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May 2019 Musings – Regrouping, Investigating, Boosting, Setting & Reviving
I’m excited to participate in A Chronic Voice’s link up for the first time! Link up parties are a fun way for bloggers to connect and write about similar themes, and this one is geared towards those of us in the chronic illness community. I’ve never had a chance to participate in one before, so I’ve been eager to give it a try. Let me know what you think of this style of post in the comments.
The themes for this month are Regrouping, Investigating, Boosting, Setting and Reviving.
It was a nice change to have guidelines “assigned” for writing a blog post. (I think Andy Warhol was onto something about having a “boss on retainer.” Having the framework for a post given to me felt a little more structured—like having a boss vs. winging it on my own.)
So, using A Chronic Voice’s five writing prompts for this month as a jumping off point, here’s what has been going on with me lately.
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Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging And Why You Should Blog Before You’re “Ready”
As promised in my round up about my first year blogging, I’m sharing tips I wish I had known from the beginning of my blogging journey. Be assured, this post isn’t to dissuade you from starting your blog. In fact, I think you should start a blog before you’re “ready,” and I’ll explain why.
On my Facebook page, I asked if anyone had questions about my first year blogging. One of the questions was: “What was your reason for starting a blog?” Answering this question is the perfect background for why I think you should start blogging before you’re totally sure what you’re doing.
One of the topics I blog about is dealing with chronic illnesses. I have several, and they’ve become progressively worse the last several years. The first one to get diagnosed was thyroid cancer. These illnesses have threatened to squash my dreams of being a published author. I think the first time I said I wanted to write books, I was in kindergarten (and then I promptly wrote a book for a friend and a play that my friend and I acted out while my dad taped us on the camcorder.) It’s been one of my dreams ever since.
Despite becoming more sick, I was (and am) determined to keep writing. As you might have guessed, it’s kind of hard to finish writing a book when you struggle just to function during the day! And while I’ve published a handful of poems, I’ve not yet gotten a book out into the world. I started to feel frustrated. Even when I pushed myself to write, my words just stayed stuck on my computer. I felt like I wasn’t accomplishing anything. No one was reading a single word I wrote, unless it was a kind friend or family member offering to look over a story.
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My One-Year Blogiversary—Highlights From The Year
Wow, it’s already been one year since I could start calling myself a blogger! Today is my blogiversary.
I think it’s important to celebrate blogging “firsts” and milestones. I had some trepidation starting this journey due to my chronic illnesses, and I wasn’t sure how much blogging I would be able to do.
I’m not gonna lie—it’s been quite a challenge to keep up, but I’ve enjoyed it so much. I’ve especially loved the connections I’ve made blogging. It’s wonderful when someone lets me know—in a comment, or in person—that they struggle with the same health problem and didn’t realize anyone else understood, that they love that book too, or that they were encouraged by something I wrote.
Blogging, for me, has been a beautiful reminder of how we can use our words to positively impact others, in spite of any challenges or limitations we may be facing.
I’ll be sharing tips in an upcoming post about what I learned over the last year. If you have questions you’d like me to answer in the post, leave them in the comments! I’ll try to answer them all.
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Brain Fog Broke My Internal Editor
Fibromyalgia has impacted my ability as a writer, and I’m just starting to understand all the ways it has. I’ve been trying to express it for awhile, with the irony being that it takes way more effort now for me to express anything. Brain fog has made it extremely hard for me to objectively edit my work. It’s like the editing part of my brain is broken.
Blogging has been much harder than I thought it would be, for reasons I didn’t expect. I knew energy to write was going to be a challenge, in addition to fighting through brain fog to express myself. But I wasn’t expecting to have so much trouble evaluating the quality of my work.
I was given a great piece of advice
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Listen To The Winning Song From Our Contest! + Behind The Scenes Creating The Song
A little while ago, fellow blogger Melissa Miles and I held a contest for a chance to win a custom song if you subscribed to both our blogs. I am so excited to announce that the song is done and you can listen to it here!
I’ll also share the story that inspired the song and my thoughts on the collaborative process working with a musician as a lyricist for the first time. (Hint: It was awesome!)
Without further ado, here’s the song, This Love For Swing. I wrote the lyrics, and Melissa wrote the music and recorded the instruments and vocals.
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Song Contest Winner
The results are in! Congratulations to Diana Calvillo, winner of the custom song contest!
Stay tuned for the winning song.
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Win A Customized Song – Subscribe To Enter!
I’ve teamed up with my friend Melissa Miles, a composer and fellow blogger, to offer a contest just for our subscribers. The winner will receive a custom song made specifically for you!
I’ll be using my love of writing poetry to craft the lyrics, and Melissa will use her talent for composing to make a recording for you!
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How to Set Writing Goals for the Year
I hope this list inspires you to set writing goals of your own for this year. I’m reviewing the writing goals I set in 2017 to help me choose my writing goals for 2018.
Last year was the first time I set concrete writing goals for myself. I divided the list into 7 yearly goals and 4 monthly goals. The monthly goals are the stepping stones that make the yearly goals achievable.
I chose goals that were clear and measurable (for instance, “edit two poems,” vs. the more vague “write more poetry”).
How did setting goals help me? Being able to keep track of what I accomplished encouraged me to keep going. Also, since I deal with daily exhaustion and brain fog, it helped to have a concise list to refer to. Instead of spending time and energy trying to decide where to start or what to work on next, I pulled out my list, picked a to-do, and did my best. I saw a lot of progress as I reviewed my goals each month, and I hope you do to.
