I’m still learning. And hopefully, you are, too.

I’ve been running this blog since early 2020, but I’m learning new things about content writing, running a website, and blogging all the time. Hopefully, I’m still able to provide relevant content even after 500+ posts!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with post length and scheduled posting times. After reading some excellent articles on blogging, I decided to deviate a bit to see if anything worked better. After all, I just sort of guessed at these aspects when I started!

But it turns out I was right the first time. Less people saw my blog posts when I changed tactics, so I’ve gone back to the old style. . . with a bit of a twist.

Welcome to the First Weekly Roundup!

Starting today, every Friday will now be a weekly roundup that not only provides handy links to posts you may have missed here over the week, but also my posts on other sites as well as any writing conferences, workshops, and important other writing things happening over the weekend. The roundup is a bit more streamlined today, since I’m including more blog posts than I normally would, but the above is what you can expect in future! This way, I hope you can stay up to date with what’s happening on the blog and in the writing world at large.

Post Roundup

Since my posts have been a little scattered during my experimentation over the past few weeks, here’s what you might have missed:

Get a Headstart on 2024!

2023 is nearing its end, which means it’s time to start crafting writing goals for next year! Read this in-depth post to find out how to not only make your goals but implement and stick with them, too.

Read Indie and Learn about Settings

Check out this post to find out about Reedsy Discovery, a place where you can read indie books for free and write book reviews. You’ll get a glimpse of what it’s like by reading my review of Dragon Thirst: Legends and diving into one of its best qualities.

A New Way to Record Ideas

In this post, I talked about how audio recordings can streamline your writing process and help you record your ideas more authentically. It’s a game changer!

Beat Writer’s Block for Good

If you need to read just one of these posts, it’s this one! This detailed post goes through several new
“remedies” for writer’s block you probably haven’t heard of and shows you how they work. Even if you’re not currently struggling with writer’s block, we all do at some point! This will give you the weapons you need to defend yourself.

Writing Wisdom from. . . Where??

In this post, take a look at Romantic literature (as in, the Romantic time period, not “romantic” like romance!) and how so many important writing lessons can be gleaned from the authors of this period. Even if you’ve never heard of Romantic literature before, this post gives you a quick crash course!

The Elephant in the Room: AI

Get my opinion on AI in writing, how to use it effecitvely, how not to use it, and how it’s helped me make my writing process more efficient.

Worldbuilding Like Tolkien

There’s no doubt that Tolkien was a master at creating believable fantasy worlds. In this post, learn just how he did it and how you can do the same with your books—no matter what genre you write.

Dialogue: Much More Important than You Think

A couple days ago, we learned why dialogue is so important and how we can use it to effectively advance the plot, theme, and characters in our story. Don’t miss out on this small but crucial element for storytelling!

Globe Soup Writing Competition

This weekend, Globe Soup is hosting a free 48-hour flash fiction story competition! The theme will be sent Saturday morning (as in, tomorrow!!) and you have to submit your story by Monday morning. For the genre, Globe Soup is bringing back their genre pairs from earlier this year, and you get to pick which pair from a list of six! These pairs include genres such as “Urban + Fairy Tale” and “Regency + Thriller.”

You don’t have to officially enter this competition; all you need to do is be subscribed to Globe Soup’s emails, which you can do by clicking on the link to their website above, scrolling all the way to the bottom of their homepage, and submitting your email. The competition might also show up in their listed writing competitions on the site once it begins, but I’m not completely sure.

Let me know if you plan on writing for the competition! I already have all of Saturday set aside to work on it. 🙂

Have a Great Weekend!

I hope that you’re able to find just what you need from this roundup. Remember, if you like a post you’ve read, be sure to like and comment so I know which topics you want to see more of!

Thanks for sticking with me for over three years, through experimentation and all! See you next week!

Happy writing!
—E.J.

P.S. Don’t forget about the Globe Soup competition!

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Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash