Tag: blogging

The story remains

Please indulge me in a moment of nostalgia today. It’s a very special anniversary.

Eleven years ago today, I started writing Woven. After years of feeling stuck in my writing. Years of starting projects but never finishing. Years of shrugging and saying I was a writer, but never really writing. I took expensive bread from a coffee shop that isn’t there anymore to a park that still is. I fed the birds and prayed for a book idea that wouldn’t die before its first real breath.

A spell is just a prayer with extra steps. I believe this was the most successful spell I’ve ever cast.

Eleven years have passed. I have moved homes three times. (And am getting ready to move again, God help me.) The walls and roof that surround me have changed. The desk at which I sit, sipping copious cups of coffee and tea, has changed. I’ve written at a desk older than me, painted over countless times. I’ve written at coffee shops, laundromats, doctor’s offices, libraries and day jobs. I’ve written at a desk my husband made for me by hand. It’s actually the first piece of furniture I’ve ever owned that wasn’t second-hand, and that’s where I’m still writing right now.

The story has remained.

I’ve changed jobs then job titles. I’ve changed my last name.

My family has changed. It shrank, but then swelled again. I lost people I never thought I’d lose. Never thought I could survive losing.

I’ve found new people. A new family, a new place in the world to need others and be needed in.

The story has remained.

I’ve written other stories. Some published, some not. Some tucked away for ‘someday’. Every one of them owes their existence to Woven. Because if it wasn’t for the story about a boy who weaves visions and a girl who spins light, I never would have had the courage or knowledge to write anything else.

I stepped out of my twenties and into my thirties. Soon, I’ll move into my forties. My hair has started to show silver. My back hurts in fun new places.

And yet, this story remains.

I became a horror critic. Then the site folded. Woven was bought by a publisher and then dropped. I republished it. Then I published it wide, a thing I wouldn’t have been able to do if the publisher hadn’t dropped us.

The story, through it all, remains.

We’ve lived through a pandemic and at least two recessions. At least some of us have. We’ve seen wars start and start. And start. We’ve seen three presidents. Well, two presidents and one threat to our country.

The story, though, remains.

And at this point, I feel like I’m ending a long journey. With Falling From Grace going wide this Friday, I’ve done almost everything I can do with it until I can afford to make it an audiobook. (I’m working on it.) Unless I write another book in the same world, the story of Woven is at its inevitable end.

Except, of course, that there are new readers in the world every day. New people looking for new stories. And I don’t think that’s likely to change anytime soon.

So this story will remain. I’ll write others. I’ll share others. And we’ll all keep right on changing.

I am so glad you’re here to share the journey with me.

Falling From Grace is going wide on Friday!

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Looks like we made it

As I write this, I’m sitting in my home office. It is sun-drenched, messy, and smells of the cinnamon wax melt I have burning on the windowsill. As I write this, we are creeping closer to the relaunch of my first fantasy series, Woven. I’m writing the last book of the Station 86 series. I’m on a path to joining SFWA.

As I write this, I’m so much farther than I ever thought I would get. A professional author and critic. A blogger. A happy woman.

There are many dark and terrible things in this world, and indeed in my own life. It is never perfect and will likely never be. But what life ever is? It’s hard to think of these things when I feel so blessed today.

I have a beautiful, fulfilling, joyful writing career. I have people who show up to read what I write. I have put art out into the world and it has been well received.

I want to keep this short today because I feel like I’m repeating myself. But I do want to thank you all, again, for being here. I’ll keep showing up if you’ll keep reading. And yes, I have lots planned for the rest of the year.

And, God willing, many years to come.

See you soon.

Today is the last day of our Paper Beats World giveaway week. And today, I’m giving away a free copy of Broken Patterns before it’s even published! Just like this post and leave a comment to enter.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

Broken Patterns is available now for preorder! You can order it now on Amazon.

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10 things I’ve learned about blogging in 10 years

I’ve been writing Paper Beats World for ten years now. And it’s impossible to do anything for ten years without getting better at it. At least, I hope so. I’m always learning new things, trying new styles and doing what I can to make Paper Beats World a fun place to be on the internet.

So, today I want to share with you the top ten things I’ve learned about blogging after doing it for ten years. If you have your own blog, or you’re thinking of starting one, I hope some of this advice helps you.

People like hearing about how you screwed up

I messed up a book launch and wrote about it. That post got so many likes and views. My publisher dropped me, and my site traffic went up.

Posts where I talk about what’s going right don’t do have as well as the posts about when I’ve truly stepped in it. I don’t love that, but here we are.

I tell you this not to suggest you write a blog full of doom and tragedy. Rather, I want to encourage you to share your setbacks along with your wins. Instagram might be a highlight reel of your life, but your blog shouldn’t be.

