Jenn Musing Finale

Well, bloggy friends, it's been real. It's been fun. And it's been real fun. But I think I've known for a while my heart wasn't in this blog anymore. My heart really isn't into writing young adult fiction anymore. I haven't even read a YA book since....well I can't even remember when.

I think I'll get back into writing at some point, but my heart is for my children right now who both have special needs and need a lot of extra time, appointments, and love. And so, that means it's time to stop blogging here at Jenn Musing. I've got a new blog over at www.embracing.life, so please do consider checking it out, where I'll be blogging about faith, special needs parenting, and praying Scripture.

Whether I know you in real life, or only in the blogosphere, I have truly appreciated you following me here. Thank you for the friendships, the conversations, the encouragement.  I'll still be on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  I'll still be blogging, but about my faith and writing and special needs parenting. Gotta blog what you know, you know? Gotta blog what you love, right bloggy friends?

Hope we still get to stay in touch!
Jenn

Goodness that Starts with B

Birthday Goodness:

E just turned three and we celebrated with my parents and sister with Thomas the Train inspired goodies. It was so much fun! He loved blowing out the candles, eating his cake with a spoon and his ice cream with a fork (simultaneously), opening his presents, and playing with his Thomas balloons and party hat.  Little A had fun with the party hats and balloons too!

Blogging Goodness:

I spent about two hours finally getting around to what I've been wanting to do with the blog since March.  Check out the side bar and the first person to comment with the difference wins one of these virtual cupcakes, in honor of the b-day festitivies.  Don't worry, this kind won't go straight to your thighs. ;)

Bible Study Goodness:

I have officially put my YA manuscript aside for a while.  It needs a lot more revision which I don't have time for right now.  But I can't put my writing completely aside: I'm writing a Bible study on spiritual victory that I'm very excited about.  Whenever I put it aside for too long, I run across someone else in my life that tells me something they're struggling with.  They have no idea I'm writing a Bible study that addresses the very theme they're sharing with me, and it reminds me this is a message that needs to be written.  So, I'm currently working on it once or twice a week and loving every minute of it.

Life is good.  Busy, stressful at times, but oh so very good.

Finding My Blogging Niche

This July will mark my third year of blogging.  Yep.  But, instead of being all excited about my upcoming blogoversary I've been musing (lame pun intended) on how I really felt about my blog.  I'll admit, I don't have much time to do a lot of writing or blogging.  But when both kiddos are asleep and the dishes are loaded I may have some time to sit down and write.  So I go to my blog and prepare to write a new post except I don't know what I want to write about.  I seemed to have lost my focus and passion for blogging.  I had gotten to the point where I was lucky to write a post once a week, and even then I'd wonder:
"Who in their right mind will want to read this?"
"What should I be blogging about?"

I was having a blogger identity crisis.  So I talked to the hubster about it.  And he basically told me, 'You're overthinking everything.  Just blog about what you want.  Don't worry about what others think about it or about what other bloggers are doing.'  Ok.  Easier said than done.

Then I read an awesome post by Amanda Medlin that reinforced what hubster said, but which for some reason was much more motivating for me (sorry hubster).  The post "When You Struggle to Find Your Niche" was exactly what I needed to read and get me inspired.

Here's her three main points:
1) Stop overthinking and just write.  (Yeah, exactly what the hubster said).
2) Stop looking to other blogs to define yours. (Sounds like what hubster was saying).
3) Break some rules!

Fine.  I can take a hint.  I'm finding my niche and making my blog reflect it.  Here's what it looked like before:

I'm resolved to boldly blog and post about the things I care about.  And if you happen to care about it too, then awesome.  If not, well, at least I had fun writing the post.  :)

www.bloggiesta.com

Luckily for me, this all coincides with Bloggiesta-an awesome weekend long blogging event where you focus on improving your blog and finally crossing off all those 'to-do' items on your blog goal's list.  The bloggiesta kicks off March 22nd and ends March 24th.


So, here's my goals for the Bloggiesta fiesta:

Continue blog renovations
Create an About page
Brainstorm 5+ blog post ideas
Update social media icons
Write and schedule at least 2 blog posts  One down, one to go!
Learn about/find alternate feed readers  Thanks to everyone's suggestions, I've decided to go with Bloglovin.
Participate in at least 3 Bloggiesta mini-challenges  So far, two done.  Check out Amanda's mini-challenge on making your blog look awesome and easy to navigate Through Your Visitor's Eyes.  Also read another Jenn's mini-challenge on Google Reader Replacement Options.  
Comment on at least 10 blogs

I'm not expecting to accomplish them all this weekend, but they will all get done.  And I'll be sure to have plenty of chips and salsa during the festivities.  Con queso.

Anyone else participating in the blogging festivities? Or have experience with blogging renovations and finding blogging niches and have advice to share?

Fellow Writers, Look What I Found!

All right, so here's a list of a few of my new favorite writerly things....

1)  Well, baby #2 is due in August, and the hubster and I are packing up our belongings and our little boys and moving out of state end of September.  I've been participating in NaNoWriMo for years, and was sad to think that I wouldn't be able to this year with a new baby and moving and all.  I think I'll be a little busy and REALLY tired in November.  Cue Camp NaNoWriMo!

Think NaNoWriMo, but for the summer, rather than for November.  When you sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo you can choose if you want to participate in June or August.  Betcha can't guess which month I'm signed up for? ;)


2)  So, I'm a list person.  I also like writing notes and ideas for my stories in notebooks.  The problem with this is I sometimes lose my lists.  Or forget which notebook I wrote my story outline in.  Or put the wrong notebook in my bag for my solo trip to Starbucks.

But thanks to Evernote, I've been so much more organized!  Seriously, downloading this free thing to write notes, make checklists (complete with check boxes I can check off on my computer or with the Evernote app on my phone) has been awesome!  Love, love, love having all my notes in one place, they're easy to edit, and I feel so much more organized without notebooks and pieces of paper in random places around the house.

3)  I had heard that Kristen Lamb is the go-to gal on social media for writers.  And she definitely is.  I bought both of her books, "We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media" and also "Are You There Blog? It's Me, Writer."  I learned a few things from the first book, and was inspired by a few others in the latter.  I would recommend you check out We Are Not Alone, if you want to learn more about using Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, Blogs, etc to build your writing platform.  If you just want to be inspired to continue writing and to keep up with your blog, check out Are You There Blog?  Both books are available for $4.99 for the Kindle on Amazon, and I think that's a great price for the nuggets of gold you'll glean from these books.  And if you don't want to read the entire book/s, then check out her blog, full of helpful social media and writing advice.

4) If you're a writer and you haven't read Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder, then you are truly missing out!  That book is awesome for helping you plan out a story line if you're in the brainstorming/outlining process, or fabulous for helping you tackle your revisions to help you understand what your story may be missing.

Apparently, I've been missing out too.  I learned today that Snyder wrote a second book, Save the Cat! Strikes Back which I just ordered.  I can't tell you yet if it's as awesome as the first book, but I'm definitely excited about what I'll learn from it.

Or have you used/participated in/read any of these things I've mentioned?  Or plan to?  Any writerly finds you've made recently?