2019 In Review! Did I Meet My Goals?

Me and Roxi in Big Spring Park all rights reserved

In January last year I set up some personal writing goals.  For fun I want to review them and see what I accomplished vs what needs work.

Accomplished: 

I wanted to finish my second draft of Follow Me: Tattered Veils and succeeded (what's the difference between the 2 drafts?  Talked about that here). More than that!  This year I:

-Sent Tattered Veils off to a copy editor (some further blogging about that experience here) 

-Made the corrections from the copy editor

-Have a Copywrite on Tattered Veils—which means a copy of my work will be available in the Library of Congress

-Commissioned a cover artist and have cover art complete for Tattered Veils

-Got a publishing team together and have that team:

       -Created a website for me and a landing page for Tattered Veils and future works

       -Created an author’s Facebook page

       -Discussed, created, and sent A.R.C.s (advanced reader copies) to people for an early review

       - Had a proof copy of my novel in my hands

       -Chose a date of publication (and I’m thrilled to announce I will self publish Follow Me: Tattered Veils on Amazon this Feb the 29th a leap year ^_^)

I taught a free Intro to Creative Writing class with Ashley and we plan to run our course again this year.  It is exciting to continue refining our class. Hopefully this class will turn into a way we can give back to the writing community, inspire other writers, and create a closer community of people with similar goals.

I met my book reading goals for 2019 and reviewed most of the books I read (check out my Goodreads profile).  I also created shelves for my read Goodreads books so they are easier for other readers to sort through.  

2019 was a great year for esoteric folklore.  I learned about this thing called “#folklorethursday” on Twitter and it’s awesome.  The community connecting and telling different little bits of trivial there is soooooo cool.  I read a couple great pagan books that reconnected me earth based traditions, some will even work in my southern environment even if British weather is colder and rainier.  I also had the chance to write up a bit of info on traditional holidays and some different writing prompts to accompany the holidays.  My well for inspiration seems full.

Opportunities: 

I didn’t maintain a constant blogging habit.  At my personal blog, I posted about 11 times.  I posted 12 times in the N.A.W.G. blog.  Along with less frequent posting, I’ve dropped the ball in my social media game.  This may have cost me an audience or sense of reliability.  I promise I’ve been very busy in my writing life, it just hasn’t all been on display for the people who might watch at home.

My goals for blogging and social media were too lofty.  Given how much socializing even online takes out of me and given how each blog post takes time I could write creatively off the table, it was never realistic I would both complete my Tattered Veils goals and maintain an active blog presence.  No regrets over which I chose.  Now I have a book, if I’d stuck with the blog who knows how far away holding a copy of my work would have been?  

While blogging and social media has to play a role in my writing goals, it will have a lighter touch in 2020.  If these posts help or interest other people, I see it as “worth it,” but I can’t say this style of writing is a “passion" of mine.

I kept making new goals for myself as the year went on.  Some of that was beneficial and some of it was a time waste under the guise of “being efficient.”  There were days  that planning took the place of “doing”—so not the goal of making plans.  As this new year rolls in, I plan to compromise with the person who wants to plan vs the person who wants to do work.  More on that in 2020 goals though.  

Overall, I think I had a powerful 2019, even if it wasn’t everything I wanted.  How did your year go?  What was a major accomplishment for you?  What was a major failing?  What are your plans for 2020?

Not sure how to create good yearly plans?  Try my post that helps break down goal planning.  Or try a post I have exploring Habitica and how it can help you meet your goals. 

Curious about my my 2020 goals, check out this post!  Wondering how I track my goals?  I've written more here.

Finding the Right time Postdating and Predating Blogs

image from openclipart.org by JayNick

For the unaware, you can schedule blogs to post in the future, the present, and in the past.  Scheduling blogs to drop automatically is convenient because I can write everything at once, proofread it, gather the images, and set up on the blog all together.  It lets me keep a stack of planned content at all times, and once written, I can forget about it (excluding promoting it).  

Posting content as soon as it’s complete, is what most people assume is the norm.  I haven‘t polled any bloggers, so I don’t know if people usually schedule content out or if they add it each day.  I used to post my “Monday Metrics” blogs same day, but my work schedule no longer allows for this and I have to write them ahead of time.  

The least intuitive of these three schedulers is to predate blogs.  An unscrupulous person may predate a blog so they can say they “posted” first they can claim their blog has been around longer than it‘s been up and running.  I don’t care for either of these uses.  

