One Word at a Time

Lately change has seemed the only constant. I feel like I am suddenly travelling a new trajectory, and I am moving at a pace that is brisk and exciting in my writing and my life.

I became a hubber (defined by Urban Dictionary as "a person who writes informative articles, which are called Hubs on the website Hubpages") ten days ago. I have been enjoying writing articles for a very modest audience on topics mostly related to pregnancy, parenting and family although I have a few in the works about travel as well. When not writing articles, I have been thinking about them and researching them. I am working towards what I hope is a realistic goal of 30 hubs in 60 days. I am also working on trying to monetize my articles, which is requiring some commitment to learning new things, in an area of generally low interest for me. But I am motivated, and am hopeful that my efforts will eventually pay off in some passive income.

Aside from the hope of monetary gain, I have been hoping for readers. The response to my writing thus far by the hubber community has been gratifying if modest. My most read article to date has been my first - a piece about how to support a woman who has had a miscarriage. I believe pregnancy loss is a topic that I will be writing about quite a lot, cross genres. I have also been thinking about creating a blog that would serve as a kind of portal for women who are coping with miscarriage; a place where I could point to useful resources whether they be articles, books or other websites. I very much like the idea of helping women find what they need quickly and easily at a difficult, overwhelming time. There are many, many webpages and websites out there, but not necessarily organized. I would feel good about helping to bring some order to all the great efforts others have made to present helpful information, be it technical, medical, emotional or spiritual.

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I feel as though with my family life more stable now, with my son almost a year old, my maternity leave wrapping up, and my return to the workforce imminent, that I am in a good place to establish some new habits. Simply writing and putting it out there without too much angst is new and good. Writing every day, with a small goal in mind, is something I hope I can do on my commute when I go back to work. Optimally doing it every day, consistently, with the knowledge of how to make a return on the articles, is something I hope will form a kind of seed fund for other writing projects I have in mind. There are projects I have been thinking about for years that I have never lost the desire to make a reality. I believe that timing is everything, and that the right time is coming soon...

The most positive thing to come out of my recent work has been the feeling of motivation, of enthusiasm, of inspiration, of possibility and of accomplishment. I am enjoying this new feeling of competition against myself, of seeing what I can do, of "just doing it" instead of thinking about it so much. Right now it really does feel like I am writing for my life, as I strive towards my deepest hopes and dreams. I hope to make the small steps each day and slowly change my life over the next five years. Ultimately I hope to find a way to write for my life every day, to write myself into a career, and to find a way to work on my writing at home by the time my son is in elementary school.

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Pre-hub pages, a few short weeks ago, I began compiling a spreadsheet with upcoming deadlines for contests and other opportunities for publications in the areas of poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction. I submitted my first postcard story to a contest organized by the Brucedale Press; this was also a first for me in that the story had to be acrostic (26 sentences, first sentence beginning with A and each following sentence starting with the next letter in the alphabet, with the last sentence beginning with Z). I really enjoyed the challenge of a confining structure, and a firm deadline. Probably it helped to have limitations imposed on the story, which forced the plot to move along quickly. I would like to try a project like that again, and am hopeful the story was maybe just a little bit good. After the contest ends, I will post my little story on http://nicolette23.wordpress.com/; if I post it now the piece would be considered published, which is against the contest rules.

More attempts to conquer the world, one word at a time, coming soon...