Jaclyn Paul's Blog, page 4

At least two weird analogies about drafting and early revision

I’m currently writing a series of essays for The ADHD Homestead. They’ve provided a case in point for why I stopped numbering these series in advance.

I may have thought I knew how many posts this would turn out to be, but Post #1 has already become three posts. So that’s how that’s going.

The other day, I sat down to rewrite the conclusion to (what was then) Post #1. I really got in the zone and did what I considered my best writing yet on the piece.

Unfortunately my “conclusion” weigh...

Writing retreat: August 2021

In my previous post about writing retreats, I talked about what they mean to me, how they support my writing process, and how that’s changed over the years.

Now I’ll share some nuts and bolts about my August retreat with my best friend in Maine. I want to post this kind of thing more often for anyone considering a similar getaway (or just interested in living vicariously — whatever floats your boat).

While I’ve attended several writing conferences, I’ve never done an official retreat. I’ve...

Reflecting on writing retreats, and how their meaning has changed over the years

I like to share about my writing retreats on here (hopefully to inspire others!), and I just discovered my notes on our August retreat buried in the Notes app. Oops! In the spirit of better late than never, I’ll share a bit about the retreat itself in a separate post, and reflections on what writing retreats are actually for right here.

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Back when I started doing these retreats s...

A few thoughts on a false start

I’m pretty sure most authors share the fear of, what if pub day comes and no one — like literally no one — buys this book?

This hasn’t happened to me with a book launch, but it sortakinda happened with my recent workshop launch. I postponed both sessions of my fall Order from Chaos workshop due to low enrollment.

These things can feel like a worst-case scenario or the end of the line, but any so-called failure is what you make it. The most successful creators learn from it and keep creatin...

My editing process: blog post opening

I occasionally share tidbits of my writing process with my Patreon crew, but today’s share felt like a blog post. So here we are! I’m going to show a little window into my blogging process.

Many of my posts here are casual and off-the-cuff. Not so with my ADHD Homestead blog. Every ADHD Homestead post goes through some version of my full writing process, which usually looks like this:

Outline (for new non-fiction drafts; I generally don’t outline fiction before I start)First draft (compute...

Late-pandemic thoughts: please talk to me about work

Friends, it’s been a minute. I make no excuses. 2021 is the year I stop pretending this space is anything other than a more professional, less coming-of-age-angst-y incarnation of my early-2000s LiveJournal.

Blogs felt so different then. They allowed us to step into the writer’s mind and process life through their lens. Terms like SEO, monetization, and content had no connection to blogging.

Not that I ever intended to monetize this blog. Still, there’s this sense, even with an informal bl...

An office switcheroo to help salvage pandemic productivity

I haven’t posted at all since the pandemic began. Like most of us, I have complicated feelings about many things. However, I’ll jump back in with something lighter: how I’ve adapted my physical workspace to our new life.

I used to have exclusive domain over my home office. This didn’t always feel like a blessing, as the office often got messier than the rest of the house. I tended to it last because it was “my room.” Common spaces took priority. But at the end of the day I alone worked there,...

Join me tonight for a virtual reading and discussion with The Ivy Bookshop!

Tonight I’ll be hosting, along with The Ivy Bookshop, a reading and discussion about my book Order from Chaos. I have a post for the event already on The ADHD Homestead, so I’ll direct y’all there to avoid duplication. Click on the image below for all the details!

The post Join me tonight for a virtual reading and discussion with The Ivy Bookshop! appeared first on Jaclyn L. Paul.

My newly ad-free online platform, almost five months in

You can get ad revenue from a viral blog post, but that money means nothing tomorrow. It doesn’t predict who will return to your site, sign up for your email list, or buy your next book. All it tells you is you wrote one good headline. #authorplatformClick To Tweet

I took my online platform ad-free almost five months ago to align my revenue streams more closely with my mission. My dislike for ads made them ineffective anyway. Between the number of ad categories I blocked and how I shoved them...

2020 goals (I should set them even if I forget them 😏)

A couple weeks ago I wrote about setting goals as an indie. We lack external accountability to set goals at all, let alone make them happen. This can leave us feeling hopeful at the beginning of the year and downtrodden at the end. I’ve been to this rodeo enough times to feel this keenly during New Year’s resolution season.

On the bright side, indies can ditch useless metrics. We don’t need to check boxes to demonstrate someone else’s idea of progress. Last year I met most of my goals without mu...