Still, I like to predate blogs sometimes.  My “Writers’ Blogs” and “Company Blogs” were both post dated for Jan 1st 2018.  I created both posts in October and I update them as needed.  Why are they posted in the past?  Simple: when I created lists of blogs I follow, they were small and I didn’t want the lists to take up the front page.  I thought of these posts as “reference” posts which would become relevant as time went on but held little value in the present.  Once I had more suggested bloggers, once I had a larger following, these posts would matter, but as things stand, I don’t believe they add value.  One can find them under the “Resources” page and readers I hope to gain will one day find these posts helpful.

Why not just keep the content as a draft and publish when it has more value?  First, I have a hard time finding floating drafts. It’s easier to set a date for publication and I don’t know when these lists would be welcome.   Second, I hold the slim hope that some people find suggested blogs to read helpful now.  Even if the list is small, it may help people connect to other bloggers that hold like goals.  Plus, having a published page creates a place for readers and fellow bloggers to recommend more resources I can check out and this may increase my list.  

I may create a list of books I read in 2017, and I would post date the list to 2017, even though I’m creating the list now (using Goodreads for reference).  

If I ever wanted to create a post defining literary terms, if I wanted to write a list of helpful descriptive words for taste/smell/touch, and so on these kinds of posts would become post dated and exist for me to reference, not showcase at the top release of my blogs. If I ever wanted to create a blog post response for Twitter hashtag conversations, I would date the blogs to the day they asked, not the date I answered the question.  

The common factor with all these posts they are references, not featured content.  While they may hold helpful information, it‘s as an aside, not a main article.  I create them more to build interwoven links within my blog than to be the main feature.

Talk to me!  Do you blog and if so do you schedule posts?  How many interconnected links do you create within posts?  Do you go back to older posts and add links when more recent posts may also relate? 

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by oksmith

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  My plan and reflects are on 16 week Review!  and the steps I’m taking are on 6 Steps for Twitter.

Twitter Analytics

I’ve been active on Twitter for 126 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 256 posts, 720 profile visits, 89 mentions, and 112 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 15%.
  
My engagement is 3.7%. 

I post about 9 times a day.  My goal is to sit between 6-10 posts a day, so success!


My daily view count has lowered to just under 2,000 views a day.  I received 153 eyes per post last week.  I haven‘t used hashtags often and I‘ve been straight retweeting, instead of adding comments.  Work is grueling this time of year, but I plan to do better.

Blog Stats


I got 37 views last week spread across 8 posts and 3 pages.  I can’t infer much from these numbers because the holiday times may either help boost or hinder my numbers regardless of content.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 22 views this past week.  The detail break out suggests shows people may be searchingauthors pages this week.

So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Dec 17th, Dec 11th,  Dec 3rd, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Monday Metics

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If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  My plan and reflects are on 6 week Review!  and the steps I’m taking are on 6 Steps for Twitter.

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 112 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 236 posts, 517 profile visits, 83 mentions, and 129 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 25%. I got included in a Follow Friday post by one of my Twitter friends and this saw a HUUUGE boost in follows.  We’ll have tosee if I can keep these follows in the upcoming days.
  
My engagement is 3.9%. My change in strategy: tweet less and respond/interact more, should continue to see increases in engagement.  It was a huge surprise to go from 2.1% to 3.9%, dropping off the weeks with a different style of interaction makes a huge different.

I post about 8 times a day.  My goal is to sit between 6-10 posts a day, so success!


My daily view count has lowered to just under 2,000 views a day.  Proportionately I receive 210 eyes per post.  Slight dip from the 216 eyes last week, but I held prolongedconversation on some tweets, the longer you go back and forth, the lesspeople see your tweets, but the higher your engagement is and the more you’re getting to know one or two people, instead of introducing yourself to a group of people.  This is a balance I’m working on.

Blog Stats

I got 41 views last week spread across 8 posts and 1 pages.  I’m trying to stay the course in overall blog promotion.  I’m noticing that I’m heavy in visits on the front half of the week and fall flat in the back half.  That ties back to general exhaustion from work and me quitting to promote my posts.  I don’t know if I can improve weekly consistency, but it‘sgood to know

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 5 views this past week.  The last week of November I tried my hand at writing a more critical work called “Why I Stopped Reading Daily Science Fiction” and it seems that there is no interest from the community for why I might not enjoy the writing on the site. I am trying to evaluatewhether critical feedback has a place in my style.  It‘sa personal issue I’m touching onmore in a later post. 

