This week is easily shaping up to be one of my better weeks of 2024. Remember when I said last week was going great? Well, this one surpassed it by quite a bit - both for time invested and word count. These are essentially the two metrics that run my day-to-day operations. Balancing blogs, books, clients, and videos requires a great deal of distraction-free effort.
It's nice when chaos takes a bit of a break. Let's hope it's a long vacation.
Nothing On the TikTok Account Yet
So, I created my TikTok author account but haven't really done anything with it yet. Mostly because I'm not exactly sure what to post and was on the fence about spending time making videos if the US government is just going to ban it.
I spent a little time looking at other author creators, trying to get an idea of what to post. I'm just not a big fan of social media of any kind. I'd rather spend my time doing something constructive and never really understood the allure that Facebook, Twitter, or even Threads have on the populace. From what I've seen, it's mostly memes nowadays anyway.
Still, a lot of people won't take you seriously as a professional unless you cultivate a social following. That means spending time coming up with ideas for yet another video platform. At least the production value doesn't need to be what I put into YouTube.
Back On a Consistent Blogging Schedule
I finally got WriterSanctaury.com on a routine schedule again. This was after spending about five hours last weekend fixing up some performance issues. And I still haven't figured out why Google decimated half of my traffic. It has something to do with Google Discover and the blog not being shown on mobile devices.
After this week, I should be able to get the other blogs on a schedule of one post per week. The plan is to dump more time into WriterSanctuary.com until it hits 10,000 visits per month. Then, I'll work on getting the next blog up to that point...and so on and so forth.
It's nice to regularly blog again. I am a writer, and I love to write regardless of the topic.
Live Writing Sprints?
I've been toying with the idea of adding live writing sprints to the YouTube channel. At first, I was debating on doing them once per week on a Saturday or Sunday. Then I thought, "Why not do them when I'm supposed to be writing my book anyway?"
The current tentative plan is to use my 2-hour blocks of time for writing my book at the same time as the writing sprints. That way, I'm not adding anything extra to my week. That's a good thing considering that I already have quite a full plate.
I have a few ideas to make these live writing sprints a bit unique. This includes ideas for background sound effects, as I think it's a bit boring without something going on while typing, and music is too much of a distraction for me. I was thinking more along the lines of rainstorms, running rivers, ocean waves, and the like...something more natural.
Even if no one watches, at least I'm still writing my book. So, overall, it's not a net negative for my time. I'm still writing the book regardless of whether anyone is there or not.
New Video Series Coming Soon
Speaking of YouTube, I have a new series idea for the foreseeable future. I'm recording every aspect of publishing Shadows from writing the first draft to selling the first copy. I kind of created something like this in the past when I published A Freelancer's Tale, but I don't think I really did the topic justice.
Plus, I really need to re-organize my playlists on the channel. It's getting a bit hectic.
Anyway, the series is all about everything I'm doing to publish this next book from start to finish, including any costs or issues that I come across. It'll be kind of like a publishing journal that I hope will help people avoid the same mistakes I'll make or perhaps help someone along with their own writing journey.
Besides, it'll help me keep track of what did and didn't work when it comes time to publish Fury, the second book in the Witcham series.
Keeping the Momentum Going
It's been a nice couple of weeks as the chaos has waned a bit. I've been getting a lot of things back on track and have kept the momentum of growth. Now, I just need to keep up the trend and make sure everything gets taken care of before something happens. And according to the past five years, that can be at any moment.
In any case, it's been a great couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to what happens next.