It's been almost a year since I started 'The Woman Condition'. In that time I've written nearly 200 posts and the blog has hit 20,000 pageviews. This seemed like a good occasion to take a trip down blog-memory lane and write a post in which I would dust off a few of my favourite and most popular oldies.
As if the universe knew I could do with a push, one of my favourite fellow bloggers, L.G. Smith of Bards & Prophets, passed on the 7x7 Link Award to me, which asks to do exactly that: highlight older posts in the following categories:
- Most Beautiful
- Most Helpful
- Most Popular
- Most Controversial
- Most Surprisingly Successful
- Most Underrated
- Most Prideworthy
Most Beautiful
This was easy. In May I wrote a post about beauty and being beautiful, with lots of pictures of beautiful women:
They Are Beautiful and So Are You.
Most Helpful
I think the posts with most potential to be helpful are the ones in my 'So Your Partner's a Rational Creature' series. I wrote them in my first 2 weeks of blogging, so I doubt they've been read by anybody besides my family and Facebook friends, but they got a great response there and seemed to provoke both reflection and discussion.
It was interesting to read these posts again, because I can tell my style of writing has changed. Anybody who sometimes fears blogging might be a waste of time: it isn't. We practise and hone our skills, even if we're not aware of it.
So Your Partner's a Rational Creature.
Most Popular
By far the most visited posts are the 'Manage Your Body Weight - the Green Way' lot. It helped a lot that Mistress Krista of the hugely popular website Stumptuous.com gave me a shout-out, which I was very happy about, even more so because she's an absolute goddess when it comes to women's fitness and health.
Manage Your Body Weight - the Green Way.
Most Controversial
This one's more difficult. I tend to steer away from controversial posts. It's the good girl / bad girl thing, I suspect. I did plead a case for using the word 'vagina' more frequently. Where I live, that's by no means controversial, but it seems to be in other parts of the world.
Warning: Contains the Word 'Vagina'.
Most Surprisingly Successful
When I wrote my post on the art of landscape artist Andy Goldsworthy, I had never expected it to become my most visited post. It's had over 800 hits so far (most of them via Google images, I suspect). I love his work, and I suspect you might too!
Natural Beauty: the Art of Andy Goldsworthy.
Most Underrated
For reasons that are hard to define, one of my favourite posts still is 'What's Your Story?' I wrote it in January of 2011, which feels much longer ago than it is. The story (and by association the post) still moves me.
What's Your Story?
Most Prideworthy
This would have to be my very first post, because it represents a decision that took me a lot of courage: to put myself, my thoughts and my writing out there and risk the confrontation with reality - and other people.
In the beginning there was ... Eve.
Now, to pass the 7x7 Link Award on to 7 deserving friends. Like L.G., I've chosen people whose blogs have been going on for a while, but whom I've come across later. I thought this would be a great way to get to know them better as well as discover their older, legendary posts:
- Crafty Green Poet (whose blog has been alive and kicking since 2005!)
- Hart Johnson, Confessions of a Watery Tart (2009)
- Lisa Gail Green, Paranormal Point of View (2010)
- Angela Felsted, My Poetry and Prose Place (2009)
- Exmoorjane, Diary of a Desperate Exmoor Woman (2007)
- Jessica Bell, The Alliterative Allomorph (2010)
- Allison, Allison Writes (2008)
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Image: 'Forest path' by Angel Jimenez, available under a creative commons license. © 2005, Angel Jimenez.
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