  My December Open Calls for Submissions didn‘t bring in interested writers, but it may pick up as the month goes on.  Most open calls are for the end of the month.  

I’m hoping my second post on “How to pick a publisher” may have more traction.   I have some great topics scheduled for the NAWG blog and I’m hoping to see an increase as more discussion and interesting topics pop up.  

So talkto me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Dec 3rd, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Finding You Niche: Experiments in Blogging

image from openclipart.org by Firkin

In my adult life, I’ve tried niche blogging often.  What’s a niche?  It’s an area of expertise, research or experience a person is passionate about.  Here, it’s a topic someone believes they can write with experience on.  For fun, I thought I’d review all the areas I tried to blog with authority on.  

  I have a now deleted beauty blog.  As I researched monetizing blogging, I realized “lifestyle” was the most profitable category.  For me I thought “Yeah I can post on the hottest lipstick/mascara/eyeliner colors this season.”  I was wrong.  While makeup is fun, it‘ not something I have an ongoing interest in.  The constant change in the industry is expensive and often left me wonder “why” instead of feeling excited.  

I have an old passion project blog called “Southern Pagan Muses”.  Here I explored my faith and how I thought a respectful multi faith society would look.  This blog does NOTHING right in blogging.  The posts are long and meandering, they lack graphics, and I didn’t bother to proofread them so they’re littered with grammar/spelling errors.  The worst sin: there is no market for a pagan blog.  I dreamed of having a large following and of making a splash in the pagan bloggers’ world, but most “successful” pagan bloggers make extreme statements and mine were like “let’s listen to each other and have open conversations about what might lead to unhealthy lifestyles.”  I think about reviving this blog at least once a month, even though I know nothing can come from it, I love my faith and I love hitting the latest topics from a religious experience.  


Next I created “Barista to Boss”, a now abandoned blog where I try to make my creative writing a career (spoiler alert, I failed).  Working on this blog taught me a lot about blogging and gaining metrics.  This blog was only active for three months, it has 18 posts, and I got 4,209 views total.  There were a few problems with the blog that led to its demise.  First, I think my topic was too broad.  I discussed both my current day job and generic writing (blogging, poetry, other forms of creative writing).  It was too much for one blog to handle, and I’m sure I alienated audiences with too broad a topic list.  Second, I posted too often.  Since I was following blogging advice, my goal was to post once each day.  Striving for this goal, created burnout   Third, the pictures, the links, and the socializing required to make the blog appealing where draining.  It was a case of too much too fast.  Last, I realized I wanted to write creatively and freelance blogging/blogging took away from my creative writing.  RIP “Barista to Boss” you taught me so much.

 “Aquagarden: Diary in Small Scale Aquapoinics” followed “Barista to Boss”.  This blog was a TON of fun because it was like recording a science experiment for the 3 months I worked on it.  It was perfect for me because: 1. The content had a limited scope.  I expanded in the series to discuss other gardening projects and transforming grocery scraps into a second harvest but overall the focus was on the fish tank. 2. I created a picture centric blog.  Every day I’d snap some shots, edit, post, and write a few lines caption.  Much faster than planning out content for previous blogs. The results of my Aquapoinic experiment interested others without social media presence.  It has 2,800 lifetime views.  What happened to this blog?  Work picked up and I couldn‘t keep recording the tank, I was too tired.  Napoleon, my betta fish, passed in Dec and I‘ve retired the tank.  While I thought of starting the experiment again, the research I did raised questions whether a 3 gallon tank is a large enough container to ethically keep a betta fish, not to mention to whole betta procurement market seems cruel.  I’d like to run a 5-10 gallon tank with guppies one day, but I can’t finance or house such a large experiment right now.

I created this blog in 2016 when I finished my first draft of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  I was sooooo excited, and I wanted to share that along with a few blogging insights I had.  It didn‘t last long as I didn’t have the right level of insight or motivation to keep working.  I’ve revived this blog instead of creating a new one.  The focus still surrounds my personal progress and personal insights (as these reflections on niches shows).  

There were three start up and deleted blogs in between this.  One was a book review blog, another was a book group blog, and the last was a blog about me picking back up my French Horn and re-learning how to play.  All three would be fun if I was a more known blogger, but as it stands, I don‘t have the brand to expect conversation out of a blog which was the goals in these three blogs.  If I gain a more interactive audience: I’d love to host a read along blog, comment below if there's interest and tell me what our first book should be.

