Today you’re getting a peek into my blogging/writing life! Big thanks to Kenji for nominating me for the Tour through Blogland. (If you’re wondering why I didn’t capitalize through, check out my capitalization rules!)
1. What am I working on?
I have a whole bunch of stuff in the works! Starting tomorrow, I’m posting my gift guides. I’m trying to focus on specific types of people to make them more helpful and to keep them from being just another gift guide. Like I said, first one starts tomorrow!
I’m also working on some holiday guides for people with chronic illness. These will focus on traveling, food, setting limits, etc. I’m hoping that my past experience will help you have a better holiday season!
I’ve also been in the very slow process of redoing and relaunching my writing website. I first made it back in 2012 when I published Aureole, but I have a whole bunch of new writing projects in the works, so I want to give the site a facelift. Speaking of which, I have at least 2 books that I’m working on right now, so be on the lookout for information about those! Writing-wise, I’m also doing some freelance writing and editing. Shameless plug: if you want to use either of those services, email me! As we approach the end of the semester, I know that there are a lot of people finishing big important papers for school. I’ll help you with them for the price of coffee.
2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?
Essentially, I have a unique perspective. Obviously all lifestyle bloggers (and people) do, but mine is especially different from being “just another 20-something lifestyle blogger.” There are 2 reasons for this: my health and my writing background.
If you’ve been around here for even just a few posts, you probably know that I have rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, and I also have knee issues – oh, you know, just my cartilage tearing apart from my kneecap – from the arthritis. But since I’ve been in pain since the fall of 2001, I have the experience of someone who has been to hell and back and who conquered through it all. I don’t just know the best and worst ways to get through the holidays with chronic illness; I also know the power that words have to help people and how to best use them to make a difference. I use this to write posts about what to say and not say to someone who was diagnosed with arthritis, as well as to advocate for arthritis patients and their rights.
Speaking of words, they have been my friend for my entire life. Like I said, I have an extensive writing background, especially in that I write novels. But more than that, I studied it at college, but not just as one of my majors. See, I also majored in secondary education and taught high school English last year. As a part of my training to be an English teacher, I took a class on all the grammar rules. This is why I’m able to write grammar tutorials and why I do freelance editing.
This background in writing and grammar as well as my health history combine to make my blog and my writing different from all others.
3. Why do I write/create what I do?
Like I said, I have always been a writer. It is a part of me and has been for as long as I can remember. Blogging gets me writing pretty much every day – also, writing regularly makes your writing better overall – and serves as a great creative outlet.
I also try and use what makes me special and unique to help others with my writing. That’s why I write posts about the realities of arthritis and how you can help people with arthritis and what it means to be an advocate.
4. How does my writing/creating process work?
For each month, I plan the topic for each day I’m going to post (4 times a week generally). Then, the week of or the week or two before, I start a draft with the actual topic that I’m going to write about. I’ll put some notes in the draft about what I want to write about or things I need to remember to include. If it’s a post about something that would be good to use SEO, I make some notes on words or phrases to include.
The day or two before it goes live, I’ll sit down and type it all out. I usually rewrite certain elements or the entire post at least once, and 99% of the time I preview the post to check for types or notes to myself that I forgot about. I also put [IMAGE] where I want to include, well, images. Sometimes I forget to make them or to just upload them – which is one of the last steps of making a post – which is why I always proofread it to make sure I didn’t forget. 99.9% of the time, I write and schedule these posts ahead of time. So at the very end, I go ahead and use Hootsuite to schedule promotions.
In general, I make a to-do list for every day. I either make it the night before or the morning of, and I use Evernote. I used to make to-do lists on paper, but I was going through so much paper, so I switched to Evernote. I also make notes of SEO for the coming week on there.
Well there you have it! I’m very particular and like things to go a certain way, as you can probably tell, and of course that means I need to basically write an essay to answer these questions. Whatever! (insert sassy hair flip emoji here)
I nominate:
Rebecca from Life with rME
Cassie from Sage the Blog
Becca from Becoming Addorable
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
I really need to start using Evernote. I use SO much paper!