January 2024 – Mythical Type

29Jan2024

January 29, 2024 / Log

In the works

I finished the submission for that local zine. I think it’ll come out in March, so I’ll post about it when it’s available.

I typed up the quotes I gathered for my zine on writing advice. The document is three and a half pages long, and that’s before I add commentary for each quote. So I may end up cutting some quotes.

The theme has been shifting a bit.

Originally, I wanted to focus on tips for writing online. I started gathering quotes and the content felt sparse. So I broadened to gathering tips for any kind of writing. Now the quotes are a mix of writing online, writing fiction, and writing in general. Maybe it feels like a mishmash. I’ll get a better feel for it when I start adding commentary.

23Jan2024

January 23, 2024 / Log

After I posted yesterday, I saw a link to The Underground Blog via Warren Ellis. It’s a blog that can be read only via RSS, with a feed reader. No posts on a website and nothing to link to. It feels, yeah, underground. It’s the nerdiest thing I’ve seen in blogging and I love it already.

I just realized these log posts might make good fodder for things I share in my monthly newsletter. Everything builds.

In the works

I did some research for that zine I volunteered for and sent the organizer a few ideas to get his feedback. Looks like I’ll be making a list of tips for making zines by hand. 🙂

I remembered one quote to add to my zine on writing advice:

“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
– Shannon Hale

On my mind

When it comes to posting online, I go through phases of posting to a lot of places and then later consolidating to just a couple places. I think I’m in a phase of consolidating. Mostly I’m tired of keeping up with different sites and apps and what I posted where. I have a whole to do list for posts when I make a new zine and ooof, I get tired of it.

I’ll focus on posting here and posting on Instagram when I have images to share. (I’m also focusing on posting here as an antidote to doomscrolling on social media.) And my monthly newsletter is the consolidated, here’s what I’m up to and here are some things you might be interested in.

22Jan2024

January 22, 2024 / Log, Updates

The one where I risked breaking my blog.

But all is well. I’m still here.

Yesterday I wanted to title these log posts with the date. That reminded me how my blog URLs include the year and month (like, 2024/01). So yesterday when I made my log post, the end of the URL looked like 2024/01/21Jan2024.

Redundant.

I’ve been meaning to change my blog post structure so that it doesn’t include year and month in the URL. (Let my blog join the mid-2000s at last haha.) I was hesitating because I have posts on here going back to 2008 and who knows how many links I would break in the process?

Well, the answer is 36 links. And most of them were on a couple static pages and in blog posts from the last two years.

I fixed those broken links, and that wasn’t so bad. Now my blog posts will end with /blog/post-name. Cleaner and simpler. And these log posts with dates as titles won’t look ridiculous, haha.

In the works

I volunteered to contribute an article to a zine about local art, music, and history. I can’t write about music, so I’m going to research potential topics for art and history.

21Jan2024 The first log

January 21, 2024 / Log

I spent some time today wandering around other people’s blogs. It’s the kind of thing that fits especially on wintry Sunday afternoons.

One thing I’ve been skimming through is “status” posts on Warren Ellis’ website. He uses status posts to share updates on what he’s working on, what he’s reading or watching, and whatever else he wants to share about the day. Some posts are only one paragraph. Some are longer.

His way of sharing his work is in the same vein as two other writers whose work I admire: Robin Sloan (work with the garage door open) and Austin Kleon (show your work).

I’ve been doing the show your work part for a while, especially with sharing how I make zines. I love the idea of working with the garage door open but I haven’t done that a lot. Online, it means sharing what goes into your work and not just the finished piece. What I’ve been missing is the status part.

I’m going to adapt the idea of Ellis’ status posts and blend that with what I already do to share my creative work.

Here’s my plan:

This blog is about my creative projects and what I do for fun. Not my day job. So “status” doesn’t feel quite right for me. I’ll categorize my posts as “log” instead. As in, “captain’s log” for capturing important info.

I like how Ellis uses the date to title his status posts. That shows right away what kind of post it is. I’ll use dates in my titles, too.

My log posts will not be daily. I’ll see how once or twice a week feels.

So, let’s see:

In the works

I’ve been doing research for a new zine about my favorite writing advice. I’m collecting quotes right now from books on my shelf and a few quotes I have to google. My plan is to list all the quotes in a document and then write a few notes or comments about each one. After I see how much text that is, I can decide on zine format. So far, I’m leaning toward a quarter-page zine. Black and white on the inside pages with a color cover.

What I’ve been watching

Yesterday I watched Spy Game (2001). I like seeing a spy thriller that isn’t all car chases and fight scenes. A lot of the movie feels like watching Robert Redford play chess. You’ll see what I mean if you watch the movie. I’m not going to spoil anything.

I’ve been re-watching The Flash, and I’m about a third of the way through season 2. The first two seasons of the show were my favorite.

To dig into

ooh.directory – Warren Ellis (and maybe someone else I follow?) have linked to ooh.directory as a way to discover blogs. The site has been on my radar for a while, but I haven’t spent time browsing it yet.

Tiny site updates

January 21, 2024 / Updates

Small changes I don’t even know if other people will notice, but I like documenting stuff like this.

So it goes.

Zines in the menu

I pulled the zines overview page out of the About menu and gave it its own spot in the navigation menu. Sub-navigation is My zines for now (the tag for posts about zines I make). I’m working on a zine resources page that will also fall under Zines in the top navigation.

Search in the sidebar

I change my mind often about where I like the search bar to go. In the top navigation, in the sidebar, in the footer…In more than one location? So okay now there’s a search bar in the sidebar in addition to the one in the footer. Probably I use the search bar the most, so I want easy access to it. 😂

No more email subscription for new posts

For a while, I was using Mail Poet to generate an automatic email every Tuesday with my new blog posts. I think it’s handy to have but no one has signed up for it in years, so I removed it. If you want email updates from me, you can sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

No more social sharing icons

I don’t even know how much these were being used. I don’t even use them on other people’s sites. Sometimes sharing widgets have funky formatting and it’s easier to share a link manually anyway. I just copy and paste the link in to a social post.