I recorded a “let’s play” of both “Stardew Valley” and “No Man’s Sky”.  I never posted the videos online and long since purged from my computer. My “Stardew Valley” let’s play was a “no farming” challenge with in the game, and later I did a “pure luck challenge” where I could only plant whatever seeds I found or could buy from the traveling merchant.  I love “No Man’s Sky” but I have a ton of self-imposed rules I play by to keep things interesting.  I can say the same for my Pokemon runs.  While not traditional “blogging” the daily updates that come with “let’s play” series along with the conversational tone most take on, speak in the same way.  Plus the metrics/promotion technique the same.  


I somehow encouraged my Writers’ group to create a blog with me. The NAWG blog is active. It’s “niche” is in creative writing with a focus on novels and short stories in the scifi, fantasy, and horror sub genres.  My group and I offer our experiences, what we enjoy about the writing process, and our experiences as a writers’ group.  We‘re a team blog because I thought we’d have a better time keeping a consistent schedule as a group than as individuals.  This experiment drives home how hard it is to “lead” writers or to pin anyone down for a solid commitment. 

In June I considered launching a Ketogenic/Paleo/Vegetarian nutrition based blog.  I‘ve read and follow a lot of healthy lifestyle information, love discussing diet and nutrition, and feel like this is a topic that can help others.  I didn‘t end up creating the blog because I think health and nutrition are personalized and I only want to give one-on-one advice to people once I get to know their lifestyle and current eating habits.  

And those are my preferred niches: religions, nutrition/healthy/green living, gaming, reading, and writing.  What niches would you like to write in/ have you written in?  Were you ever surprised by the level of interest in your writing?  Were you disappointed by the response?  How many blogs have you abandoned?  How many do you currently run?  Do these blogs provide income and if so how?  Do these blogs link back to your creative writing?  Talk to me!

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by firkin

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 86 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 245 posts, 405 profile visits, 101 mentions, and 79 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 19%. I’m getting fewer over all views (not a stat I record here b/c I don’t know the value of possible eyes on a post) 54k vs 62k last week.  Still, the people who do see my Tweets seem to want to follow.  I think fewer views for actual follows a reasonable tradeoff.
  
My engagement is 2.5%. Three recorded weeks in a row at 2.5 (four if you count the one week I didn’t post).  My interactions have leveled out and going forward I expect 2.5%. 

I post about 9 times a day.  Clear success for me in spending less time on Twitter.

Blog Stats

I got 31 views last week spread across 13 posts.  I changed my “Featured Post” at the top of the page and created a list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic.  If I use these as reminders of all the work I linked to I can build traffic.  This blog is a little sleepy right now.  I’m looking at adding a couple of pages/resources, but there isn’t a lot to drive traffic. 

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 18 views this past week.  Important for fellow writers: November Call for Submissions is out on the NAWG blog and if you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.  Also, I updated NAWG’s Ongoing Call for Submissions page to eliminate dead links.  If you‘re looking for better organization categories divide the informationand only includes calls that pay $.01 a word on my personal blog‘s page.


So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Nov 5th, or go back further to reports on: Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Metric Monday!

from openclipart.org by j4p4n

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 59 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 343 posts, 510 profile visits, 123 mentions, and 69 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 13%.  Same as last week and I’m expecting this to be my steady growth rate, barring a new strategy to increase engagement or attention.
  
My engagement is 2.8%. I post plan, and I am trying to spend less time on Twitter while maintaining a sense of presence.  I kind of think my “engagement” can’t go up when I’m not in there making the connections. Days of high engagement involve a lot of personal real time responses and conversations happening on Twitter.  I think might be too much for me to manage regularly.  While I’ll always respond to people who talk with me, my social level and my time constrain me from reaching out more and hosting more conversations.

I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is work, and it’s hard to balance what I see on my feed with what I want to share/promote/say.  I’m not great with a single line, but I wonder if I should try a few original tweets anyhow.

I broke 4,000 views on Sat.  My views for the week are good overall, high 2,000 two days and mid 3,000 one day, which I thought would be my new all-time high view rate.  

I have a single tweet that has 3,362 views.  This tweet picked up conversation, and I heard about other writers’ processes and what they like about writing.  It was cool.  


