Blog Expectations for 2023

Welcome back to Thoughts Stained With Ink, my little blog in my quirky corner of the internet. It was nice to come back from my December hiatus reflecting upon the end of 2022. Now, it’s time to look forward, dreaming and manifesting for 2023. So, I figured I’d start off with some brief blog expectations–or tweaks, rather.

Trust me, though: if you’re a long time reader, most of my usual content will still be here! If you’re new, I’m so glad you’re here. 🥰

How I Spent My Hiatus

Honestly, I didn’t finish as much as I hoped. I took the hiatus mostly because I was burnt out and needed a break from it all. But, I also wanted to finally make some progress on updating archival content on the blog. Especially since I went self-hosted and so many of my older posts were now a bit wonky.

Though I didn’t completely complete that project, I did:

• Remove over 400+ posts that no longer matched what my blog is now (from 2012-2018)
• Updated 150+ book reviews to my current review format
• Cross-list those reviews on Goodreads, StoryGraph and Am*zon

So, I still need to clean up my other older posts. Plus, put in alt text for my media. But, I’m finding a groove and think I should complete all of this early 2023! So now, whenever you look though my backlog, everything should match and be readable. 🎉

Changes I’m Implementing

Mainly, I have two big changes I’m implementing (one that was hinted at last week). They are: moving all writing related content to my Patreon, while all of my monthly wrap-ups will now be found in my newsletter.

Why this change, you ask? Great question! As a writer who plans to be a published author one day, I wanted to make sure to have a Patreon and newsletter established early. That way, whenever I do start publishing, I have an audience built, no matter how tiny, so I can focus more on marketing whatever book is coming out. But, I didn’t want those avenues to be repeats of my blog. Which I’m absolutely not getting rid of. That was a non-negotiable.

So, looking at my stats and thinking about what made the most sense, I came to those conclusions! Therefore, over the next few months, I’ll be migrating my writing related posts over to my Patreon. I’ll also be creating an “author corner” on this website, so stay tuned for that!

My newsletter will be what my “Bookish Breakdown” series was here or my monthly wrap-up. If you liked those posts, I hope you’ll consider subscribing. It’ll also be a place where I’ll post publishing updates and news first, alongside my Patreon, before it goes live on this blog or social media.

Blog Expectations

So, now that I’ve told you about changes, what can you expect from the blog in 2023? A lot of the same content, honestly! I still hope to do a MWF posting schedule, being flexible if I end up missing a day or deciding to post more than that.

On the book blogger side of things, you can still expect:

• Regular discussion posts, including participating in Let’s Talk Bookish occasionally on Fridays
• Book reviews
• Occasional lists, memes and tags
• Blogging resources

On the personal side, you can still expect:

• Processing posts (whether because I’m sad, angry or just need a place to word vomit)
• Discussions on mental health (namely depression, anxiety, my OSFED eating disorder and overcoming internalized fatphobia)
• Living life with a chronic disability
• Just random musings about life
• Allyship and advocacy monthly posts

In Sum

And that’s it! So hopefully, nothing too terrifying or disheartening, in terms of changes. I tried to make it obvious where to expect what content from me. I also tried to keep it doable. For example, you can join my Patreon for $2 a month and still get everything there, if paying $10 isn’t doable. I wanted a wide range of options, so you pay only what is financially feasible for you. And my newsletter is free!

This blog, of course, is free and here to stay. I’m very glad you’re here with me. Later this week, I’ll be sharing my 2023 intentions and my reading challenges and goals. So stay tuned for those.

I hope 2023 is kind to each of us, because gods old, new and those not yet known all know we need it. Thanks for being here. 🖤

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