A Week in Writing #129

Much better week for writing. Even though there was rain, the commute wasn't as bad as it was the week before, which gave me a little more time to write. Of course, it's what you make of that time that counts.

I'm taking a Writer's Digest course in blogging, which is about trying to grow this blog's audience. While I'm thankful for the 20 or so who read this every week, I would like to perhaps expand it a little.

The course has gotten me to think about what kind of blog I'm writing. It's not really a how-to or advice kind of blog. I really did begin this as a way of keeping myself honest about what I'm doing. Not that there's not some advice sprinkled in, here and there, that hasn't really been the focus 129 posts in. I'm not really looking for sympathy either, but perhaps understanding.

I would like this to be a blog where I can talk freely about what I'm working on. For the most part, it has been about three things: Powers Squared, Trophy Unlocked and whatever book I'm working or trying to work on in addition. Perhaps, if you're like me and writing is your avocation, you might find by reading this blog that you're not alone and you might see what I'm doing and learn from my example; I don't pretend to have the answers.

Powers Squared, our comic book, is still coming along. The colorist is working at about four pages a week on Issue #1 and the artist is more or less doing the same on Issue #3. I know what you're thinking about Issue #2. It's not getting any love at the moment, but that'll change in a few weeks. I'm never sure how much to talk about it here, as far as getting into details. Our work on it comes in spurts depending on the deliverables. Then we have to find the time to sit and review and send our comments back.

I was hoping to have a meeting in the upcoming week with a creator of a comic book who has "made it." He was offering to give me some advice, but for whatever reason, we haven't been able to finalize a time. For the most part, I'm a slave to his schedule, though I want us to meet close where I work. Who thought logistics would play such a part in writing?

A milestone of sorts for Trophy Unlocked as this past week we passed the 200,000 pageview mark. While many blogs pass that much quicker, it is still something I'm proud of. It shows that we've stuck with it over the years. Adding to that total, by a whopping 17 pageviews so far, is my review of Beauty and the Beast (1991) which I published on Saturday morning. February is Animation month on Trophy Unlocked and there will be more in the coming weeks.

One of the things I do to help drive pageviews is to tweet on anniversary dates for titles we've reviewed or ones that fall on special occasions. Today I made the embarrassing discovery that I had tweeted about three titles a day early. Not a big deal, but I was about to post tweets for the same titles this morning. As I was writing the first one I had a strong sense of deja vu and looked to see I had already tweeted about them.

Began in earnest my rewrite of Familiar Stranger. I was trying to channel my editor and decided I needed to start the story further along. Still not sure if I've found that right spot yet, but feeling a little better to actually be writing again. However, I failed to make my thousand words a day goal by about 6,000 words give or take, but I'm getting there.