My Writing Dreams and Goals
Since I posted the writing goals worksheet yesterday, I thought I’d take just a moment to share some of my own. I’m short on time, so I’ll probably add more later, but for starters, I want my own publishing company. I have the domain and had a beautiful site years ago with Yahoo Small Business, but it languished, so it’s time to move forward with it. The image above is a sampling of logo ideas I worked on with Gemini.
For this year…
Goal 1: Blog every day!
Goal 2: Publish 2 children’s books. One already has a story board.
Goal 3: Create the layout for the magazine I want to publish.
When all these things are ready to be published, I want them under the ” For One Soul” label because that’s how I see all my writing and ministry. The words on my business card say, ”Live every moment of your life as if it could be … For One Soul.”
Later, I’ll post about the thoughts behind that statement. For now, I’d love some feedback on the logo ideas. Thanks.
Help Me Brainstorm a Better Brand
The Lord is My Editor–Logo with Text
For this week, I want to share some of the ideas I’ve come up with for branding. More than that, I earnestly seek your opinions on these ideas, so I can finally create a brand from which to focus on future projects and marketing.
My problem with branding (and so many other things in life) is all about my eclectic tastes and personality. I don’t seem to fit into any of the usual molds. I write poetry, haiku, novel-length fiction, short stories, articles, lyrics, haiku, devotions, Bible studies, and have a couple books I’d like to do about bands. Oh, and I’ve got an old project for Christian writers I’d like to revive. In addition to writing, I edit, photograph, create graphic designs (like wallpaper and kaleidoscopes), do web design, run a local Christian writer’s group, and volunteer for the planning of a state writer’s conference. If I added all the work experiences in my life, this post would get way too long.
So, how do I create a brand when my creative desires are all over the map? You might say, “Pick a favorite,” but most of them are favorites and all of them have probably been a favorite at one time or another. On my business cards, I finally opted for the following line: “Writer–Editor–Creative Mind” and I added the words in the logo above. I was told by an agent at a conference that “The Lord is My Editor, I Shall Rewrite” is not actually a brand, and she came up with “Stories that Need to be Told” as an option. Most everyone in the group liked that one, but when I did research, I found it was already used quite a bit.
All this brings us to my own brainstorming. I have come up with 10 possibilities in addition to the one from the agent. I created a poll to allow readers to choose up to three favorites so I could use a weighted voting technique to help me select the best idea. Would you please choose your favorites, and/or add your own suggestions, to help this eclectic gal toward a final brand? In addition, you are welcome to comment on your choices and your suggestions. Thanks so much, and I truly appreciate all comments and ideas.
Effective Efforts
Christmas Crochet Clock Face by Crystal A Murray, All Rights Reserved Click the image to open a new tab/window to visit my CafePress Christmas store.
I’ve made a strong effort with this blog since August of 2013. I think I’ve been trying to make up for the years I had it and barely wrote. But I need to make a change. There have been times where I have spent so long trying to come up with just the right topic, that I couldn’t post in a timely manner. If I want a good picture to go with it, that takes even more time.
Am I quitting? No way. I will still make an effort to get something posted every day, but it’s going to become more “slice of life” stuff with some good lessons mixed in as I learn them from a variety of sources. Maybe I’ll throw in a haiku or other type of poem now and then. Sometimes, I’ll post my photography or creative images. I just don’t want people surprised if all of a sudden there’s not deep Bible study on every single post.
Tonight and last night, I’ve been thinking about time and my use of it, hence the clock face above which is a blend of my creativity and a representation of time itself. I’m thinking about the efforts I put into the minutes and hours of my day. For example, I actually started this post early enough tonight to get done before midnight, but some unexpected issues came up that made it impossible to post as planned. I guess God is reminding me that time is in HIS hands and not my own. (By the way, if you click the image, it will take you to my Christmas shop at CafePress. It’s mostly coffee cups, but I do have this clock face on an actual clock there.)
Anyway, as my title says, I want the efforts I make in this life to be effective. What does it mean to be effective? To me it will mean that the things I do have some type of lasting value. I am bombarded by things I want to do, things I need to do, and things I should do. I have to prioritize them based on those that have the greatest value now and later. I want to watch the nice G-Rated Christmas movies by Hallmark while they’re in season. Some of them have life lessons that inspire me long after their viewing. Also, I need to send Hanukkah and Christmas cards. I take longer because I like to write personal notes in them to let people know they are more than just names on a list. And, I should get out and do some shopping before it’s too late.
Here’s some more. Want: I want to either call or Facebook message all the family and friends that have current events going on in their lives. Maybe they’re having birthdays, maybe anniversaries, maybe fighting illnesses, maybe suffering loss, or maybe they’ve just released new writing I want to read. Need: I need to plan for our upcoming Christmas dinner for our writer’s group. That includes making updates on our website and contacting everyone on the e-mail list. Should: These are the things on my want list, like reading the works of writer friends, but with a bit more oomph and importance.
What about you? Do you struggle with all the stuff you want to do with your gift of creativity and all the stuff you need to do to keep life up and running? I want to make more products for my Zazzle store, not because I make much there, but because I’m energized by being creative. I need to watch the lessons I’ve purchased on using my Scrivener software, so my purchase is valuable and so I can share information with others in my writer’s group. Helping others energizes me too.