Blog Stats

I got 100 views last week spread across 9 posts.  Sitting at week 3 with about 100 views.  This blog is for recording my writing process and giving personal feedback about the process of writing and self promoting on social media.  While it’s an interesting individual study or work, it doesn‘t lend itself to easy “evergreen” re-usable content.  Thank you guys for being interested and checking out the blog every week.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 13 views this past week.  Officially I can not take credit for our numbers.  I dropped “Halloween Spirit”, my own spooky October flash fiction story for our writers group challenge, and it did not catch like wildfire.  What did I learn?  Objectively, Chris has a more engaged personal network than I do, more friends, family, and acquaintances than I have.  Some of his friends came out and read my story to support our blog and I’m confident no one (except Lionel) I know read my story.

  Also, if we’re being honest, Chris has the better story. Seriously, “The Ghost Strikes at Midnight.”, is a more traditional and engaging ghost story than my off brand pagan summoning ritual.  He’s character focused where I’m event focused, and his story is better for it. 

I want to recommend to fellow writers our October Open Calls for Submission.  

So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Oct 9th, or go back further to reports on Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Does being Critical in My Reviews Hurt me as a Writer?

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Reviewing books and movies as a writer is awkward.  I'm a critical person with strong opinions.  These traits make writing and sharing reviews a natural extension of my blogging content creation.  It allows people to "get to know me" and provides entertaining/relevant posts.  People love to watch other's judge.

BUT, as a writer I always wonder what I'm supposed to do with books I didn't care for.  Do I write a scathing but honest review? Do I pretend I didn't read the book?  Do I lie?

Does it matter if I enjoy the writer but this one book or series of books was a flop?  I don't know the rules, it's all speculation.

Does writing a bad review close artistic doors on me?  Do I hurt feelings, appear snobby, elitist, or difficult?  Does having a positive review with critical elements also damn me?  None of my reviews are sunshine and roses.  Most of them acknowledge a pacing element, character inconsistency, or social concern I didn't care for in a work.  Does having any feedback for a writer make you "the enemy"?

They say reviews are for readers not for writers.  Except there are reviews I wrote more for a writer (not the writer the book) than for the reader.  I advise against cliche X or I point out the line the writing goes to hell or I suggest a stronger editor.  Little industry moments where I'm no longer speaking as a consumer but as a creator.  Sometimes I grandstand on a writer's social responsibility not to shoe horn certain groups of people into a role.

My policy on reviews has been to write them and post them, but only cross promote positive views.  I am at a crossroad in my NAWG Blog series where I feature the good writers on Kindle Unlimited. I want to cover a writer who has some amazing work but also some disappointing books.  I don't know how to cover her.  I want to gush about one series she wrote and the first three books of another series, but the other 6 books I didn't like exist.  From a good to bad book ratio she has a 50% rating BUT her good books are so much fun and her bad books are "meh" not offensively bad.  And I want to talk about that too, how sometimes writers swing and strike out.  An audience sticks around because your hits are so epic and we know a batter can't have 100% home runs, sometimes it's a swing and a miss.

Or I have another author I plan to feature who does an amazing job with a large ensemble cast and who did well in most elements of the books BUT I think how she portrayed the LBGTQ community is problematic.  Pros: she represented the community and the character's gayness was not a big deal.  I loved how she dropped in "yeah so and so doesn't like boys" in a medieval fantasy setting and everyone was just like "oh, ok then."  The society is still burning witches and afraid of women but if you're a lady who likes ladies, that's fine.  It was refreshing how much no one cared who the characters might want to sleep with.  Cons:  She killed the only gay man off, the "villain" of the piece is a manipulative lesbian, and the most "heroic" of the lesbians is only a lesbian because a past boyfriend beat her, when she finds the right man, she goes back to being straight.  Honestly, I don't think the author consciously plotted these elements out, it feels like unconscious bias, but am I not supposed to talk about it?  And I'm not saying that all LGBTQ characters have to be amazing, but she had four characters representing the community in a cast with twelve characters and all of them had cringe-y stereotyped baggage on them.  She made an obvious effort toward inclusion, which I applaud because no one looks at a medieval work and says "why isn't the LGBTQ community represented?", but the effort was undermined by an unintentional inclusion of stereotypes. 

