Hi, it’s me, Tyler D. I’m gonna be honest with you… 2023’s not been the greatest of years for me. Between dealing with the grief of losing a loved one, the rising cynicism of our world, and a growing sense of self-loathing, it’s shaping up to be one of the worst years, in fact. However, I’d rather not let this paralyze me. That’s not what she would’ve wanted, so I’ll keep trying to move forward.
I can at least report on a few wins. For example: my work is being acknowledged more. I have 4 poems published by external sources so far, and I recently got confirmation of another one being accepted into an anthology! So yeah, that’s pretty nifty, I’d say. It’s only a matter of time before my rhymes conquer the world, muhahaha…
Also, my FB page got the Rising Creator title… or at least it did, for two weeks. I’d be happy about that, but I’m still annoyed that Facebook took away my ability to advertise without a clear explanation. Not that I was using that function anyway, but getting a title out of the blue like that felt like salt in the wound. “We won’t let you grow your audience by advertising your future projects here. Congrats on the growth, by the way!”
Still though, the acknowledgement was kinda neat while it lasted, even if the title is about as meaningful as Twitter’s blue badge (which is, to say, not at all).
I digress. Let’s talk about the future of TDW. Moving forward, I’ve decided to focus on two subjects: poetry and commentary. Poetry… is pretty self-explanatory. As for Commentary… essentially, I’m grouping the discussion-style posts (reviews, impressions, regarding, etc.) under the same banner. It’s not optimal, no, but it’s the best idea I could come up with to solve what I believe is this site’s biggest problem: lack of cohesion. If I’m ever to get my rhythm back, I will need to get my tendency to wander under control… and hey, it’s certainly better than my previous plan to cut the entire site in half… speaking of which:
That other site, Typing DeWords? It’s gone now. Reduced to ones and zeroes. I deleted it, and this is probably the last time I’ll mention it. The remaining poems worth saving/recycling are privately archived for now, and I’ll decide when/if they’ll be reuploaded.
As for my future plans specifically, I have 3 ideas in the pipeline:
#1: A long-term series. So I have this idea, involving seasonal anime. I’ve stopped following the seasonal releases at this point, as it’s just too much for me to keep track of… but what if I go backwards? I pick out a few shows from past seasons, talk about them, and I follow the seasonal anime trail as far back in time as I can reasonably go. I have no idea how long it’ll take before the trail runs cold, but I feel like that’s part of the fun. Also, since there’s no seasonal relevancy deadline, I can do it at my own pace, and so theoretically I shouldn’t experience much burnout.
#2: A book. As previously mentioned, I’ve had my poems published before… but my Opa recently posed to me the idea of publishing a poetry book. Self-publishing is uncharted territory for me, but I do feel the idea is worth exploring. I need some time to visualize what that would look like, but what I do know is that I wouldn’t be satisfied with a mere compilation of pre-existing poems. At the very least, half of it would need to be exclusive content for me to be happy with the product, I think. Don’t expect any news about a book for at least a few months, that’s all I’m gonna say.
#3: A YouTube channel. I’m considering a Tyler DeWriter YouTube channel. It would allow for new types of content that wouldn’t necessarily work in text form, while satiating my desire for variety. It would also expose my work to a larger audience than what’s possible with WordPress and Twitter/Facebook. I have experience with scripting and video/audio editing, so I’m confident I could make it work from a technical standpoint.
There lies a big gap, however, between typing words and speaking them to a camera. It’s not like I haven’t performed in front of an audience before, but I have trouble acting natural whenever I try to record myself. I’ll probably work up the courage to do it at some point, but I”d like to get my current set of problems under control before I open up an entirely new Pandora’s Box.
I… to be honest, I can’t think of a good way to conclude this post. I don’t even know if anyone is going to read this to the end, since it’s mainly just me putting my thoughts together. If you are still sticking around despite everything, thank you, and I hope to have things back in order soon.
Tyler DeWriter 