Girl Clown Dancing is four years old this month, which means it’s also the time to reflect on posts over the last year.
Most often, I don’t have to think much about what my next GCD essay will be. There’s always something going on, whether it’s a story in the news; from a friend, or about a personal experience.
But in 2018, I also gave myself some wiggle room, so I didn’t post as often.
However, there were reasons.
A year ago, in January and February, I was in Guatemala, attending a memoir writing retreat run by best- selling author Joyce Maynard. I met, played and worked with about a dozen extraordinary women, all writers. Some have been published, some not, but each had terrific stories to tell. My biggest takeaway was learning how to edit GCD posts with the goal of keeping every essay on point. To that end, I’m now doing my best to write posts 800 words or less.
Some of these tighter blogs include memories of the Bakelite View-Master I had as a child (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/view-master);how social media came to me (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/social-media), and the secret to living a long life (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-secret). I’ve also used GCD to write about my Bill Cosby petition, which now has over 35,000 signatures, but received only a few comments on the Weebly platform (https://hilaryrobertsgrant.weebly.com/blog/the-monster-named-bill-cosby).
A few months after that retreat, I began working with an extraordinary woman, now 75 years old, on her memoir.
A retired environmental attorney, she has lived a big life, including traveling the globe; marrying three men
(with romances in between), and raising two children, mostly on her own. She has also saved nearly every scrap of
paper detailing these events, and many more, so there’s a lot to organize, and then, write. Later in the year,
I was honored to pen four articles for Cornell University.
All along, I continued to conjure up ways to attract new readers.
I now post Girl Clown Dancing on Next Door, the social media platform that bills itself as the world’s largest social network for local communities. While its main purpose has nothing to do with blogging, most have welcomed my essays, seeing them as an opportunity to get to know another person in the area.
Then, I created a Facebook business site which allows me to post my essays, and advertise my writing services as well. (The link is here, at: https://www.facebook.com/girlclowndancing/) A few more Facebook friends have also kindly permitted me to post new blogs directly on their timelines.
Finally, I’ve become a partner on Quora, the global question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered and edited by its community of users. When appropriate, I’ve used GCD essays for answers, another way of introducing my writing to yet another pool of readers..
As for this year, the goal remains the same: I’ll keep writing. I hope you keep reading.
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