Unfortunately, I was supposed to be on vacation this week. The plan was to go home to Utah for a few days and come back on Sunday. A few things came up that put the breaks on my much-needed time off, namely the fact that it would have tapped both of my credit cards completely out.
Sometimes, these things happen. Instead, I'm taking the kids to Meow Wolf today, which should be a lot of fun. I've never been but heard nothing but good things.
In any case, some of the wind was sucked out of my sails this week. However, I'm still rowing forward across calm waters at the moment.
Working on Writing Sprints for YouTube
I've decided to give writing sprints a try on YouTube. As I pointed out before, it's not going to add anything more to my day as I am simply using the block of time I set aside for writing my book anyway. Regardless if anyone watches, I'm still writing my book. The only difference is that now, I'll be doing it live on the YouTube channel.
I'm working on the video stuff this weekend, such as background sounds and whatnot. I want them to be a bit more unique to some of the ones I've seen on YouTube. Most of all, I don't like the absolute silence. I can't normally write to songs, but I don't have a problem with background ambient sounds, such as thunderstorms, oceans, or rainforests. As I pay for an account to Epidemic Sound every month, I'm sure I could put together something awesome.
I also plan on showing a timer as well as the goal screen from the Reedsy writing app. That way, you can see how much I write as we work on our books together.
The writing sprints will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 am Mountain Time. I don't think I'll start next week, but I'll write a post before actually committing to a start date.
I was thinking about doing them every day as I write my book Monday through Friday. However, my blocks of time change on the days I go to the gym, and figured it would be too chaotic throughout the week for others to follow along. But we'll see. If these have a decent turnout, I might just run them every day and just change when I go to the gym.
As I said, it's not adding anything more to my schedule. I'm just hitting the "Go Live" button when I write my book.
Cameras for YouTube Are Spendy
I spent a good chunk of Thursday looking at new cameras for the YouTube channel. I'm hoping that improving the video quality will help with audience retention. Well, that and the fact that I've always wanted a decent camera, especially if I decide to start doing skits on Creative Sanctuary's YouTube channel. Or, perhaps I can do a few of the many parodies I've made up over the years.
In any case, the camera I want is close to $800, not including the lenses and gear. And if I want to take a vacation at the end of June, which is the tentative plan, it's just outside of my current budget.
For now, I suppose I'll just keep using the Aluratek webcam. It's not terrible, but there is a huge difference in quality between what I publish and what so many other vloggers create. I made a few adjustments recently and hope it helps improve the quality. I suppose we'll have to see next week.
Still Don't Know What to Do with TikTok
I've had my TikTok account for a couple of weeks now and really haven't done anything with it. I did, however, start looking at what other authors do for the BookTok hashtag and such. So, I guess I just need to jump in and publish something.
Maybe I'm just putting too much thought into the process. Could I be needlessly stressing myself out over something simple? I've done that more times than I can count, to be perfectly honest. Still, there are quite a few hangups I have about using TikTok and feel like I am pimping myself out under a streetlight.
The idea was to use TikTok as more of a fan-based platform as opposed to the YouTube channel. WriterSanctuary focuses on helping other writers find their path. I wanted something specifically for people who just like my work. So, while there might be a bit of cross-over, they still have unique purposes to one another.
Anyway, if I remember, I'll spend some time farting around with it this weekend. It's not like TikTok will be gone tomorrow before I publish anything...
Getting Into Shorts for Crossing Colorado
One thing that I started doing about a week and a half ago was uploading daily updates to Crossing Colorado's YouTube channel in the form of Shorts. These are less than 60-second videos just quickly going over my day from the perspective of health and fitness. It's merely a way to keep myself accountable to the few people who watch the podcasts on Tuesday while documenting my weight loss journey.
It's getting to a point where it's habitual now. I feel weird if it gets too late in the evening and I haven't made an update Short.
Perhaps that's what I need to do with WriterSanctuary's channel and the TikTok account. Just start with stupid simple and work my way up. Maybe make the videos for an audience of five - for those who are interested in my progress anyway.
Keeping it Balanced
Things are progressing nicely so far. I'm hoping the momentum continues and nothing decides to rain on my parade. For the first time in years, I've had a chaotic-free month...as I violently knock on wood.
Keeping everything afloat is a balancing act. But as I've demonstrated before, I can live with it.
I can live with it.
Let's see what happens next week.