Talking About Themes

I changed the theme of my blog earlier this year.

In my opinion changing themes and tinkering with the appearance of my blog accomplishes a few things.

It creates change.

I’m not always the biggest fan of change. But there are good changes and bad ones. It’s great to also be in control of the change.

I have fun.

I enjoy playing with different themes and customizing it accordingly afterwards. I could spend forever doing this.

Procrastination happens.

Do I need to say more? Theme tinkering is my new fav way to put off doing schoolwork.

The new eliminates the old.

I’ve had my other theme for a while. I can’t say I was sick of it because I wasn’t. But it felt familiar, comfortable. And when I feel safe, I tend to play it safe. So I’m hoping this new look pushes me to create better content. At the very least, I hope to take more risks this year.

Maybe it’s time for you to change your blog theme. Or maybe you changed it recently.

National Poetry Day

Happy National Poetry Day! Here’s a hastily composed poem I wrote on the bus.

***

A foreign language sounds familiar again

An old friend summons a strange mystery

Passed time really can’t be retrieved

Even though new memories begin to squeeze in

***

Don’t let me down. Or yourself. Go compose, compose, compose.

I should have mentioned that the theme is light.

What? You know I’m horrible with following themes or rules in general.

“Would You Rather” Blogger Edition

Because the “Would You Rather” Writer Edition and “Would You Rather” Book Tag wasn’t enough.

Would you rather have a few followers and plenty of interaction or many followers but very little interaction?

This one is easy. Few followers and plenty of interaction. Comments give me life.

Would you rather publish one post a month or one hundred posts each month?

One hundred posts even though I generally post once a day and doing three posts each day would be difficult to say the least. Posting one and only one blog post is not enough to satisfy my blogging needs.

Would you rather only be able to see the number of followers you have or the number of views your blog has?

Followers because views can be skewed. Followers can be too. Followers are skewed less.

Would you rather be allowed to use all the free themes or use one paid, customized design from here on in?

Free. I’m broke and am about to go into a lot of student debt. I also like being able to change my theme anytime I like.

Would you rather have to like and comment on every post you read or have to re-blog it?

Like and comment even if people get annoyed of seeing my face on their posts. I love getting comments and I think bloggers appreciate them too.

Would you rather only have your blog(s) and no other social media account or every other social media account but not your blog?

At one point, I didn’t have any social media accounts and I started most of them after creating my WordPress blog, so blogs win.

Blogging 101: Love Your Theme

Try out at least three other themes — even if you’re happy with the one you first chose. Try one you’re drawn to, and one you would never use.

Even after however long I’ve been using my current theme, I still love it. (Also, I’m too lazy to change and configure anything at the moment.) The finger points entirely to the sometimes silly school system.

Now I don’t say this too often or maybe I say this too much, but I love my blog. For your information, the relationship is completely healthy.

And, for obvious reasons, I hope you love your blog too. It’s a magical experience when you do.

Happy Friday! Or Saturday. Or whatever day you happen to be reading this. Have a good Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday.

Day 23—NaNoWriMo: Are you doing what you want to be doing?

Happy Saturday guys and gals.

Previous readers/followers may have noticed the change in my WordPress theme. I’m super proud of the new look because this design showcases a red ribbon prominently (on the right). My Twitter profile has the ribbon located on the left side as well. Also, I will have a more detailed post on the symbolic significance behind the image soon.

Digressing no further, I shall refocus. For some reason I’m lacking energy to do anything today. Yet somehow I’m here writing this blog post, redesigning my WordPress page, and ensuring my social media sites are active. Why? Because I’m alive and I want the whole world to know.

So why don’t I wait until tomorrow to write? Or maybe wait until I feel like it? I don’t write because I want to. I write because I have to. Besides, if I put off working until I felt like working, I’d never get anything done. So onwards and upwards.

Don’t ever write unless you love it with all your heart. You’re cheating yourself and hurting your writing if you write for any other reason.

What’s the point of doing something you don’t want to be doing in the first place? So if NaNoWriMo isn’t something you want to be doing, don’t. If it is, do. It’s as simple as that.

If only life was that simple.

Cheers to the weekend.

30 Questions To Ask Yourself During NaNoWriMo-Day 1

On top of writing approximately 1,667 words every day, I hope to write 30 blog posts each covering 30 different questions regarding writing—in particular—novel writing.

Question #1

Are you ready?

Seriously. Are you ready to embark on this journey for 30 days? An entire month?!

What I mean is do you have some idea of what your book will be about? Do you have some plot in my mind that will span at least 50,000 words? Have you, at the very least, tried to outline a basic description of your novel? On sticky notes, in a notebook, somewhere you have access to?

Also important to think about: the tense you will write in, point of view, genre, setting, time, place, mood, voice, writing style, length, theme, etc.

So if you are ready, start writing. If you aren’t, you still have 30 days to figure out what exactly your story is about.

Good luck.

Tomorrow’s post will be on: what is your novel about?