A Writer's Retrospective: February 2021
December's hope and January's enthusiasm are gone—do you still want to do this?
Photo by Jorge Caetano on Unsplash
February is the worst month of the year. December's hope and January's enthusiasm have faded, offering only bitter cold and disappointment to many—particularly the ill-motivated and ill-prepared. For the rest of us, it's time to reflect on our recent behavior as it pertains to our interim and long-term goals. Regardless of how close you are to your desired state of being and doing, there is value in the retrospective—as long as it is paired with a change in direction (where appropriate).
Value Alignment
The first and most important question to answer: do I want to keep doing this?
Now that some of the sheen has worn off the enterprise, I can confidently say, “absolutely.” My emotional attachments to my primary writing project are still strong. I'm currently writing short stories related to the novel I have begun planning. That novel is my main bucket list project. More than that, it’s also a personal challenge. The project is fun because it pays subtle tribute to my favorite stories and games.
Last Month's Action Items
In January, after the thrill of pursuing my resolutions wore off, I was left with a few action items meant to help me grow in different areas of my writing.
Find a book that complements my interests.
I'm enjoying the introspection that occurs throughout The Legend of Drizzt. The internal conflict is somewhat simplistic compared to Speaker for the Dead, but it’s entertaining enough. It’d be more realistic if there was slightly less doubt and more grey morality in the main character.
Finish developing a writing calendar.
This serves as an outline of my tasks for the week and the time I need to allocate to each of them.
Unfortunately, I don't do the tasks when they're scheduled, so I frequently end up working under duress. I'd it things would be different if I actually got up when the calendar says I'm supposed to, but I'm pretty useless in the morning.
Publish two Medium articles this month. (Not syndicated from my author website.)
I published three articles: two originals and one syndicated from my author website.
I could probably push more than this, but I currently don't because Squarespace doesn't enable users to specify canonical references, which could cause search engine ranking penalties for duplicate content. Once I move to WordPress, I'll have more than enough content to syndicate for a while.
Use more trial-and-error in my social media approach.
I've had a dozen or more tweets go unanswered, but perhaps they simply didn't reach the right people.
I get engagement almost daily from Twitter and Instagram. It's usually only one or two likes/retweets, but that's infinitely better than nothing. I've found success in getting engagement on Twitter by engaging other writers. I've never asked questions to the Twitter writing community directly, but it might be worth a shot.
My Facebook page has virtually no engagement. I don't know if I need to try using Facebook ads, but I'd rather not invest money until I've maximized my reach with the free options I have. Whatever the case, there's more to using Facebook than is obvious to me.
I started using Tumblr again. Since I’ve hit my platform limit with the free version of Buffer, I’m using IFTTT to copy my posts to Tumblr. Twitter’s link shortener is butchering the embedded link display, so I’ll have to try copying from Facebook instead.
Reading
I decided to finish reading Sojourn in spite of the misgivings I developed around it last year. Thankfully, it got more interesting. What I don't know (and need to find out in the coming months): how are contemporary adult fantasy novels written and paced? Not only will this be relevant for choosing new books to read, but it will also be essential for my writing own fiction to current market standards.
In addition to this, I started reading short stories by Ray Bradbury. The first one, The Night, helped shift my understanding of the short story form rather dramatically. Though I once read Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, I didn't properly assimilate the differences between the short stories and novel(la)s then.
I think I'll be able to structure a short story more effectively now. This doesn't mean that I'll discard my existing stories or their format—I'll just write additional stories that leverage my improved understanding. Juggling multiple projects might be better for my creative process.
In terms of non-fiction, I've decided to make “read-and-respond” my new default approach for processing articles I find helpful or entertaining. It isn't drastically different from taking notes whenever I read reference books or writing fiction—just a more formal take.
This also eases the process of generating content for my weekly newsletter, The Writer's Round-up. Relating recently-encountered tips and expert opinions on writing fiction, writing articles, and marketing myself forces me to address all of those topics each week. That way no aspect of my brand will be drastically underdeveloped. I hope the tips are also helpful to readers.
Writing
In some regards, I fell off the fiction writing wagon. I managed to squeeze out the first draft of my third story, Lunar Eclipse. I didn't edit it much, nor have I sent it for alpha reading. With some additional effort and focus, I can recover the time I spent not working on this. More importantly, I need to address the friction in sitting down to write.
