5000 Views on my Blog? 2000 Blog Posts? How Did I Do That?

Yesterday, WordPress announced to me that my blog has had over 5000 views. That seems like a really big number. Then again, I’m a little over a week away from my 2000th post. I don’t feel like I have written two thousand posts. (Note: I believe this number counts the blog posts I transferred over from Blogger when I first moved here.)

How did I do this? A little at a time, without thinking of the number at the end. I didn’t think “Oh, I only have 256 more posts to write before I hit 1000!” I just wrote daily, and they all added up. I think the same happens when I write a novel. I don’t set out to write 80,000 words. I write the story until I’m done, and then count the words.

I’m sure this is a metaphor for life. Don’t count the steps; just go where you need to and check your progress later. This contradicts everything I know about resource management, however. Numerical goals (like 2000 blog posts or 80,000 words or 10,000 steps) are easy to track, far better than “when it’s done”. The goal has to be set so that one can tell whether they’re on track or not. But they’re tedious.

When there’s a great distance to the goal, the numbers can be daunting. This is where time management advice for procrastinators comes into play: Break the task up into smaller chunks. So the 2000 blog posts can be 20 chunks of 100 posts. That’s more manageable. Or the 80,000 words can be several chapters of 3000 words (which is the length of a chapter in my writing).

So there’s my advice. Don’t let the big numbers scare you — focus on the little numbers. Keep repeating. And then, eventually, they add up to 80,000 or 5000 or 10,000.

NaNoWriMo and Generative AI

The controversy in the writing world currently is that the NaNoWriMo organization has issued a statement not only supporting use of generative AI in its events, but dismissing opposing viewpoints as ‘ableist’ and ‘classist’.

To understand the impact of this, let me start with NaNoWriMo. This organization sponsors a world-wide writing festival every November which encourages people to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Admittedly, 50k is somewhat short for today’s expectations of a novel, but it’s 50k more than most people feel they can write. In 2020, 383,064 people participated in NaNoWriMo, the latest statistic available (Wikiwrimo, 2024). For full disclosure, I have participated in NaNoWriMo for several years.

The issue with generative AI is more complicated. Not all AI is generative AI; that is, not all AI is used to generate or create content. The fear of writers is that generative AI creates content, and it creates it from the materials it’s been trained on, which are existing works. This goes beyond analyzing patterns in grammar use and spelling (which I would argue are acceptable) into creative aspects. In other words, training generative AI is mass plagiarism of ideas without crediting sources. An entity like NaNoWriMo supporting mass plagiarism of ideas seems antithetical to its principles.

In addition, artists and writers fear being replaced by the much cheaper generative AI. The quality of generative AI is not as good as the actual creations of human beings; but if generative AI takes over in commercial outlets, the public will become inured to lower quality. The loss of revenue to real live writers will become the loss of creativity to the wider world.

To address NaNoWriMo’s charge that opposing their approval of generative AI is classist and ableist, it is classist and ableist to assume that people with disabilities or of underrepresented social classes would need to use generative AI to compete in the marketplace of ideas. I suspect that the issue here is a lack of distinction between AI used to proofread and suggest grammar (such as in ProWritingAid, one of their sponsors) and the AI that creates entire segments or whole stories. I see a big difference between supporting a tool for improving form and a system for writing content. If this is NaNoWriMo’s dilemma, then they need to do some soul-searching and make a clear ethical statement as to where the line gets drawn between composition tools and content creation.

This is where I am in my ethical processing of the issue, that use of AI for translation, proofreading, or grammar correction is not at the same level as AI to generate ideas and content. The former is predicated on objective rules; the other on skimming subjective creative works. My struggle to define what is permissable is the struggle of the entire society in dealing with AI.

Wikiwrimo (2024). NaNoWriMo statistics. Available: https://www.wikiwrimo.org/wiki/NaNoWriMo_statistics#cite_note-3 [September 3, 2024].

My Ideal Home

Daily writing prompt

What does your ideal home look like?

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I currently live in a two story home from the early 1900s, probably a kit home, as it fits some of the patterns one sees in kit homes. I grew up in an architect-designed version of that type of home, only with three stories (a walk-up attic where the daughter had the whole floor to herself, rumor had it). I have an affinity for old houses, and my ideal house would be the one I grew up with, except …

I would want it extensively restored. I would get the wood floors and trim refinished, and the walls repainted or wallpapered (depending on what the original version looked like). I would consign all the paneling to the deepest circle of Hell.
I would get new windows.
I would never have gotten rid of the butler’s cabinets or the parlor cabinet. (This would require me to turn back time, but this is my ideal house.)
It would be much less cluttered. We keep a lot of small objects in the kitchen ‘we may need someday’. We also own a few ‘well, we have an extra of this just in case the original breaks down.’ Skip the Marie Kondo treatment — I want a dumpster and two brawny men to start on the basement and not finish till they run out of rooms.
There would be a bigger circuit box and enough outlets.
It would have a two-car garage and a decent driveway. The garage where I grew up was a death trap we did not use, and the driveway was a grass strip that was impassible in the winter when we needed it the most.
We’d put an elevator in. I’m getting old and I might get to where I can’t use stairs.

If I couldn’t put an elevator in, I would have to settle for a one-story house. I do not love ranch-style houses because of their ‘garage-forward’ design, so I’d have to put the garage on the side. I would like it to have universal design front and center. If I have to live in a one-story house, I want to be sure it’s accessible to my elderly self.

Beware of the Happy Cry

Daily writing prompt

What brings a tear of joy to your eye?

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I don’t cry for joy often. It’s just not in my repertoire. When I feel joy, it’s generally a buoyant feeling, not complicated by any touch of sadness.

