so what happens next – The Internet of Words

Those of you paying attention will notice that the website looks a bit different to the way it did on Wednesday. I’m quite pleased not only with the layout, but that it also allows room for expansion and addition going forward. Now, it is time to fill it with suitable content.

#Blogmas is planned and (as I’ll be out tomorrow at the first of two Christmas dinners in the next two weeks) the first post will appear by the wonder of scheduling sometime tomorrow (probably about 5-ish as that’s a good time to maximise traffic.) All the other bits of my December plan are well into production, which includes a vital couple of hours editing a novel so it is complete and to my satisfaction.

I can do this all leading up to Christmas, right?

A large majority of content can be knocked off beforehand, which means Sunday will be a bit hectic, but it will be worthwhile for the free time that will then be produced. After that? Just gotta remember to sleep and not scoff all my Advent Calendar Chocolates at once, that’s eminently doable. There’s even the possibility of some unscheduled poetry seeing the light of day: there’s a couple of pieces from rejected submissions earlier in the year that can be spruced up and shoved out again for a second try…

Oh, and that reminds me, I have one more placeholder to stick on Twitter before I start writing my personal blog… the first dozen haiku are written. Now it is time to pick the backgrounds and get started with artwork…

It is only now becoming apparent how much has changed around these parts in the last year. Some of it has been dictated by circumstance, other bits are a consequence of hard work and application. 2018 is the year I learnt to love poetry, a format that was previously pretty much ignored. It begs the question of what 2019 will be about, and that some thought ought to be placed as to the broadening of horizons.

There’s already half a plan to do some video blogging. The new phone camera’s going to get some use. I still harbour a desire to do the whole Fanzine thing that Arguto was set up for… and the list goes on. Obviously there’s been the discussion over self-publishing, and then comes the possibility that if I can get more than one of my failed fiction projects both finished and edited, that it could be sent to publishers.

The biggest problem, right now, is finishing those projects. Having abandoned this year’s NaNo because there simply is no time, finding the opportunity to edit and write long form is something that needs to be addressed, and so the problem’s being approached in the exact same fashion as my various issues with exercise. There’s a planner on the wall, I have a deadline, and it’s being worked towards in a methodical fashion.

Once the current project is finished, we’ll go onto the next thing.

That’s the most significant advance of all: getting items completed to a standard that is acceptable, sending them away, and then watching them come back. Rejection is not nearly as painful as has been anticipated, as the year has gone on. Each piece sent away was complete, finished, to a standard I was happy with, and as they return they will be ‘polished’ again before being sent out to different places.

Poetry as a short form provides the revelation of confidence in content. Not completing NaNo this year is the acceptance of too much long form work left unfinished. It is a slow, measured grasp of my ability as a writer, and what needs to change in the next twelve months to allow all forms of work the correct environments to thrive and survive. There is a way forward, that will now provide a new approach to writing and working.

This is an extremely exciting time ahead.