The Reality of Content Creation and Mid-Year Review

Let me begin by saying that the simple fact that this is entitled “Mid-Year Review” should clue you into what you’re about to read. Allow me to come out and say it. Content creation is work. Many people imagine “content creator” and imagine someone who has one of the easiest jobs. The truth is, content creation is tough. Let me explain what I mean.

Over the past six (to eight) months, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to delve into the nitty-gritties of content creation in a way I never have before. Looking at analytics is fun (and if it’s a good day, a nice dopamine hit in the morning). Editing, when done on time, can be an enjoyable exercise. But with looking over this new community and making sure everything is intact, as well as producing for the What’s Odyssey Podcast, I’ve had to learn how to do stuff on time, on my own, within the limited time I had in between my already busy schedule. And that’s where the problems come in. We were doing good on hitting the majority of AWB’s goals until about May. Because this “chief site” is still essentially a one-man operation, I had to put everything here on auto-pilot while I dealt with the more time-consuming events going on in my own life. It’s become the new motto of a lot of AIO writers to say “sorry I haven’t posted in a while”, and our part of our goal here is to lower the need for that phrase completely eventually. That brings us to our issues at the moment.

The truth is, we’re behind. By now, we should have been well on our way past 500 followers. While we’re a long way from where we came, which is good, we still have a lot to go to even get there. Even down at What’s Odyssey, what was supposed to be a twelve episode season was really only eight, with the intended finale episode now indefinitely postponed to be a precursor to Season 2, now coming in mid-October. Fortunately, the other websites have been picking up some of the slack this August, which is really a blessing. The point is, content creation requires a lot of devotion, so while there’s a bit of slowdown going on here, I believe the writer community is doing better than we have in multiple years given the circumstances.

Okay, now enough of being a downer, it’s time to reflect on all the amazing things we’ve done here (and have yet to do). Remember, we only have only 140 days as of this post to complete our goals and become one of the largest and most ubiquitous AIO fan communities, both for writers and AIO fans in general. Although we’ve missed that major 500 follower goalpost, we are still one of the biggest Adventures in Odyssey Instagram fan pages (yes, I do check), falling in line behind At My Whit’s End (sometimes), and the main Fan Club most prominently. All that aside, let’s take a look at the other main points we set forth last December:

Now, one goal I set forth personally, though didn’t write in that post outright, was to have a form of AIO Writer’s Block content created for every week of the year. We’ve actually hit that goal pretty securely, whether in the form of posts here, one of the other platforms, or through Instagram content, such as our Byte-Sized reviews. All of these make sure we have fan-made content constantly streamed, which I believe is important, especially during the dry spells of the year when Odyssey doesn’t have fresh albums coming out. In fact, the content from this website alone has meant an average of a post every two weeks, which is by far the best of any year in the past. Now, for our first major goal:

“….ten regularly-active fan writers and creators by the October 2024…”

This, in my mind, is translated into pages, of which we now have six, which are this one, SONN, “What’s Odyssey?”, Odyssey Fiction, The Perilous Pen, and Adventures Happening in Odyssey. For the most part, all have performed excellently this year, which is a huge win. We will have those other three slots filled before that deadline. That’s right, three. As of now, I am proud to announce that a new…

AIO Review Site!

…will be up and fully functional soon, which will add another gem to this Infinity Gauntlet of creator sites. Now one of our most ambitious “upcoming projects” seemed to be this one:

“We will finally, after years of waiting, have an AWB Podcast…”

This seemed impossible to me, especially considering the deadline I had written down at the time was March 1st (which ended up being March 8th for quality’s sake), allowing mere weeks for, writing, recording, and editing at least three episodes of the show. That might not sound impossible, but I believe it was, especially juggling all the things that were occurring at the time. Hitting “schedule” that first time was a breath of relief I will never forget. And being able to keep up an *almost* weekly schedule split up by a break is untold, especially here. When What’s Odyssey returns, it’ll hopefully be a full, uninterrupted, professionally edited, 12-episode season complete with reels, weekly content and the lot of it. That brings me to my next announcement….

The “What’s Odyssey?” In-Betweens!

This is going to be what we call all the intermediate content that’ll come out on the What’s Odyssey Instagram and Facebook pages (as well as audio content) while we prepare for this fall season. So be sure to follow @whatsodysseypodcast to not miss it! One more is this one, which with all the busyness, I wasn’t able to get to effectively:

SONN will finally have its own website…

This is a project that will likely end up outsourced, not because I couldn’t easily get it done, but because I just don’t have the time to set it up. We’ll move the articles from here to there and make it its own Babylon Bee-style satire site. But on the topic of “new sites”, check out The Perilous Pen, which is undergoing a change right now and posting some great new content!

Another piece of news is the revamp of the @aiowritersblock Twitter (now X) page! You’ll see teasers for new article ideas and other engaging content coming soon, so get ready! Be sure to follow there as well.

One last thing, the process is about to begin for what will be AIO Writer’s Block’s biggest deal ever at the beginning of October. Stay tuned for the juicy details!

For now, look forward to 2-3 additional posts that’ll come out by the end of August, one for each day, which will also make it our best summer ever in terms of posts!

Thank you all for sticking with us and (I hope) believing in this goal this year. I think we’ll be able to do it by God’s grace and with your support. For now, I’ll see you at our next report and remember….you can finish the phrase 😉