It's stuff like this that makes me shy away from promoting fellow authors or digging into their works.  If it was me, I'd find the thought and attention flattering even if the conclusions highlighted some of my work's failings.  But other people are not me, and I've seen how what I thought was a positive highlight is viewed as a hit piece.  

I waste a lot of time and energy worrying over the pros and cons of sharing my thoughts.  And while I consider, I write other positive reviews and these two authors, whose works I like better than some ones I'm promoting, languish because I also have critical thoughts.

Talk to me.  If you're a writer, what is your review policy?  If you're a reader does a positive review with critical elements help or hinder you?  Does a review detailing writer minutiae disinterest you?  

"Making of A Wannabe Writer Pt 3

image from open clipart.org by Arvin61r58

The Writing Cooperative have a great post "Making of a Wannabe Writer". I recommend anyone undertaking a large writing project read their article and answer the questions they present.

Today, I am sharing my responses to their tips and tricks. It should provide readers better insight into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and whether I'm meeting those goals.  

A formatting note: The number points from the article are in bold and some editing may occur in the expansion of the main point so I can emphasize the parts that resonate with me.  I will provide my responses in italic purple for clarity.

Some Essential Daily Hacks

...make it a point you write everyday. It may be rubbish, not readable at all. But it will help you get into the habit of writing first of all. It will make you disciplined.

Doing that.  Next please.

Make sure your writing is effective. Once written, read it to yourself and try to evaluate if it’s lame or really compact piece.

This is a struggle for me.  What is effective?  Are general impressions posts "effective" are those millions of tips posts that seem to copy and paste each other "effective", is sharing my experience and coming to some conclusions "effective"?  I don't know.  

For me, I'm looking to approach problems in innovative ways and I want the blog to connect to other's individual struggles.

In my creative writing, everything is in review all the time.  It's frustrating to think a few months ago I was "done" with a piece I've since unwound and stitched together another way.  At some point there has to be an end to tinkering.

While you are into writing, Minimize all distractions- that includes your phone! It is probably the greatest killer of discipline!

.  

My phone isn't my problem, the internet is.  It's hard to not pop in and see how Twitter is going or to pause one blog post and check in on my other blog, or to freeze mid research and writing an impromptu something or other.  

By the time I'm ready to write, my alarm is going off, letting me know it's time to go to work.  

Another work in progress for me it seems.

Don’t procrastinate or worry about being a great blogger/ writer; just write your heart out.

Check.  I have no illusions that I'm a great blogger.  I'd like to be a consistent one, and one that's accidentally helpful.  

In the best of worlds, I'd like to be a blogger who finds her audience for her creative writing and has the opportunity to help other writers find their audience.

During the initial days, it’s better if you just forget about earning. Focus on followers. Bring out quality articles and keep the followers growing steadily.

No problem there, earning isn't even a twinkle in my eye.  No Adsense turned on.  No call to subscribe.  No books, pamphelets, shirts, bags, or mugs for sale.  I take the audience finding and building phase seriously.  There will be no considerations to monetize until I'm getting at least a couple thousand views (a number chosen for how impossible it seems right now) and even then, I think a good indicator for when to sell something is when the audience asks for it.  Like if someone wanted me to curate and publish certain blog posts.  Or if I managed to create a good catch phrase.  Or if I had an anthology published.  

Know well what you write. Have an in depth knowledge and if possible, some personal experience too.

Agreed.  I'm very careful to only post and publish things I have personal experience with.  It's why the blog has to be about my plans, efforts, and results.  I can only speak about what I know works.  

On my Twitter, it keeps me from recommending random books in my feed or posting all those generic "Get Good Quick" posts.  I'm reading them, thinking on them, and even trying some parts, but I am skeptical of them until I see results and worse, I'm bored with them.

Metric Monday

from openclipart.org by GDJ

My week review posts are too long, so I'm breaking it up into straight numbers and progress updates/plan adjustments.  Today is straight plans.   See the action plans I'm using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week's Tuesday Tell All!  and 8 Steps I'm Taking on Twitter.   I owe you all a blogging strategy, a creative writing strategy, and a book review plan.  Still working on that.

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 38 days.  Twitter Analytics gives the last 28 days for review.  From here on out, I’ll be comparing my current stats from stats where I was active on the platform.  I have 465 “lifetime” Tweets, but over the last 28 days I’ve had 364 posts, 601 profile visits, 95 mentions, and 116 new follows.

Conversion based on profile views is 19%, up a little but overall remaining steady.  I think I'm starting to settle into my niche and my growth may begin to slow.
  
