State of The Blog

by

Construction Ahead! – 2016/2017

Alright, here we are!

First, before we begin, I just want to thank all of the people who have been reading the Friday Fictioneers works that I’ve been putting out for nearly the last year. With the world becoming busy, my time for creating actual short fiction stories had reduced to a trickle. The last part of 2015 was one of the toughest times in my life, because I was in a foreign country without much hope of finding a job while going to university. I had to give up on that part of my dream, and I moved back to Korea, but I still had to deal with a lot of pain. The first 6 months of 2016 were hard on me, and writing became a bit of a chore.

But things started breaking during the summer.

Off-blog, I am currently working on a 6-10 thousand word story for publication. The inspiration for it is key, but I have been having motivational issues. The good thing is that right now, it’s the perfect time for me to get working on it. And so, I am about 2500 words in. Also, I have finished the outline of a movie script that I plan to get to after this story is completed. So, off-blog, there’s a lot of stuff going on.

On blog, there will be a few things that I am going to be doing:

First, I will be doing a redesign of the blog to add an element of awesomeness to it. I am planning to work with a friend of mine to create a website that will be more aesthetically pleasing to myself and more reverent of the craft that I am working on mastering. Plus, green and a picture of Crater Lake has been the logo for a long time. I’m going to try something different.

Second, I will be starting to utilize my other blog, the blog with my name on it, as the platform for my more Christian-oriented writing, as well as music reviews. This is not because I don’t think that the writing I do doesn’t deserve to be on Music and Fiction, but because I want to make the Warrior Series more compact and in a place where people who may not wish to read Friday Fictioneers can read it.

Third, I am going to be spending more time on responding to comments. Now, this sounds a lot like something a blogger should be doing everyday. That’s true. The problem I’ve had is that in my lethargy, I haven’t been putting time aside to do so. In fact, this is part of a reason for a semi-overhaul of my blog: To allow me to give and receive feedback in greater numbers. People deserve it, and I need to do better.

Last, I am going to be working on an idea to re-write some of my older stories and update them. Make them longer, expand the storylines, add more musical content, and really focus on getting things back to life.

Now you’re probably wondering: What’s the reason for all of this? It’s simple: I spend too much time just surfing the web and not being creative. It was the words of my pastor, Marcus Corpening at New Philadelphia Church in the Itaewon area of Seoul, that helped redirect my thoughts. If you’re going to be the master of something, you need to spend more time with it and develop it to its logical end. That takes years. Many years. I’ve been doing this since 2013. I’ve logged in over 200 entries (with a good number of them being fictioneers posts), and I think it’s time to take things up a notch.

So, keep watching this space for more updates on the blog. And thanks for sticking with me.

 

by

“Music And Fiction” State Of The Blog 2015

Hey folks. It’s Miles here! I have decided to give an update to everyone who reads my blog and is a constant watcher of all things “musically fictitious”.

I don’t plan to get long winded about things, but some updates need to be done so that people have the ability to see what all is happening.

Most of you have seen this blog increase from a small little production to something a slight bit larger. The folks from Friday Fictioneers come by whenever there’s a fictioneers post up and running, and others stop by as supporters of the blog. This is incredible, and is the first step to great things.

However, this blog can be and will become more. As most of you know, I have recently turned my Twitter account back on, and you can find me posting there sometimes. Also, I have a Facebook “page” of my own, which anyone can come to and like without worry.

The goal of these things, among others, is to get my blog wired up enough so that I can take it full bore after my time in Korea is finished.

As far as regular updates on the blog, with new material, most of it will be put forth as normal. The biggest problem I have at this time is that my job gets in the way of my writing. One big reason why people did not see an update from me since the last Fictioneers post in February, it was due to the fact that the beginning of the school year happened here in Korea. With the changes in my class schedules and having to plan and re-plan for all the different things that needed to get done, I didn’t get much time to do my writing as my mind was busy with preparing things. Now that I have a lay of the land with my classes for what I assume will be the next 3 months, I should not have to worry.

Here’s what the future is going to hold:

1) Increased posting to at least twice a week by August, including fictioneers. Maybe another group will be joined, depending.

2) More communication through Facebook and Twitter, with more time spent in network with authors, writers, and other folks around the world.

3) Re-issuance of archived/older stories on my Facebook Author’s page. Potentially also done over Twitter as well.

4) Hopefully a more consistent schedule will bring in more consistent readers. And more music.

As it stands, I have very high hopes coming down the pike for this blog and other projects. The biggest issue I am going to be facing in the next few months is time, specifically bouncing between my current job and applying for visas and other stuff. Once I finish my job here in late may, and get set up in Australia in July, I should have a lot more time to spend on really making this great WordPress blog shine.

There will be more Music and Fiction to go around in the next 12 months. Be ready for some action! G’night for now,  and here’s one of my favorite Smooth Jazz artists to allow you to think and create. Enjoy Peter White!