Hello!
After last time's looooong post, this one is going to be pretty short and straightforward.
Why am I doing this? What are the goals of this blog?
First and foremost, the idea excited me and gave me energy. As 2024 is my year of "joy" (the word I chose for the beginning of this year), I'm following that feeling and seeing what happens.1
Secondly, as I'm heading into this huge relaunch effort, I thought it might be fun to journal my progress. I do need to watch the time suck as I have a very limited amount of time available for my business-side activities in general, and I can't do this if it pushes back the actual launch of my books, at least in a significant way.2
But I thought it would be cool to look back and see how far I've come, in a year or three from now.
Thirdly, one of my basic goals in life is to leave the world a better place than I found it, even if that's only by the littlest, tiniest bit.3
So, if one aspiring author stumbles across this blog and finds it useful, great!
Or if one reader finds this interesting and it amuses them for any period of time, also great!
Lastly, I have zero plans to monetize this. I'm not ruling that out for the future. (Who knows what the future holds?) But for now I'm focusing on my fiction.
Plus, at some point it's nice to create something just because you want to, not because you think it will make money for you at some point.
And that's it. That's why I'm doing this.
Honestly, I have no idea how long I'll do this, but I know it's giving me energy right now, and I have lots of ideas for what to write about, and so I'm leaning into it and seeing what happens without making a plan (so un-Enneagram-Type-1 for me!).4
Happy reading as always,
Betsy
P.S. This also means that this blog will likely be updated sporadically. Or at least I have no plans to force myself to write something for it no matter what at some predetermined frequency. That goes against the rules of most content marketing (they all say "pick a frequency and stick to it!"), but hey, I'm not trying to sell something here. I'm doing something for the sheer joy of doing it. So, I'll do what I want, thank you very much.
P.P.S. Is the above those stubbornness and "I don't need your advice" personality traits I mentioned last time coming out? It might be... 😂
------
The epic list of side notes and digressions:
- As an Enneagram Type 1, my growth type is 7, those ultimate joy-seekers. At least that's how I understand both things, not being an expert in Enneagrams or anything. So, that was also why I chose that word for my 2024.
- Yes, time is finite so ultimately anything I do that isn't specifically on the launch pushes it back, blah blah blah. But I want to also have fun doing this whole indie author thing and not just be 100% focused on direct results. Your mileage may vary and all that.
- And in fact, early on in my writing career when I would be like "why on earth did I give up my successful biomedical engineering career to labor in obscurity for no pay?", I would think of Eminem's (from "The Monster" on album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records, 2013): "But if one kid out of a hundred million; Who are going through a struggle feels it and relates, that's great." And it would remind me of my mission.
- I mean, I do have a plan for the next 5-ish posts, so clearly not not-a-plan, lol.