Belated Blogiversary

A little over a year ago I started my blog and wrote my first blog post. The actual date of my blogiversary is February 24th, but I was a lot under the weather, so delayed really marking the occasion on the blog until life slowed down. It hasn’t yet. Ha! But I did want to mark the occasion and reflect on this past year.

In many ways I’d love to use this post to make an announcement, but that isn’t quite where I’m at with my writing. Sigh. Still, I think I’ve put off writing this post because I’d love for it to be about My Year of Kicking Ass While Writing Books. Ahem. Excuse me. (*writes down title of future blog post). Okay! Still, there are some tangibles, not-so-tangibles, and thoughts I’ve been mulling that I want to put out there and share.

Last February was kind of notable to me because I had (finally!) decided on a pen name. I love names and am a total namenerd. I adore baby name websites and lists and have several baby name books. So in some ways, debating pen names and pondering my options was a fabulous way to spend time. I chose from a list of baby names I’d loved but hadn’t used for my three kids. I think I had narrowed the list to four possibles and then within the last two weeks, completely changed my mind and went with Ainsley Wynter. No regrets. It fits me, my writing, and, as of a year ago, did not belong to anyone in the adult f1lm industry or the FBI’s most wanted.

One of the things I’ve noticed over the past year is that by having a blog and a pen name and a website, etc., that I’ve been better able to own being a writer. I’ve actually done more writing the past year than in the year before (essentially 2012). I think the blog and website helped me make more of a commitment to myself that I would be embarking on a writing career. I still wish my pace was faster, but for where I am, it isn’t so far off.

I actually enjoy writing blog posts. Perhaps this is a narcissistic and obvious thing to say, but I enjoy blogging more than I thought I would. Yes, I know it’s part of having a platform and that’s part of why I started it, but it doesn’t feel like work. Nice, huh?

Now, a year ago, I set the goal of blogging once a week. I think at last count I have 33 posts, although two are tests for when I revamped the website. So, my average was a little over twice a month. It’s less than I’d planned but, for me, I’d rather go for quality than quantity. And, frankly, the blog ideas I consider but don’t write are all versions of navel-gazing and thinking about How Hard Writing Is. Until I have a way to make those add to a conversation, I’ll keep them to myself.

While I’m still trying to finish drafting WIP #2, I’ve written around 140,000 words in the last year across two novels. That feels pretty freaking great. There’s more writing, and then editing, but that is a lot of writing that in the previous year, I didn’t even come close to typing. So, glittercanons for wordcount. 🙂

When I started, I was on Blogger. Blogger was good to me and didn’t give me any drama. That doesn’t always happen in life, so it’s worth noting. But, I was starting to outgrow what I knew how to do on Blogger and with google’s changing policy about adult content, it made sense to move the blog to WordPress. I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed even the miniscule things I was able to do–widgets! plugins!–and was able to move my posts over to the new site this fall. I’d still like to add pics to my posts, but for now, it works for my purposes and I think the design fits me and my books. I may tweak it in the coming months and after this fall, I have more confidence in my ability to do so. Yay, learnin’.

So, while my writing remains “in process” there is still progress being made. I try not to let too many days go by where I don’t add to the WIP. I’m always so happy when I’m writing and that is something I’m very glad to note hasn’t changed at all.

Happy Writing and Reading!
Ainsley “The Writer” Wynter

What progress are you happy to report from the past year? Any regrets?

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