End of Year Countdown: 5 Top Fives of 2014

Photo credit: Amodiovalerio Verde on Flickr

It’s the last post of 2014, which means, as is tradition here on Writability, it’s time to share Writability’s annual five top fives of the year! Woot!

These tend to be longish posts, so I’m going to jump right into it. Here is the summary of 2014’s amazingness in terms of writerly awesome.

Top 5 Most Popular Posts (On Writability)

As per usual, these are calculated with blogger’s page view counts. Interestingly, the list is the same as the year before, with a little rearranging.

1. Why Write Blog Posts Consistently? 
2. Do You Listen to Music While Writing?
3. Writers: Start Acting Like Professionals
4. Tumblr for Writers
5. Pirating Books: It’s Not a Harmless Download

Top 5 Most Active Commenters

As explained every year, I use Disqus’s handy widget on my sidebar to keep track of how many comments every lovely commenter makes. The system isn’t perfect and only keeps track of accounts, so if you comment on multiple accounts, it thinks you’re more than one person, but anyway, these five fabulous readers are the most active commenters of the Writability community—thank you!

Note: Those with asterisks were on the top five list last year, too. And those with two asterisks were on the top five list the year before that! Double and triple thank yous!

1. Robin Red*
2. RoweMatthew**
3. Daniel Swensen**
4. Jen Donohue*
5. S.E. Dee

Top 5 Favorite Tumblr Blogs of the Year

Over the years, tumblr has become one of my favorite social media sites. I’ve learned a ridiculous amount from the gems posted there, and I’ve also really enjoyed the nerdy randomness that frequently appears on my feed.

These are my top five favorite tumblr blogs, as calculated by tumblr based off which blogs get the most reblogs and likes from me.

1. YA Highway
2. Jealous of Jetpacks (Beth Revis’s tumblr blog) 
3. Corinne Duyvis
4. Disability in Kidlit
5. The Writing Café

Top 5 Favorite Writing Blogs of the Year

I’ll openly admit I haven’t been able to keep up with other blogs lately, mostly because of time constraints. That being said, those that I do try to check in with or browse over are pretty great, and here are some of my favorites of the year (in no particular order):

Note: Those listed together are somewhat similar, which is why they’re listed together.

1. For really excellent (and honest) posts about the publishing industry/getting published: The Daily Dahlia (Dahlia Adler’s blog).


2. For wonderful weekly round-ups and writerly posts: YA Highway.


3. For excellent book reviews and cover reveals: IceyBooks & The Midnight Garden.


4. For agent and writer interviews as well as awesome writerly posts: chasingthecrazies (Amy Trueblood’s blog).


5. For great pub opportunities, including contests, giveaways and agent information: Miss Snark’s First Victim & Literary Rambles.

Top 5 Favorite Twitter Accounts

Twitter remains my favorite favorite. And these Twitter peoples are amazing (again, in no particular order):

1. @LucasMight
   
   Not only is Lucas a ridiculously nice person, but his tweets are sometimes quirky, sometimes insightful, sometimes hilarious, and always interesting. Also, he’s an excellent writer.


2. @gildedspine & @mariekeyn
   I’m listing these ladies together, because they’re both super wonderfully kind people who are also really amazing advocates. They speak their minds, talk about important issues, and I’ve learned so very much from them both.


3. @_DiversifYA
   
   I’m assuming most people already know about WeNeedDiverseBooks, but DiversifYA is another excellent proponent of diversity. They host semi-frequent Twitter chats discussing various aspects of diversity, and they also have great diverse profiles on their corresponding blog that they share on their Twitter. I definitely recommend them.


4. @MissDahlELama
   
   Not only is Dahlia yet another uber-nice writerly type, but she’s super insightful as far as publishing things go, and she’s a ridiculously good recommender of books. Seriously, if you ever want a book recommendation, see Dahlia ASAP.


5. @_Snape_
   
   I always list Snape in these round-ups because it’s one of my favorite hilarious follows.
   
   I mean, case and point:
   
   

   If you're reading this, you've already begun avoiding your family. Merry Christmas.
   — Professor Snape (@_Snape_) December 25, 2014

So those are my top fives of 2014—do you have any favorites of the year you’d like to share? 

Also, Happy New Year, everyone! 

Twitter-sized bite: 

Writer @Ava_Jae shares her top fives of 2014—what are some of your favorite writing resources of the year? (Click to tweet)