My engagement remains a steady 3.3%.  

I post about 13 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is a bit of a slog.  I didn't even step on Twitter Tuesdsy.  

I broke 2,000 views on Saturday and my top Tweet has 1,753 views and engagement of 3.3%.  It’s another Tweet from @wrtrstat in this one I asked if people write for fun or to explore themes.  I got three or four conversations from it and I tagged it in some writing circles.  

 
Blog Stats

This blog continues to put in work.  I got 53 views last week spread across 8 posts.  It’s not brag worthy, but this is a personal blog with more impressions, personal plans, and results.  I don’t expect it to be a traffic generator.  There’s value and casual interest in how a fellow blogger/aspiring writer is doing, but I don’t think there’s much interest when I don’t have name recognition.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 5 views this past week.  This is my fault.  I've got some great content on the blog but I haven't promoted it as I should.  


So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

"Making a Wannabe Writer" My Response pt 2

image from open clipart.org by GDJ

The Writing Cooperative have a great post "Making of a Wannabe Writer". I recommend anyone undertaking a large writing project read their article and answer the questions they present.

Today, I am sharing my responses to these questions. It should provide readers better insight into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and whether I'm meeting those goals.  

A formatting note: The number points from the article are in bold and some editing may occur in the expansion of the main point so I can emphasize the parts that resonate with me.  I will provide my responses in italic purple for clarity.

1. Starting is simple, but not ending.

Agreed, particularly with creative writing. I often know the beginning and middle, but then I'm loving everything so much it's like I don't want to end it. Or I think, "hey all the buildup will need one Hell of a resolution to justify itself". 


For the blog it can be easier. I ramble on for three paragraphs, find my core nugget I wanted to get to, and rearrange everything. To end posts, I stop talking about me and ask questions. Or I follow a strict suggestion and response format where I present someone's suggest, I agree or disagree and present my plan. When I'm done presenting the post ends.

2. Make ‘Writing Effortlessly’ your Target before ‘Larger Audience’.
Most of us have the same ultimate target- Larger audience. But keep it in mind, before you reach out to a significant audience, you must be at par with writing better 'effortlessly'.

This sounds a lot like the creative writing encouragement to "just write".  It's not as easy as all that.  The number two suggestion should be to make lists.  Lists of ideas, lists of where you are in progress, and lists of what would show the most forward momentum with the least time/ effort investment.  

Yes, we all need to flee our writing muscles often to improve our skill set and yes increased quality and quantity will drive the larger audience.  But most writers need to balance engagement and audience building campaigns with their writing.  
3. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Agree.

4. Use Strategies Wisely

This advice was confusing.  It supposes that a person can find a strategy that works for him/her, recognize it, and use it.  

I would counter with "the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over while expecting different results".  

Make a plan, track results, and adjust the ship as needed.  With time that evolves into strategy, but I don't think most of us have enough figured out to incorporate this one.

5. Stay Persistent.
....Success comes to those who stay persistent and focused.
A writer attains limelight in a month while another takes an year. Both paces are absolutely normal.

While depressing, it's a good point.  Others measure of success can not be mine.  The techniques I'm able to develop and use are different so the time line is different.  

6. Go Beyond Hesitation
Put up your work for display, no matter what the audience size is. 

I agree, to a point.  While I'm more than happy to play blog host and book reviewer for a marginal audience,  I'm looking for larger presence before I'd risk creative stories.  On many occasions I thought "what would be the harm of posting ______" but there is harm.  I can't pitch first print rights to a publication if I release a story to the blog.  I can never get back a story's debut.  

 I'd love to straight publish my stories to the blog but I need to earn attention first.

7. No Excusing Yourself

Make it a point to stick to your writing schedule.

Yeah, I agree we should write daily.  I don't know, I think it's worth beating yourself up if you can't do anything creative.  There is so much an author needs to do to promote as long as you write an article, a story, a few tweets, then I think counts.

"Making of a Wannabe Writer" My Response pt1

from open clipart.org by Eypros

The Writing Cooperative have a great post "Making of a Wannabe Writer". I recommend anyone undertaking a large writing project read their article and answer the questions they present.

Today, I am sharing my responses to these questions. It should provide readers better insight into what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and whether I'm meeting those goals.  

A formatting note: The main questions from the articles are in bold and a chaser question is in normal font.  I will provide my responses in italic purple for clarity.

