Dear writers and readers,

What a year it’s been! Through busyness, goals that didn’t pan out, weeks where I just couldn’t write, and the biggest change this blog has ever had, I want to thank you—you, specifically, reading this—for being with me through it all. Even more, I want to thank those rare few who have been here for almost four years when I first started this blog with no clue what I was doing. Your encouragement and patience along the way has meant the world to me!

I have some news to share. At first, I thought of it as bad news, but I’ve come to see it differently. In fact, I think it’s good news, and I’ll explain why! So that I don’t leave you waiting impatiently until the end (I hate it when people do that!), I’ll tell you what’s going on and then give the explanation for those who are curious.

I’m taking a break from The Story Canvas blog. This might seem like it’s coming out of nowhere, but I’ve been considering it for a little while now. Honestly though, the moment I had the idea, I knew it was the right thing to do. There were several factors at play in this decision, but the biggest had to do with my goals.

I’ve been working a lot on my goals recently, and in the past couple of months, I’ve felt my focus massively shift to self-publishing. Not only have several unexpected opportunities come my way in the form of others’ investments, discounted writing/publishing software, and new publishing resources, but the motivation to write my stories has increased drastically. The issue is that it takes 7-10 hours a week to maintain this blog, and once I add that on top of work, it leaves virtually no time for writing my books. I’ve been able to snatch an hour or two here and there, but one night, as I was sleepily trying to polish off a story, I had a thought: Why do I treat this like my last priority?

In working on my goals, one thing I was reminded of was my original vision for my writing career. Actually, this was one of the very first career dreams I had as a kid: to live off the income from my books. I can’t do that if I don’t publish my books, though. Book writing is my number one priority in my career, but I haven’t been treating it like that.

When I realised this, I knew things had to shift. I thought about simply posting less on the blog to save time, but that’s where other factors come into play. The first is credibility. While I know I have an in-depth knowledge of storytelling, I’ve recognised that it’s difficult to establish credibility with an audience when I haven’t yet published a successful book as proof that what I’m saying works. I might know that I know what I’m talking about, but how do you know?

The next factor is about WordPress in general. I’m not convinced it’s the best place to build an audience, as writers seem to be finding more success with the alternatives. My goal all along with this blog was not to build a following, but a community of writers that cares about telling stories that matter. WordPress doesn’t seem suited to that, as it doesn’t promote meaningful engagement. I also find it overly complicated when it comes to posting. And for reading, the algorithm is terrible. I had a hard time finding posts to reblog because I just couldn’t find relevant posts to read, no matter how many different ways I tried to find them. So not only is that a problem for me when I want to read, but I imagine writers are having a difficult time finding this blog through WordPress, too.

So, I made the difficult decision to put the blog on hiatus as I focus on publishing and try to figure out the best permanent home for The Story Canvas. When will I be back? I’m not sure. It could be a few months, a year, or more. I know better than to try to predict the twists and turns life will take. All I know is that I will be back. I love teaching about writing! It’s not something I want to abandon, but rather something I want to save for later once I’ve accomplished my number one goal of publishing my books well.

And it’s not like I’m leaving the internet altogether. If you’re still looking to read my stories and writing tips, I’ll still be active in a few different places!

• Frabjous Day Press: This is the website for my publishing imprint! You’ll find my flash fiction and short stories that I write as warmups while creating books. If you love good stories and want to follow my publishing journey and books, this is the site for you! It’s still new so it needs all the love it can get!
• Medium: As a platform tailored to writers, Medium is much simpler, more intuitive, and better at promoting meaningful engagement than WordPress. In addition to my 365 Days of Stories series, where I post writing lessons learned from daily life, I might occasionally post articles similar to what you’d find on The Story Canvas blog.
• Amazon: If you follow my author page on Amazon, you can keep up with my published books! Now that I have the tools and time to work on my books and publish them professionally, you should see a lot more popping up here over the next year or so.

I hope that The Story Canvas blog has helped you in some way and that you’ve enjoyed being here. I also hope to see you when I return! In the meantime, please find me on another site so we can keep talking all things storytelling.

Additionally, my freelancing services are still open! If you need feedback, editing, or 1:1 help writing your book, I’d love to partner with you. I’ve worked with over 50 clients to make their publishing dreams come true!

Once more, thank you all, and I hope to see you soon.

Happy writing!
—E.J.

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash