AJ's Creative Corner

In this week's episode, I reacted to a blog post https://nicolebianchi.com/5-famous-authors-strategies-conquering-writers-block/ that discusses different famous author's strategies to overcome writer's block.

I've taken a long break from the Podcast, almost a year, so I thought it'd be fitting to discuss writer's block this week. Due to burnout, a multitude of life changes, and a severe case of the dreaded writer's block, I haven't been near as consistent with writing or my online presence as I would like to be.

Since it's a crazy time in the world & I am just one of millions of people experiencing extreme burnout in a way that I have never felt before, I wanted to discuss this topic again with a slight twist.

Comment down below & let me know what strategies you utilize to help yourself overcome writer's block.

P.S. don't forget to checkout ajscreativecorner.com to see more of my poetry and tips for new writers! :)

Hey guys! Welcome to this week's episode where we cover digital marketing trends in 2021, Instagram's new blog post breaking down how their algorithm works, and the ongoing feud between Facebook and Apple. I used 3 different articles in this episode so like always they are linked down below and I highly encourage you to go check them out. This is the first installment of a reoccurring series. At least once a month or once every other month I will be doing a digital marketing news segment to tell you guys all about what's new in the digital marketing world. I hope you guys enjoy this episode and I will see you next week!

Sources:

https://ppcexpo.com/blog/what-is-new-in-digital-marketing

https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/shedding-more-light-on-how-instagram-works

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522706/facebook-creators-apple-google-fees-payment-interface-events

Hey guys! For this week's episode, I checked in with you and talked about how planning my horror story is going. We briefly discuss a blog post called "Writing a Novel in Tep Steps" which is on the Writer's Bureau website. (https://www.writersbureau.com/writing/planning-a-novel.htm) I share my rough draft with you for my new story and then we end this episode by talking about the history of the Cecil Hotel. I also talked about Elisa Lam's case and the Netflix docuseries "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will see you in the next one!

Hey guys! I've gotten technical about social media strategies on this Podcast before but I've never gotten technical about the specific job I actually have so I wanted to change that! This episode is all about me, a brand new freelance writer who just started her journey this year on top of her full-time job sharing tips with all of you on how to get started.

For the first half of this episode I share specific tips on where you should begin if you're brand new to freelance writing. Then I end this episode talking about how I experimented by boosting a Facebook post on my business page for $10 and I share the results with you guys! I also breakdown what the heck is going on with this new iOS update for Apple users and how it affects business owners who run ads through Facebook. Thank you so much for listening, I will see you in next week's episode!

Hey guys! First and foremost I just want to apologize for the inaccuracies in the part where I talk about the movie Hard Candy. I totally spaced and confused some of the details for a different movie I had watched in the past! The main character in the movie is not getting revenge for her sister, she simply suspects that the man is a predator and wants revenge on him for that reason. Regardless the general statements I made about the movie's execution on an extremely difficult topic still stands!

Besides that I hope you enjoy this week's episode where I talk about banned books, common reasons for books getting banned, and I give you my own opinion on whether I think censorship belongs in the writing space or not.

P.S. Super sorry for the delay in this week's episode, tons of editing issues on my end, sorry about that!

I hope you enjoyed this weeks episode. Feel free to follow my on my Instagram account @Ajscreativewriting to connect about this week's episode and I will see you guys next Wednesday!

Hey guys! So I have a new goal...I want to learn how to write a horror story! Normally I come on this blog to teach you how to do something I've already taken the time to learn but on today's episode I thought we could learn together! So throughout the episode I reference an article:

https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-write-a-horror-story/

This article simply gives tips on how to write a horror story. I also review my progress from January until now when it comes to my writing journey. I talk about what I have done, I talk about my future goals, and I ramble on for a solid 15 minutes about a crazy underdeveloped plot. It's a lot of fun, come join!

I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will see you in the next one!

Hi guys! This week I want to talk about why toxic relationships are so romanticized in some of the most popular books, especially when it comes to YA fiction. Like last week's episode I start out by proposing this question, I give real examples, and I end it with a call-to-action, discussing how we can all do better. In this episode, I use the Twilight series, the 50 Shades of Grey series, After, and 365 Days as examples of works that portray toxic relationships. Feel free to check out this week's episode and stick around for the end where we end this week's episode on a positive note!

The article that I referenced about E.L. James beginning the series of 50 shades of grey:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2017/02/10/fifty-shades-of-green-how-fanfiction-went-from-dirty-little-secret-to-money-machine/?sh=76d85903264c

First and foremost I want to make sure I include all of the links to everything I mentioned during today's episode:

Instagram Post About Emily Duncan Controversy: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNaZ61Er6UW/

The interview where Catherine Hardwicke talks about working with Stephenie Meyer: https://popculture.com/movies/news/twilight-author-stephanie-meyer-racist-twitter-new-book-reveal/

Sam Reimer's essay about the racism in Twilight: http://film.byu.edu/aperture/?p=187

An interesting article about Hermione Granger's Racial depiction and character description: https://bookriot.com/white-bias-in-literature/

2019 report on diversity in children's and YA literature: https://bookriot.com/diversity-in-childrens-and-young-adult-literature/

THE 2018 STATE OF RACIAL DIVERSITY IN ROMANCE PUBLISHING FROM THE RIPPED BODICE: https://bookriot.com/the-2018-state-of-racial-diversity-in-romance-publishing-from-the-ripped-bodice/

WHERE IS THE DIVERSITY IN PUBLISHING? THE 2015 DIVERSITY BASELINE SURVEY RESULTS: https://blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/where-is-the-diversity-in-publishing-the-2015-diversity-baseline-survey-results/

Articles to read when you're learning how to write characters of a different race:

https://midnightbreakfast.com/writing-people-of-color

https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/96830966357/words-for-skin-tone-how-to-describe-skin-color

Major, major spoiler alerts! I discuss the movie Antebellum and the show Behind Her Eyes in this episode. Everything in this episode is solely my opinion about why I personally dislike the trend of writers using drastic plot twists purely for shock value but I love to hear different opinions! What are your thoughts?

On the second episode of AJ's Creative Corner podcast, I finished up some tips on how writers can market themselves for free on Instagram and explored some content ideas that writers can use on any social media platform.