Exciting things are happening! For quite a long time, I’ve struggled with how to balance the various different goals I want to achieve and stuff I want to talk about online.
On the one hand, there’s my upcoming fantasy novel. I want to share updates and snippets with the people who love to read it.
On the other, there’s the social commentary. There’s lots I want to say about the world.
Then there’s also just the plain daft stuff. The comedian who was raised on Monty Python, the Goon Show, the Marx Brothers, the Goodies, Eddie Izzard, Bill Bailey, Red Dwarf – and much more.
It felt like it made sense to have it all together, because it all comes from me. My fiction, my commentary on the world, my humour — it’s all a product of the same brain, obviously. It seems reasonable to think that if you like one aspect of it – of me – you’ll like the other aspects as well.
But then there’s the consideration of giving you, my reader, what you want. For example, what if you’re just interested in hearing about my fiction journey, like the sound of what I do, and are waiting to see when the book comes out?
One of the constraints has been that working full-time, having kids, and being neurodiverse, I don’t have the energy, the time, the capacity to run multiple social media accounts and websites. I barely have the energy or the mental bandwidth to do one.
So the question was: how can I make this work for both of us? It needs to allow me to put content out there in a way that moves me closer to my goals. But it also has to work for people who might be interested in me.
I want to make it as easy as possible for me to prove to you that I’m worthy of your time, your energy, your attention. I want to make sure it is worthwhile you doing that. Those things are precious. I understand that, and I want to be responsible with the stuff I’m putting in front of you.
What’s changing?
My website is, naturally, the hub for all things Rewan. But I want to separate out those things so that you can easily find what interests you.
To that extent, the blog will be solely focussed on my reading and writing journey. Updates on my progress, information about my projects, bits of fiction, book reviews, and general thoughts on stories – how they work, why they work, why we tell them.
All with a hefty dose of the surreal daftness mentioned earlier. You’d need a long spike and a big hammer to get rid of that.
The social commentary is moving. It’s me talking about our behaviour online, the way we interact with people that we don’t agree with, the internet and the culture that has arisen around it. It is also a bit daft – see the spike thing above.
That’s all going to live on my Medium. Although you’ll notice the ‘Social Commentary’ link in the nav bar.
I tried using Medium at the beginning of 2023 and I used it in the same way I used this blog up until now: a mixture of everything. It never really gain traction, and I sort of fell out of love with the platform.
I’m going back over there for two reasons. One is because it is a good place for me to put my social commentary. It fits well on Medium. I think there’s an audience for it there. Secondly, because being on Medium will boost the visibility of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting to get thousands of views and go viral with any of my articles. But all I want with my social commentary — because I think what I’m saying is important — is just to know that some people are seeing it. Even if it’s just a handful of people. That’s all it needs to be right now.
And what about my Bluesky account? To be honest, I’m still figuring that out. But following me and engaging with my stuff there will help me determine out what’s working and worthwhile. Hint hint, nudge nudge… Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
