An Announcement Rather Than a Newsletter This Week
Talking about a slight change of programming.
Hello, and happy Veterans Day AKA Remembrance Day AKA Armistice Day.
Normally, this is the part where I say “Let’s talk about writing.” Today, I want to talk about… blogging, newsletters, whatever you want to call it. This place.
It’s been a little over a year since I first decided to step onto Substack, after a few years of puttering around on what is now the companion blog of this place, Liegois Media. I have to admit, I had not really much of an idea on how this place was going to work. I certainly didn’t know all of the ins and outs of the platform, and I spent a long summer staring at the Substack FAQ and help pages trying to game out every possible scenario and the best way to publish what I’ve been doing on Substack. Eventually, however, I realized I could just wait forever for perfection or jump right in to the rough draft. So, I decided on the latter course of action.
Hello To Substack.
I would have to say that I am a late bloomer as a writer, despite the fact that writing has been a part of my personal and professional life for at least 30 years. I was a journalist for well over a decade, but I never really made it as a big celebrity, even a regional celebrity in a state that becomes the center of the American political universe every…
In a later post, I decided to lay out my mission statement, as modest as it was for this blog, as so:
A Belated Proper Welcome to my Subscribers
I knew that when I started this Substack/newsletter/blog, that I would likely screw something up in the process. I have been learning about the Substack platform on the fly. One of the things that I knew about was that all subscribers to my blog get…
I have begged and pleaded for the students I have taught for the past several years to understand when it comes to writing, there is no such thing as “getting it right the first time.” This is something slightly traumatic for these students, considering getting it right the first time is the goal of pretty much most every other form of academic activity they have to accomplish. However, the first draft of anything you write is never going to be anything than the least you can accomplish, because it is always in the rewriting and editing process where you as a writer truly craft your work. Most kids want to get the words on the paper or electronic page and call it good1. This, however, doesn’t lead to effective writing.
I’ve had to come to the conclusion being a blogger is something akin to publishing the rough draft of your work and then revising and editing it in front of a live audience, especially since nobody knows how to do this when they get started. That’s a bit unnerving for me when it comes down to it, because I’d like to think I’ve got my ego in check enough to be willing to listen to criticism over what I do and react to it, I usually don’t have to revise and edit my work for a live audience. In a sense, however, this is what happens when you are an online blogger.
So, I’ve decided it is time for a bit of revising, in the open, so to speak.
For the past several months, I’ve been posting a weekly newsletter entitled A Week in the Writing Life. I’ve used this weekly post to update readers on what I have been working on, upcoming projects, writing problems I’ve struggled with, as well as some writing advice, some shout-outs, and other odds and ends. It’s been fun, and I’ve enjoyed putting them together.
However, I’ve noticed these posts becoming a bit… repetitive, I think. Even though I want to post weekly, I have the feeling just doing the newletter every week is too much. On the other hand, I still want to be posting regularly, even on a weekly basis, and I want to do it on a consistent schedule as well.
Consider this to be the second draft of The Writing Life With Jason Liegois.
This will be my schedule for the forseeable future, which I will begin next week. It might take a bit to get used to, but I’m going to try and lay it out here.
The Schedule for the Blog:
On the first and third weekend of the month2, I will be doing the “regular” newsletter - that is, the newsletter I’ve entitled A Week in the Writing Life, which I just broadly described above. To reflect its now bi-monthly appearance, I will titles those posts simply The Writing Life, [Instert date here]. These will be more or less similar to the newsletter I’ve been producing for the past several months. My hope is with it coming on a bi-monthly rather than a weekly basis, I’ll be able to take more time on it and have more material when the time comes to publish it.
On the second weekend of the month, I’ll be publishing what I’m tentatively going to call my Writing Grab Bag3. It might be pretty much anything I decide - maybe some rough draft excerpts from some fiction works-in progress, maybe a special essay or two on a particular writing topic. Heck, maybe I decide to restart this series entitled A Writer’s Biography, where I take a look back at my life from childhood to nowadays to see how my life experiences shaped me as a person an as a writer. It’ll be interesting to see what I can put together on a regular basis.
I’m really leaning toward making the fourth weekend of the month be my monthly Poetry Night in the Writing Life. That’s where I put out some of my older or newer poetry for your interest. As I want to put together a collection of my poetry in the near future and perhaps submit them for publication, I’m hoping this might kick my butt into gear and produce more of it. I’m interested in experimenting with the art form.
And if there happens to be a fifth weekend of the month, well… maybe I put together a third newsletter for the week. Maybe you’ll read another sneak peak at some fiction excerpts or poetry I’m working on. Or maybe I decide to take the entire weekend off. Don’t worry though - if that happens, I’ll give you fair warning on Substack Notes or whatever.
As for the rest of the blog, I recently set all of my stories to go into the archives after about six months. I’m not sure whether that might tempt a few more people to pay subscribe to me, but we’ll see. If I do stick with this plan, I’m more likely to release the vast majority of my posts for free at first. I’ll take a look and see if I see any changes. So for now, you might want to catch a few examples of my original fiction before they get archived in the next couple months. I think they’re good reads.
"Into the Cave"
Call this a new experiment. A week ago I wrote about a new possibility for a fiction series about professional wrestling. It’s not like I don’t have enough to do during my summer break, promoting my newest book (The Yank Striker), trying to write the sequel to said book, and continuing to come up with new and interesting stuff to read here. But it’s like…
A Brief History of Donford Football Club
Worldbuilding, as I have mentioned previously here, is never an easy process. It’s not likely that you have the entire world your fiction will reside totally sketched out before you begin writing. It’s usually in the revision part of your writing process - or, if you are writing a series, maybe not until you get the first one or few books under your bel…
So once again, the writing process continues here at The Writing Life With Jason Liegois. It may take me more than a few drafts to get this right, but I’m cool with it. I can be patient when it comes to revisions.
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Understandably, especially if they don’t like to do it for fun as I do (lol).
I have to say I’m not sure I can 100 percent guarantee I can deliver an article an a particular day rather than two different days.
Of course, this second weekend of this month will be dedicated to this piece.