My use of timers helped significantly in getting the writing done, but there is still resistance to the process. Lacking flow in my writing process is the likeliest culprit. Though I have learned to be less precious about my non-fiction writing, there is still much room for improvement in the corresponding fiction efforts.
Other aspects of my writing are going well. I began participating in a critique group this month, which is already yielding benefits. Even though I'm writing a “short” story—whereas the three other writers work on novels—I can already see how much my writing needs to improve before it becomes comparable to theirs.
This is a natural consequence of being an inexperienced writer, so I'm not upset by the disparity. It helps that (1) these are not my first alpha readers and (2) they were encouraging about the concept behind my story. I was shy about giving feedback at first. By giving myself permission to do my job and minding my phrasing, I was able to get over it. I actually made some comments that were well-appreciated.
Blogging
I'm slowly developing an appreciation for writing with less inhibition. It's really important to just let the words flow and edit later where possible. I can't imagine a world in which I don't edit egregious errors out when I see them, but I am somewhat more comfortable with writing a bad first draft than I was a month ago.
For this, I thank the numerous articles discussing that and the related topic of not editing your work to death. Per an article I read (can’t find the source)—and I'm paraphrasing here: leave some grit in your writing. (That's where the soul is, or so I've gathered from such articles.)
I've observed some truth in that maxim: On Rehashing Evergreen Topics was written in a relatively short period of time and it got accepted by the Writing Cooperative with no friction. That might be a consequence of having written for them several times now.
That aside, overthinking the article would have done it a disservice. I have sinned against my previous works in this way with less success. Henceforth, I will focus on editing more minimally—checking only for redundancy, clarity, and flow. Diction is probably not as important as I once thought it was.
One thing that can still use a lot of improvement—the storytelling. My blog posts lack a good hook and sag in the middle—these retrospectives chief among them—which does nothing for my readership. I’m not sure how to remedy this—maybe practice will do it.
Marketing
My use of social media has improved noticeably in the past month. Twitter hashtags such as #writerslift have proven valuable. I have more followers, per my original goal. That goal has been proven fairly superficial; now I'm seeking engagement. And I have it, albeit in small amounts. The key to getting it is to give it! (Aigner Loren Wilson demonstrates that here.)
In less auspicious news, I discovered that my mailing list subscriber count is well below the number of people that have made form submissions, according to SquareSpace metrics. In light of this, I removed the native “newsletter” elements and placed aesthetically modified versions of the Mailchimp forms in their place. This will serve me well when it’s time to switch platforms.
I opted for a Mailchimp form because I want to reduce the friction of signing up; removing the second opt-in step does exactly that. I also added groups to the sign-up form, so that subscribers can express their interests and receive information accordingly.
Through a bit of lightweight investigation in Discord, I discovered that many people are not interested in newsletters. I should be able to remedy this by providing an appropriate lure and better content. My blog currently targets new writers, so an eBook might serve as an effective lure with which to expand my audience.
I've also considered extending my reach to Pinterest, which seems to be thriving despite my preemptive conclusion that Instagram would put it to rest. That might be too much right now, so I'll have to redouble my fiction writing efforts before I pursue this further.
Something New
Since I'm writing, it would make sense to ply the skill for monetary gain, would it not? To this end, I decided to pursue a few freelance gigs. The incentive: money to spend on new writing and marketing tools.
For example: I'd like to use a tool like Buffer for more than the three platforms permitted on a free account. I don't know what I stand to gain from expanding beyond Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but I would like to find out without spending unseemly amounts on the enterprise. Freelance gigs would at least pay for my domain, website, and some R&D.
Achievement Summary
2 original articles published in the Writing Cooperative.
Added topic segmentation to my mailing list.
Outlined 2 eBook concepts for promoting my work.
Survived my first round of group critique.
Read a short story and several chapters of fiction.
Action Items
Update my writing calendar.
Pitch an article to at least 3 publications.
Find out how to adjust my Facebook approach.
Continue developing promotional materials for my mailing list.
Draft 1 short story unrelated to my current project.
Start reading a contemporary adult fantasy novel.
Start outlining my novel.