Under both creativity and helpfulness, it has been requested that I compile my posts on Torah reading for those who want to read it in print all in one place. I want to do it, but it will be some work because of things like Bible version permissions. I’ll have to change some of what I wrote to go with the King James’ Version of the Bible or get permission to use the full text from the Complete Jewish Bible. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, do you think I should do a book on those posts? If so, would you read it? Should I seek permissions to keep the text from the CJB? Please comment below just to help me hone my “to do” list and get the important and effective efforts pushed closer to the top. Thanks.
Welcome to My Writing World
BLOG by Flickr User Christian Schnettelker of http://www.manoftaste.de, CC License = Attribution Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
I’m editing and updating my first post on this blog to be more of a true welcome to all who stop by to visit. I hope to get back to every post before I get too far along. I want to add images, double-check for grammar, and do a quick readability check. I would love for every post to be five-star perfect, but I know that’s not reality. My most difficult issue is probably with the use of passive verbs, but when talking about past events, it’s a bit difficult to do otherwise.
So, what is the purpose of this blog? I’m using it as a place to make myself write more things to be read by others. I write a lot, but it’s mostly in the form of prayer journals or other journals, though I have had requests to publish my prayer journals because I speak to God as if He is the Best Friend I have ever had–because He is. What little I’ve shared from the journals has brought great encouragement to others, and being an encouragement is one of my greatest desires..
The first post I made here was probably a year after I actually created the blog, and it was just one little paragraph and a link on June 7th, 2009. I had tried to post before that, but each time I would run into a struggle in getting it to do as I wanted, I would quit for a long time before trying again. That’s an old bad habit wrapped around a fear of failure that I consistently work to free myself from. That said, daily struggles with recovery from a neck injury (and two surgeries), from the pain of fibromyalgia, and from PTSD related to many abuses in this life, kept me from updating the blog again until May of 2012–almost three years.
I added another space of nearly six months without posting until I shared my thoughts about the hero worship I saw the world offering Obama, and I compared it to the elevated worship ignorant Christians offered the apostate preacher Todd Bentley. Find that post on November 6th 2012 called “When I Said I Knew It.”
Just under a month later (a record considering how much space I had been leaving between posts), I shared about my purchase of materials from “Pro Blogger” and my hopes that they could help me get more done. I’m certain they would help if I would apply them, but I’m far more interested in being available for others who say they need my assistance than in taking the time to learn something new and how to apply it.
In early 2013, I thought I would become consistent with posting a daily thought on the book of Proverbs and the thirty-one readings that correspond to the 31 days in many months. I got through two of them before whatever I allowed to distract me stopped me in my tracks, and I went another almost 4 months before posting again. That post on April 21st, 2013 called “So Many Laws” is about a lawful heart versus a lawless heart and how lawlessness actually creates the need for more laws.
Finally, on September 28th, 2013, I began writing a daily post with my commentary on portions of The Torah (the first five books of The Bible). For once, I had focus, and I posted regularly for over an entire year. I learned that having a focus makes a lot of difference, and the lack of posts after those Torah studies prove my point. Of course, I also lost my mom to cancer just a few months after I finished the Torah commentary, so that changed a lot in my life.
In another course I joined called ”Intentional Blogger,” the first lesson asks writers to know who they are writing to and what they hope to accomplish. It asked if I wanted to instruct, inspire, or just what. I know I love to teach, and I love to encourage and inspire (even with simple kaleidoscopic designs), so trying to distill that into one or the other wasn’t something I could figure out.
Now, it’s 2026, and I’m back to blogging with a desire to do so daily. Someone once told me that was too often, and I ended up quitting almost completely. I now know that I do better with regular patterns, and daily output is easier due me to do without trying to remember what days to blog and what days to skip. I do the same with my Spanish learning (I’m up to 1296 days there), Lumosity for brain health (1025 days), and Bible study that’s now up to 2180 days in the YouVersion app. So apps and patterns both help me.
I hope readers enjoy my commentary as I share my love for God, His Word, and His great creation, mercy, and love for me. In the meantime, consider this your invitation to read, comment, and vote on my blog content; add a like or rating if you can, and take a gander at some of my other blog-type projects…
- My first blogging attempt (in 2006) at Yahoo 360 with kaleidoscope designs (transferred here at the 360 closure)
- My next blogging attempt (at Blogspot.com) for a book project I hope still bears fruit one day
- My accumulation of articles at Scribd
- My profile page at Flickr, and most photos have abundant descriptions, so a lot like a photo blog
- My creativity and design blog for kaleidoscope images here on WordPress (one day to have at least weekly posts)
- My main website at crystal-writer.com where I hope to streamline my entire web presence.
And with that, may I introduce you to my first post on this blog…
My first post here will actually be a test on posting a PDF with line numbers so members of Louisville Christian Writers can post editing comments a little more easily. I had a bit of a hard time getting the PDF into my blog where people can read it as part of the blog. But, with perseverance, I finally got it. Just click the link below.
My Latest Flickr Photos
Crystal Writes A Blog 