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This blog’s first anniversary surprised me: I knew the date was near the beginning of September, but I didn’t realize it was this past Tuesday. Congratulations to me for publishing something new every day for a year! I thought it’d be fun to commemorate the occasion by reviewing the lessons I’ve learned and laying out what to expect over the next year.

A year in, my blog has learned object permanence but still needs a diaper as it grows. I use WordPress to host it, and the app sends me a push notification every morning at six when a new post goes live. “You’re on a 351-day streak on Ted Shideler,” it told me yesterday, and I figured I had fourteen more days before I had to go get the cupcakes. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten the sordid truth: my first-ever post went live last September 5th, and I built up a sixteen day streak before I forgot to post something on September 21st.

Oof. That single omission means that I haven’t posted for a year straight, and my streak doesn’t represent a full year of actual output here. I’ve published content every day since then, but that bit of carelessness continues to haunt my obsessive personality.

Despite the hiccup, I’ve really enjoyed writing here over the course of this past year! When 2022 drew to a close, I decided to improve my storytelling, tighten up my writing, and keep doing what I’d been doing during this blog’s first four months. Soon after, I realized I that I wanted to focus on copy editing and readability.

I’ve improved a little in each category since then, and I even learned some lessons along the way. The first was that posting every day is more difficult than I thought! That seems like a stupid takeaway since I average about a thousand words per entry, but editing posts from old blogs I’ve repurposed often garners enough time to research new stuff that gathers more interest. It’s a lot of work, but I think it’s worth it.

Working on new posts as I’ve run older ones is gratifying, but it’s led to more lessons. The first is that I can’t expect myself to write a brand-new, well-researched post from the ground up in a day like I tried on my older blogs. I need a little more time to dive deep into my topics! The second lesson is that I’m only as good as my sources: I’ve never claimed to be a journalist, but I try my best. I’ve seen some complaints, but that’s part of why I cite my sources. The rest are tiny quibbles that I apologize for, shrug off, edit, and pledge to do better about with different information.

That’s not to say anything I’ve posted is wrong, but the final lesson I’ve learned is that people will click on something if it’s factual, compelling, readable, and a little entertaining. I’ve made a conscious effort to dial down the entertainment aspect when it takes away from the factual part, but I’ve still been blown away by the amount of people who’ve stumbled across this blog and commented or emailed with memories or interesting facts. I wind up adding them to my posts! I’m truly grateful for everyone who reads my scribblings, subscribes, buys me a $3 coffee, or likes a post.

All of those lessons help inform what I write. They also help me continue to improve my ability as a writer! I’d be happy researching stuff in a hole for somebody else to write about, but this blog has forced me to make an effort to improve my chops.

For this next year, I’ve still got a lot of courthouses and schoolhouses to post about, but a couple of topics have filled my “Drafts” tab on WordPress for a long time. I hope to finish them soon, and I think they’ll be among by all-time best works once I finally nail them down. Here’s what’s in order:

• Miller Milkhouses, a chain of early convenience stores in Richmond and Muncie
• Anderson’s Mounds Mall, one of Indiana’s first enclosed shopping centers
• Jerry Lewis Cinemas a chain of “family-friendly” theaters from the 1970s
• Riley Park in Greenfield, with a special concentration on its old “springhouse”
• Flowing wells in East Central Indiana, including some I wasn’t aware of in Blackford County
• Anderson’s “Peppermint Park” Kiddieland
• Cat therapy, featuring Dr. Disco and Dr. Zulu
• More drone photos and video
• More underwater drone photos and videos

One thing I hope to avoid is further surgery updates. I have my third appointment with a wound care specialist later today, and I finally seem to be on the road to recovery!

I’m grateful for everyone who’s subscribed and visited over this past year. Thank you! I’m also pretty hyped from my blog’s statistics. They’re modest, but I hope its second season will keep adding more compelling content that you and I both find interesting.

I’m sure it will, and I’m looking forward to my second season of blogging. Unlike last year, I’ve already got a post scheduled for September 21!