• 
  

Why do you wish to write? Is it for self satiation, fame or money?

Writing is a compulsion for me.  I feel like I have hundreds of stories bubbling up in me I want to share.  Crafting them and making something larger than myself  is fulfilling 

As far as blogging goes, I have observations during my writing process.  Most often I prefer to share them with my husband or with my writing group, but sometimes they are so repetitive, I feel the need to get them down in print.  That's how the blog arises.  

I don't have the success where I feel I could offer advice.  Still, there are areas of my personal journey that thrive.  I like to record what I'm doing and what results I've seen as a guide for others and a reference for myself.

Who is your target? Talk to yourself about the genre and the suitable target audience. What will be their volume?

My creative writing has several genres.  Fantasy, Urban Fantasy that sometimes borders on Magical Realism, Scifi, supernatural, paranormal, and genre fiction (very little genre).  My writing is character driven, emotion based, and revolves around explore themes instead of plots.  It leans towards a more academic crowd and most people believe it's more female centered (though I still don't know why, but I'll embrace the label).

My creative writing has a smaller but fervent niche and I'm looking for my people.  

My blogging is more large scale.  Where I am in process leans me towards an audience of fellow writers and social media engineers.  Authors because their experience and mine resonates.  Social media engineers may be interested because I'm publishing plans to cultivate a following/sell a produce and I'm also publishing real time results.  This is the kind of things marketing media companies should live for even if I'm only working on a smaller scale.

  I believe as my process evolves it will expand out to publishers, agents, and editors.  As editing is a weakness of mine, I'm most dubious that I'll have something to offer them, but I haven't snuffed all hope of expanding in that direction.

Why should people read this? Can they relate it to their life? Will it be helpful for them? Will it entertain them?

People should read my creative writing because it's a fun ride.  The stories are well constructed and flow with purpose.  The characters realism grounds a story off set by fantastic surroundings.

  People may also enjoy my stories because many of them explore issues I see in the real world and transform them into fictional stories where we can hold a less charged conversation about observation or issue of the day.

It is my goal for this blog to provide insight into how a writer may balance the many tasks required to be a known writer.  This includes making time for creative writing, maintaining a blog, creating and curating a social media presence, submitting to publishers, finding an audience, and supporting other creatives.  I hope to do this by sharing my plans along with progress or setbacks I find along the way.

Identified your genre? Be wise to chose the correct publication for maximum impact and response. This can do wonders to launch you!

This is a loaded question for me.  As someone who sees connections rather than divisions, I'm torn on what "genre" my work falls into.  For simplicity I tell others it's "Urban Fantasy", but I hold personal doubts.  While the settings of my work are modern and magic exists in these worlds, I lack other elements like humor or a romance that most Urban Fantasies experiment with.  I've read "gritty" or "hard boiled" Urban Fantasy but the main leads are men and my leads are women.

  My stories are character driven, the "stuff" happening to them is secondary to how the characters react, where most Urban Fantasies portray all the cool magic stuff with character reactions taking a back seat.  

If someone told me I was writing women's fiction, I wouldn't disagree, except I've read women's fiction and while we are bonded spiritually by themes, the fantasy elements depart from most women's fiction.

My blogging style is far easier to describe.  It's for personal revelation and insight,  A public baring of the soul so we might all learn together.  Upbeat, supportive, and highly female in its presentation.  

My journey is too early to provide "expert" advice but I see myself growing into being a writing coach.  Someone who helps others organize and prioritize their time and efforts.  I also see myself as a publishing scout.  I'm always checking out writing markets and I have a good sense of when others are ready to publish and where to submit.  Just ask my writing group.

Is it impulsive or a passion? Discover if you are passionate about your work. If no, you won’t last long. Try writing about what interests you the most. Blogging doesn’t work on temporary impulses. Persistence is the key!

A little of both.  I've been writing stories since I was six, and I've never gone long without writing. I don't think I could stop writing at this point and I very much want to share my creative work.  

Blogging likewise, is something I've played with since it was a thing. I have an old Livejournal and Insanejournal account that are embarrassing   I'd delete them if I could, but I've lost the email and passwords in long ago.  

Here on blogger, I've played with several formats.  Anytime I wanted to try something journalling became a natural extension of that exploration.  

I have a plan, and I intend to commit, but I've said before.  The only way to be honest is to come back in thirty days and see if I had a habit moment.