Except when I encounter (with my unwilling participation) inspirational and sentimental moments. Let me explain. I get weepy at the Olympics, cat food commercials, and human interest stories. It’s like a button any manipulative marketer can push, and tears come out. Graduation ceremonies? Hallmark commercials? Songs from my childhood? There I am, getting weepy.

I actually use my happy crying as a sign of whether my medication is working. If I get too weepy, it’s time to talk to the doctor.

My cynicism is what saves me from melting into an easily-manipulated goo every time I read inspiration porn. Is this story designed to make me happy cry? If so, I dry my tears and take a deep breath. Except at cat food commercials, because they’re just so sweet.

Publication Dates Announced

Both my books for publication are ready to be published. They’re sitting on KDP waiting only for their publication dates. I will release Kringle Through the Snow on October 1, just in time for falling into your Christmas romance TBR pile. Kringle Through the Snow involves an event planner with a secret dealbreaker, a self-professed nerd with a big dog, and a high-class gala with the Grinch. And, of course, snow.

Reclaiming the Balance, a Hidden in Plain Sight novel, will be published on January 1st. I use the New Year as publication dates for this series (even though I could release it today) because of some sort of superstition on my part. This novel concerns Janice, a sculptor who flees her immortal ex-boyfriend with the help of Amarel, an androgynous Nephilim. The two face prejudice from the open-minded people of Barn Swallows’ Dance as they attempt to liberate Janice’s Nephilim son from her ex.

The e-books are available for pre-order; not so much the paperbacks.

Giving up ‘Should’

Daily writing prompt

If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?

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If I had to give up one word that I use regularly, it would be ‘should’.

‘Should’ is a word full of judgment. Someone else is judging us or we are judging ourselves against some unspoken standards that we are not ourselves claiming. “I should do my homework.” The word ‘should’ always sounds like “I’d really like to do something else, but X says I should do my homework.”

Admittedly, there are things we need to do. But ‘need to’, although it’s two words, is a perfectly good phrase to use here. “I need to do my homework” implies an internal locus of control rather than the external ‘should’. The speaker has a need which they can fulfill. It’s also a positive statement: “I take care of my needs.”

I would feel a lot stronger if I didn’t use ‘should’.

Learning Curve

Yesterday, I put together the cover for Reclaiming the Balance, and it only took me an hour.

This used to be the hardest part of putting out a book. That was back when I didn’t know a thing about Photoshop (the program where I lay out my book covers). There were various parts of the process which stymied me: Highlighting text, working with layers, making some of the writing go down the spine.

Now I remember how to do those, and I made quick work of the cover. I will tweak the cover to make sure that the bleed (the overrun on the edges) doesn’t take out any important parts of the illustration and to align the spine. But it’s mostly completed.

It’s reassuring to know that the hard tasks will not always remain difficult and that I can learn new tricks. I am, after all, an old dog.

Avoiding Plagiarism

I was joking about the concept of Chekhov’s gun the other day, with the example of a cat that showed up early in the action and then turns around to save the day. That, in a phrase, is Chekhov’s cat.

Looking up Chekhov’s cat, I discovered that someone had gotten to the joke before me, a writer on Tumblr named The Bibliomancer, on a blog by the same name (The Bibliomancer, 2023, Nov. 10). They define Chekhov’s cat as when a cat appears in the story, it will play an important role later.

It’s important that we credit the original thought of others with citations, such as what I’ve done above. I use American Psychological Association citation style here in addition to a linkback to the original site. Blogs generally use the linkback, but I want to make sure the originator gets the full credit, so I use academic citation style. The full citation will be at the bottom of this page.

I have been the victim of plagiarism. Once, I gave a colleague an assignment of mine as a guideline for structuring her own homework in a class; she published it as her own without giving me any credit. I still seethe over it, twenty-eight years later, because she stole an idea from me by not crediting me.

I think we on the Internet need to credit the sources we use to make our content. That way, maybe people will cite us.

The Bibliomancer (2023, Nov. 10). Chekhov’s Cat. Available on Tumblr: https://thebibliomancer.tumblr.com/post/733615519135039489. [August 28, 2024].

Contractual Obligation

I don’t want to break my 52-day writing streak, so I feel obligated to write a short note. Day 2 of the fall semester and I feel like I’ve been at it for a week. It has been a busy day today; I was on task for six hours straight. Finally, I have nothing on my plate^* and I feel a bit let down.

Is work a flow activity? Despite the fact that I got things done like a boss^**, I felt like most of my tasks didn’t engage my mind optimally. Teaching is a flow activity most days. Answering emails is not. Revising documents is not. Not everything can be a flow activity!

I’m not feeling like writing right now. My brain is tired and not feeling really creative right now. I’ll sit with my work and see if I feel like I can engage.

Scottish straight baby cat on pink background, closeup

^* This is another Americanism for my foreign readers. To have nothing on one’s plate is to have finished all one’s tasks for the day. It’s a good thing.

^** “Like a boss” is another Americanism. It’s pretty self-explanatory; it’s also a good thing.

Role Stress

There are many types of stress we experience in life. I want to talk about a type of stress I suspect many writers with day jobs (i.e. so many of us!) have, and that is role strain.

Role strain is when the duties of one role conflict with the duties of another. For example, if the requirements of being a writer conflict with those of the regular job. I’m feeling this right now; I want to have a topic to write on, but I’m absorbed with the work duties and there’s no room in my brain for creative writing at the moment.

Both roles are important to me; the work role has higher priority, however, because that’s how I feed my family. Right now, the work role is especially pressing because it’s the beginning of the semester and I need to start the semester strong, which for me means focus.

I’ve scheduled some time today for the other role after my second class today. I can postpone class work for Tuesday when I have a long block of time to do it. This is what’s going to alleviate my work stress: scheduling time for both and minimizing off-task time that doesn’t fit in either roles. Wish me luck!