. luckily, once again, i have found a way to combine posts. yay, me! gold star for creativity and perfecting the slack. Day 16 asked us to search our stats for a post idea and today, Day 18 (today!), asks us to use a map as our muse. in response, i say thank god for France. then you say WTF? and then i explain . . .

my series of posts on our trip to France this past April was by far the most viewed and shared set of content i’ve created since starting this blog a year ago. it was one of the first times i got totally mesmerized by my own stats and really got pumped to try to keep the levels up. in particular, views on a post about Strasbourg skyrocketed after my Twitter share of the post was picked up by local tourism authorities. it taught me a lot about the importance of social media in blogging if you want your work to get read and shared widely. in the past 5 months, i haven’t been able to replicate the dynamic. also explains to me why travel bloggers do so well. oh well.

so obviously, i need to drop my day job, pick up my family and go back to France all the time and write about it. duh. but in absence of this option, what? well, we are thinking of Hawaii for next spring break. can i break my own record next April? we’ll see. until then, i’m mining my stats for other trends and topics. stay tuned . . .