Birth of a new experiment
New for me, anyway
Time to try something new. Daily blogging. Ok, that’s not new at all, even for me. Over the years I have indulged in a couple of spates of daily blogging, one as part of the highly motivating “100 Naked Words” publication.
It’s time for me to have another go at it, though, with a bit of a twist. Even though I have been resisting the idea, it seems inevitable that I really need to start building a mailing list of people who are vaguely interested in keeping up to speed with what I’m doing.
I think Shaunta Grimes and Zach J. Payne of Ninja Writers may have had something to do with convincing me to succumb. Thank you! They don’t know me yet, but I stumbled across their daily newsletter (yes, daily!) and I realised the power of that daily contact. And that can’t be done without a mailing list.
I am happy to say that I have been growing as a writer over the past couple of years. I have experimented with various forms: poetry, poetic prose, and, more recently, short fiction (again).
I’ve also been encouragingly prolific so far this year, creating around twenty short stories in a similar number of weeks. (You hear that noise? That’s me tooting my own horn.)
I didn’t really plan it. I simply got the bug and had an outlet in the form of various publications here on Medium. A special mention to Stephen M. Tomic for sharing some of my stories on The Junction.
So, what now? Well, I’m planning to continue with the short stories. I love the format. My sweet spot tends to be around 400–600 words. I may try to write a couple of longer pieces. In fact, let’s set that as a concrete goal shall we? A lack of specificity is the enemy of accomplishment. Two short stories over 1000 words each completed within the next 30 days? Ok, let’s go with that.
Here are how the goals stack up:
Goal #1
Daily blogging on Medium for the next 30 days (up to June 12th).
Goal #2
Setup a mailing list and start adding a subscribe form to my blog posts
Goal #3
Write two short stories over 1000 words each before the end of June 12th
I actually have some other goals I’d like to set but I need to keep my goals attainable. One step at a time.
I’m considering putting a few of my stories together into short thematic collections which I may or may not publish on Amazon or https://www.instafreebie.com.
I’d also like to conquer my fear of doing things related to my writing in the “real world” and turn up at a local writing group one of these days.
And I’ve had the idea of printing some of my short prose or poetry onto cards or bookmarks for a long time. I’d then air drop these on the local community by begging store owners to let me stuff them into unsold books as secret goodies, leaving them strewn across coffee shop tables, etc…
But, like I said, one step at a time bucko!
Hey look, already started on goal #2…