The posts you don’t expect to do well take off

I try my best with every post. But of course, some come out better than others. Some I’m just more proud of, and some do better traffic-wise.

Those two things don’t always match up. They usually don’t. Posts like my series about using tarot for storytelling, which I spent so much time researching and writing, do fine. But posts about writing dark poetry, which I enjoyed writing but didn’t think anyone was going to care about, become literally the most popular post on the site of all time.

There is no telling what’s going to go viral and what’s going to end up forgotten. So you might as well just put out what you want to put out and hope for the best.

You never know what is going to be a huge drive for your blog

Do you know what I do that brings the most people to Paper Beats World? I post about them on Pinterest. That draws more traffic than anything else. It upped my traffic so much that the year I started doing it, I doubled my views from the year before.

While I don’t believe in using social media I don’t like just because it will get traffic (There’s a reason I’m not on Facebook or Twitter) I do think you should try some things out. You might like the site more than you think at first. And you might find an audience ready and eager for what you have to offer.

Quality over quantity

When Paper Beats World started, I was writing three posts a week. It was exhausting. When I stopped, I had more time to focus on what I was posting. And my views went up. Because rather than blasting out posts, I was carefully putting out good work. Or, at least better work. One good post is always better than three meh ones.

Every time I change the style of the site, views take a hit

Occasionally I like to change up the style of the site. Use a different theme, change the font. And every time I do it, numbers drop. I’m not sure why, but the math maths.

Maybe it’s because people inherently dislike change. Maybe because the site looks different they can’t find their way around. Or maybe I make too many changes too fast and regular visitors find it unrecognizable. And I wish I could ask, but I assume the people who leave don’t come back. If you’re someone who left the site for a while after a style change but is back now, please let me know why in the comments. I am genuinely curious.

Don’t judge your numbers by last month, but last year

When I look at my stats for the month, I will sometimes be depressed if one month isn’t as good as the one before. But of course, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. People are spending more time online during certain parts of the year. When it’s nicer out, people want to touch grass, not their laptops.

My outlook got a lot better when I started comparing my numbers each month to that same month the year before. It also gave me a better sense of trends over time.

Pictures matter so much

I didn’t care much about my pictures when I started the site. I was writing, after all, not doing visual art. But when I wanted to post my work on social media, a graphic was needed. And it improved the overall feel of my site dramatically when I started taking that seriously. Rather than just throwing any old thing up if it kind of made sense.

Now I use a structured type of image, to convey the feeling of the post while still looking somewhat uniform. I hope most of you can spot one of my posts in your feed at once, based on the ripped paper title.

SEO makes no damn sense, but it works

I hate SEO. I hate it with every fiber of my being. I hate that if I use a header at the beginning of a new paragraph instead of just bolding it, more people find the page.

While some things about SEO make sense, some do not. Adding graphics helps your SEO. Writing longer posts. Linking to other sites. All of those things make your site more attractive to search engines. I wish I didn’t have to take any of that into consideration, but I do. And it’s, damn it, helped the traffic.

Every post is a new challenge, no matter how many you’ve written

You would think, after writing over a thousand posts for Paper Beats World, I’d have this down. But every time I sit down to write a blog post, it feels like I’ve never written one before.

When you think about it, though, this makes sense. No matter how many books I write, every one feels like the first. Every short story, every poem. Every time I commit words to the page, it feels like I have never done this before. It further feels like I cannot possibly do it again. Whatever muse I had has left me alone, and I am a dry old sock of a writer now with nothing clever to say.

Of course, that isn’t true. But it never gets less intimidating, the blank page. It never gets easier, you just get stronger.

Content has no expiration date

The most popular post so far this year is Three Creepy Podcasts I’ve Been Loving. I wrote that in September of 2019. That is a pre-covid post, and it has more popularity than anything I’ve written so far this year.

I should probably write an updated version of that.

The point is that you shouldn’t feel down if you write a post and it doesn’t get a lot of traction right away. There’s every chance that it’ll spark and go viral later.

Words are not milk to go bad. Words are not rocks to be washed away by the sea. Words are the sea, changing and returning over and over again. We still tell the story of Beowulf. We still read Shakespeare. We still read Rosemary’s Baby. It should be no surprise that blog posts written years ago will still get some attention.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments the best lessons you’ve learned about blogging. And don’t forget, everyone who likes this post and leaves a comment will be entered into today’s giveaway. Today, I’m giving away a copy of my Preptober Planner. I’ll announce the winner in tomorrow’s post.

Best of luck, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

Broken Patterns is available now for preorder! You can order it now on Amazon.

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Seven years of blogging. Let’s level up together

It’s been seven long years since I started writing this little blog. And I started preparing to write this post by reading all of my other anniversary posts. 

