The first week of November
Good morning!! ☀️This is another writing this week.
I am kind of picking up from where I left off from the last writing this week, so maybe you’ll want to read that first. I’ll be here when you get back.
This week was many kinds of great. Especially the days that were unseemingly great. And the catalyst of these was checking off my grand to-do list, being able to dip into the maybe someday to-do lists, and into the ‘eventually to-do’ to-do lists.
After the Storm Came The Rainbow
Okay so in the weird small window of peace before finals weeks start rolling in, I had a few days free of school work. No imposing ones anyway. I didn’t have to juggle all my different kinds of work and had a little bit more time to focus on my blog, stories, writing, and mostly sleep.
Which helped me remember how important rest is for productivity.
There was a good week or two where my sleeping schedule was all jacked up and my sleeping hours continually decreased (or remained small). While I was catching up on school work and missing personal work, having little sleep only made things worse. So it was no surprise that after sleeping in for two days or so, I had refreshed productivity, ideas, and motivation for writing. And with that came unavoidable revamping.
Revamping
How many times have you or do you switch up your bedroom, living room, or house by either rearranging or redecorating, or renovating?
I’m one of those people that switch around their room often. Other than it just being fun, switching around my room helps me creatively think through the equations of life. And by the time I’m done I have a new perspective and new room. There’s usually a lot of problem-solving done during my room switch up’s.
And so I’ve had lots of questions and unsolved equations in my career, writing, blogging, and so on. And so I mildly switched up my room and have switched up my blog and newsletter a bit as well. With the extra time and rejuvenated creativity, it seemed right for everything to get a revamp.
I got the chance to really scrutinize my blog, solve some problems, plan amazing things and add some things that I’ve really wanted to add. Like push notifications that you can subscribe to. So that you are notified every time I publish a post. Which you might really want to do because things are about to take a positively drastic turn from here.
Everything Is Getting an Upgrade
The blog is going to undergo some great changes by 2023 that I think you’ll appreciate as much as I do. But so far here’s what has changed or been revamped already.
For Actually Writing
Push notifications and this series, Writing This Week are two new things that have recently been added to the blog.
As I publish posts, I love seeing them rank on google and seeing that people from different parts of the world spend time reading them. But there is a gap between me and my readers that I have been meaning to close a little bit closer. With push notifications, you and I are one step closer. and with Writing This Week, the series, you are two steps closer into my journey towards being a successful writer.
Now, you can subscribe to the blog so that you and I can keep up through push notifications. And you can come back each week for another post about how writing this Writing This Week went.
So you see that faint bell on the bottom left side of the screen? Click it and subscribe to receive notifications from me.
For By Christa the Newsletter
I’ve been blogging for a year but have only been running my newsletter for a few months and I’m still trying to find my footing. So the revamp of the newsletter included
- Logo updates
- Image updating
- layout updating
- Content building
- And of course more stories,
Some of these changes you can already see, and others not yet.
There is a lot happening for the newsletter and much to be released this season, so this revamp was very much enjoyed and appreciated.
The first part of S.S. #2 has just been published, and the first part of the Writing It will be published in the next weeks then my serialized novel will begin its rounds of publishing very very soon.
Now that I think about it, this revamping is happening a little close to the New Year. Totally an accident, but great nonetheless. I’m not going to fight it. So with the New Year getting closer and closer, I am happy that things will be changing for the better.
Into the Literary World
I haven’t read many articles this week or dove into the literary world much. But I have been finishing up this Agatha Christie story. I’m a little late to discovering great classics, but here I am.
So I went to Barnes and Noble a month or two ago and was looking for a really good mystery book. I stumbled on a thick book, whose pages were gold lined, had a gold string bookmark sewn into it, and good leather for covers. And I judged the book by its cover and picked it up. After doing quick research on the book and reading the first few pages I bought it. I found out later that it was a collection of Agatha Christie stories.
So far I finished the story titled And Then There Were None.
It was a great story and It Got Me Thinking
I have to be honest, that story has risen to my list of top 10 stories. I see why Agatha Christie is very often mentioned as one of the greatest authors and fiction writers. Not only was it well-written but the story was really good. And I thought I was good at figuring out mysteries, but I was genuinely clueless until the very end. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t read it. But that story is definitely a good read.
One of the most memorable aspects of that story was the characters. The characters were actually the inspiration for the next series of short stories I’m publishing in the newsletter ( S.S. #2, 3, & 4)
There were many characters in that book, and each of them was very distinct ( some of the kind of people I’ve met and know). Anyway, I learned a great deal about dialogue from that book and it really raised my reading and writing standards.
Work and Workflow
This week’s work was great but a lot. I mean whew.
I had a lot to get done for the blog and newsletter. Good work but a lot of work. I had blog posts to write, publish, and plan for. And getting my push notifications turned out to be a bigger challenge than I expected. So that took a bit of time. I also, happily, had to get my stories developed for my newsletter.
This will be the third time I’m mentioning S.S. #2, but I’ll continue because I think it’s going to be that good. The first S.S. #1 I published wasn’t that great. In fact that ‘failure’ will be the first thing, I write about for Writing It, because learning from my mistakes is good. So with this next short story (slash flash fiction or whatever) not only is it going great so far but I’m so ready to redeem myself from the last story.
Work Flow
Being that I had a lot of different things to get done, I took a little bit of time for each by alternating tasks. An hour or a day for the blog. And then another hour or day for the newsletter or for school. This week there was no real plan or strategy other than getting the work done.
Where is my Career?
I think I am at a pivotal height in my career that I want to make last for as much as I can. It’s not the kind of height where I’m making a comfortable amount of income or where my writing is really refined. But one that will definitely help propel me toward my goals.
When I first started the blog, I had many ideas about what I wanted to do, what I wanted to write, how I wanted to scale, and where I wanted to take Actually Writing, the blog. But honestly, I just wanted to write. I didn’t really know what I was doing. And what I wanted to do.
But after a year of writing, experimenting, failing, and posting inconsistently, I think I’m finally beginning to understand what I want to do, and where I want to go with this.
That’s the pivotal point I’m in, understanding this writing journey I’m on, and getting a clearer picture of where I want to go.
And while yes, I am still working on building stories, I think I am beginning to understand my career enough to plan actionable steps that I know I want to go after. Which you’ll get a glimpse of very soon. So make sure you’re subscribed to notifications to know when.
Don’t just be a good writer, be a great one
Until my next words (on here that is)
Christa
