Goal is to write more in coming year

As we roll the calendar over to 2019, it gives us the opportunity to look ahead at the coming year.

It also allows us the opportunity to reflect on the previous one as well.

The past week or so has allowed me to figure out the superlatives — the best stories and photos from the previous year.

(The Commercial Review’s top 10 sports stories of 2018 will be published on Jan. 2.)

As of this writing, I have narrowed the thousands of photos I’ve taken down to 35. Nearly three dozen is still too many. I’d like to get it closer to a dozen.

I’ve also, for my personal necessity, wanted to pick my favorite columns from the past year.

But there’s a little bit of a problem.

This is my sixth of the year.

Many times in 2018 I didn’t have a column because I struggled to come up with a topic. I’ve never been one to write for the sake of having a column. I always wanted them to be impactful, have meaning and be worth the time it takes to research, conduct interviews and write.

I like to be proud of what I put in this space, so writing something I’d regret or think is junk isn’t my cup of tea. In an age when our attention spans are being pulled in multiple directions, I don’t want to waste my time, nor yours.

Recently, however, the absence of columns has been because of something that is well out of my control. Simply put, there hasn’t been space — in the newspaper — for one.

Therein lies the problem, and what I wish to focus on heading into the new year.

Just because there may not be enough room in the newspaper for a column doesn’t mean I should go without one in any given week. After all, I’m a writer by trade. It’s what I went to college to become. The photography skill developed out of a necessity.

While space constraints may limit my column from appearing in the newspaper, I don’t want to stop writing it. We’re humans and we have opinions.

From what I’ve been told, there are readers who actually enjoy my opinion or want to hear my take on things.

So I won’t stop writing.

It just may take a few extra steps to read my column, as it will be posted online.

Every local story in The Commercial Review gets posted on the web at thecr.com. So while my weekly column may not appear in the newspaper, it will be on the website each Thursday.

Or, as is the case with this particular column, there may be instances during which I write something that just can’t wait until the coming Thursday.

So it will be posted online and to The CR’s social media accounts.

Subscribers to the print product get online access free with their account. For those needing access, call the office at (260) 726-8141 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday to obtain your login information.

The Commercial Review also offers an online-only subscription, which includes access to all local stories and even the electronic version of the newspaper each day. As a society that is spending more and more time staring at our phones, an online-only subscription can be an essential way to stay up-to-date on local news and events.

The Commercial Review also features a smartphone app, available on both iTunes and Google Play.

During the last couple years, my sports coverage has been posted to the web as quickly as possible after a game and included in the next day’s newspaper. A handful of times during that same span, The Commercial Review has posted “online exclusives” of stories that didn’t have space in the newspaper that day but were included on the website.

My column could be one of them.

I’ve now written six columns in 2018. I want to write more in 2019.

Be on the lookout. It might not make the paper.