Every year in the past I’ve been surprised that I’ve kept writing. But after seven years, I think I’ll go ahead and keep writing. I’ve proven to myself that I can do hard things.

What continues to surprise me, and what I’m still deeply grateful for, is that you’re still reading. That there are still people who want to follow along this journey with me. Who want to learn, or at least be entertained by me.

I am humbled by this every single day. 

Seven years ago, the realization that people were reading things I wrote inspired me to keep writing. Now, you’ve inspired me to level up.

I want to be a better writer. I want to write better. Those might sound like the same thing, but they’re not. Let me break it down a little. 

To be a better writer means to be more disciplined. To practice more. To treat my art like art and my business like business. To spend less time on Instagram and more on writing practices. 

To write better is to produce better stories. To learn my craft inside and out. To understand language, word choice, grammar, and world-building in ways that I don’t now.

How exactly I’m going to do this is still in the planning stage. But I’m doing what anyone does to get better at anything. Learning and practicing.

I’m taking all of the writing classes on Masterclass. I’m re-reading books about writing that inspire me, like Wild Mind and On Writing. I’m reading Writer’s Digest from cover to cover. I’m listening to writing podcasts like Writing Excuses and Ditch Diggers. That’s the learning part.

I’m freewriting and doing daily exercises. I’m creating a dedicated Writer’s Notebook. I’m thinking more about word choice. I’m thinking about why stories work and why they don’t. I’m making lists. That’s the practice part. 

This is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I love focusing on the words. It’s the hardest goal I’ve ever made. There’s no damned ruler to measure my progress. 

I can enter contests, and I do. I can track how many people follow me here. I can track how much of my content sells. But those are all measurements that are dependent on the opinions of others. And that’s arbitrary. I can never control other people’s opinions. I can only write good stories. Which is, again, arbitrary. 

What constitutes a good story? I don’t know, but I know when I read one. So I’m on a mission to know. To understand. 

I don’t think I’ll have a set of rules that will tell me if my stories are getting better. But I do think that if I keep at it, I’ll have a better understanding. And I think I’ll enjoy my work more.

So let’s make a deal. Let’s, each of us, commit to leveling up our art over the next 365 days. It doesn’t have to be writing.

I’ll post blog posts that will hopefully teach you something. I’ll also post more short stories, so you can decide for yourself how I’m doing. And you commit to doing one thing every week to improve your art, whatever that means to you. 

Let’s meet back here in a year and see how we’re doing. 

If you want to support Paper Beats World, you can do so on Ko-fi.

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Check This Out, Mail Chimp

When you start selling your books and other products, you’re going to need a mailing list.  I started one last month, called the Road to Full Time.  I’m really glad I started one.

  • It allows me to talk at length about my actual step by step process to becoming a full time writer.
  • People who sign up for newsletters are actively saying, “I like what you have to say, and I would like to see more than you post on your site.”  That feels good.
  • When my books start coming out, I’ll be able to let the people who like me most hear about them, and offer specials.
  • It’s one of the most cost efficient ways to advertise.  Remember, you have to do all of your advertising when you’re a self published author.

The trouble is, I have very little time, and not a lot of money to spend. So, I started using MailChimp for my newsletter.

If you want to sign up for my newsletter, click here.

If you don’t want to sign up for my newsletter, click there anyway to see how easy MailChimp works.  Seriously, I just copied some code and attached it to that text.  It takes no time.

As for creating the newsletters, it is also easy.  That was really important to me.  I have worked for a lot of newspapers and newsletters for different organizations I’ve belonged to over the years.  You know what the worse thing about those were?  Page layout.  It sucks a lot.  MailChimp is by far the easiest program I’ve used for it.  Which is nice because I don’t want to be worrying about page layout.  I want to be worried about the content.

This is one of those things that you set up, and forget about it until you’re ready to make a new newsletter.  Images are easy to upload, and you can write articles right on the template, same as on WordPress.

So this week, check out MailChimp.  And let me know if you make your own newsletter.  I’m excited to see them.

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Market- Write Naked

I am a huge fan of writers supporting writers. Write Naked is a great example of this. It’s a writing blog that pays for great guest posts. And I mean well. Also, it’s another WordPress site, so you’ve got to love that. If you want to write for other writers, you’ve got to try this site.

Genre- Non fiction, about writing.

Word count- 450 to 650 words.

Payout- $50, but she will occasionally pay $200 for work she considers truly great.

Wait time- Generally a few weeks. She’s a busy girl.

No deadline to speak of.

As always, don’t forget to check the full submission guidelines here.

Any luck with this market, or any others that you want to share? Did you finish a draft, or anything else you want to brag about? Let me know, and I’ll put it up on the monthly brag board, on the last day of each month.

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