Last week, I was a mess!  I was overwhelmed with all of the things I need to accomplish, and at a loss for where to start.

Thankfully, I have some wonderful friends who know when to just take me by the hand and get my motor running so that I can go back into ADHD mode and run amok once again.

If creative people are a little insane, it’s because of the business end of it all!
 
To say I was overwhelmed is an enormous understatement!  I had no clue what I was going to do about a website to build my “platform”.  What to use, where to go, who to call…what freakin’ color scheme do I want!  Seriously???

I was going to look for a graphic of a crazy haired woman when I realized that I had several of myself!  So here I am, hair going every which way (as it does when I don’t practically glue it down).  This is pretty much how I felt last week (aside from the smile.  Trust me, that was absent!).

If the website were the only issue, it might not have been so mind boggling, but in addition to the look of the website, I needed a topic, because building a platform for my book requires a topic which I can write a whole bunch of stuff about, drawing thousands of people to my site.  Easy, peasy, right?

But it doesn’t stop there!  I also needed software for creating the website, domain names, a web host…and that doesn’t even include all of the stuff I needed for the book, itself.

I’ve now whittled it down to about 18 more pages to edit, not counting a couple of chapters I decided, in the process of editing, that I need to add.  Yet, I still didn’t have a title, much less an inkling of what I wanted for the cover art (which I’m now told means a kazillion things, when all I meant was the artwork for the book cover!).

But a friend did come and hold my hand, helping me figure out what’s out there.  She took me through the process of buying some domain names and showed me how one of the web writing packages works.

Still, I was struggling with pricing for the software which I’d been led to believe was free.  Unfortunately, the company does not provide phone support, so I finally called one of the hosting companies, and learned that the software I wanted was on the .org site rather than the .com site.  Whodathunkit?

Today, the real fun began!  I downloaded the software, then clicked on the link for what else was needed.  HOLY MACARONI!!!  PHP???  .tar????  SQL????  WTF????

Whizzing through 15 pages of instructions, hoping for a miracle, I finally found it on page 12.  Instructions for installing the software on a single computer.  Hooray!  But I wasn’t out of the woods yet!  What I really needed was on page 13.  Instructions for installing it on a Windows system!  Boo Rah!  Now I had it!  I simply needed Microsoft SQL, and I’d be ready to rock and roll!

I’m happy to say, #WordPress is now installed for use with my #SheriConaway domains as well as the #SheriLevenstein ones, just for good measure.   I’m currently in the process of selecting a theme so I can start setting the thing up and populating it with my words of wisdom, though much of that will occur after I finish the #copywriting course.

However, my day got even better, because once I was able to clear my brain of the website issues, the creative floodgates opened.  I now  have, not only a title for my book, but an idea for the cover art too!  My mind has been like a clogged drain, but once the clog was removed, all sorts of brilliance has emerged!

Full Speed Ahead!!!

I’m now looking forward to a 4 hour train ride tomorrow which will likely find me with headphones stuffed in my ears, the tray table pulled down and my iPad in front of me while I finish that last 18 pages of editing!  It’s way past time to move on to completing the copywriting course, then getting my website up and running while doing my best to generate some revenue for all of my enterprises.   

For now, the crazy haired lady is enjoying a tamer time.  This is not to say that the plate has been cleared.  In fact, it is more full than ever, but cracking some of the tougher nuts has made everything else seem more manageable, at least for the moment. 

My gratitudes are:
1. I am grateful to friends who help me clear some trees so I can see the forest.
2. I am grateful to have finally figured things out, like, for instance, the title for #SashasJourney.
3. I am grateful for the lessons I’m learning, like “cover art” has several different meanings.
4. I am grateful that I took the plunge and submitted an essay to The Barefoot Writer, and even more grateful to read the winning essay and see how far I still need to travel.
5. I am grateful for an unbroken stretch of time in which to work tomorrow.

Love and light.