26 Short Stories in 52 Weeks: A Successful New Year's Resolution

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At the beginning of 2012, I received an SMS from one of my friends, suggesting a new year's resolution we could both try. 'We should start a blog,' he said, 'where we set a theme once a fortnight, and before that fortnight is over, we have to write a short story on that theme.'

I'm sure you can understand the apprehension I felt. I didn't sleep for days, tossing and turning, wondering if this new year's resolution was the right one for me. Would I have time? Would it make me hate writing forever more, being forced to write a story on a specific theme 26 times in one year? There were so many things to consider, I almost went insane. But then I made my decision.

I jumped at the idea, and that day, thethemeis.co.uk was born.

In the year that has passed since that fateful day, I am the only contributor to the site who has taken part in every theme. I have written 26 short stories for thethemeis.co.uk in 2012, and it's the first new year's resolution that I've made and kept to in my whole life. If that doesn't prove I'm a real grown up, I don't know what does. Granted, some of them are rushed and ill thought out, and the Christmas one is just a load of shit written down, but some others, like The Writing Club, are among my favourite short stories that I've written.

So why not set yourself the same challenge? thethemeis.co.uk will still be running throughout 2013, even though I will no longer be regularly contributing. Everyone can join in, and if you want to get into writing, or if you already write and want a new challenge, maybe this is just what you need!

Whether you'll be joining in or not, I hope everyone has had a fantastic year, and I wish you all the best for 2013.

Other significant numbers from 2012

I received one lovely rejection from a publisher this year, in a year of very limited query letter sending. I'll be sending them out with more vigour this year, so we'll see how that goes.
I wrote exactly twice as many posts this year as I did last year. Either because I had more to say, or because I was more desperate for attention. You decide.
I published 3 apps onto the Windows Phone marketplace, which have been downloaded a total of 705 times. Not bad, considering they're just apps for small blogs on the least common smartphone OS available. Android versions will be coming in 2013, and we can see how they perform in comparison.
As of 23/12/12, the official destroyedordamaged Twitter account has 339 followers. That could rise or fall dramatically before the end of the year, and often does at very short notice. But if you're a loyal follower, thanks for your support. I'll be rewarding you with more bullshit spilling from my brain all through 2013.
This site broke the 10,000 visits mark in October. It's now at 12,143, so I'm getting a lot more visitors these days than I used to. Again, thanks everyone.