Project Purpose
I love books. I love to read them, talk about them, and theorize about all aspects of them. So, when it came down to coming up with a project for this previous semester, it was easy. I decided to allow the people in my life a break from hearing about all of my book thoughts and put them in a blog instead.
The Project
Over this semester, I worked tirelessly on the website, the articles, and TikTok videos associated with the articles I wrote. I wrote 3 articles that I planned out, wrote, edited, and then posted on my website.
One article I am extremely proud of is: “What Genre Should You Read?”
I worked on this one for a long time. I carefully thought out the different genres I should have recommendations for and then the actual books I recommended. I had four different books for each genre. I also laid out how to find what genre is a good fit for the reader.
I rewrote this article many times. I rewrote the different ways I would describe the genre. I also thought about the books I was recommending. I wanted a variety of authors and storylines. Making sure that there was a healthy balance of different aspects of the genres.
I made a couple of different videos for a TikTok account associated with the blog. I found some struggles with these, but I was able to find a way to post and be proud of the work that I posted.
The website was another huge part of the project that I worked a lot on. I set up the website on WordPress and worked on the setup for a while. I am happy to say that I am proud of the way the site is now set up.
Here is a link to the site: https://papercutsbookclub0.wordpress.com/
Challenges
No project is complete with its own list of challenges. Some challenges I faced were:
- TikTok: I faced a lot of roadblocks when it came to working with TikTok. The main reason I wanted to use TikTok was to be marketing for my articles. However, I was not able to set up a business account to put links on my account. Because of this reason, I decided to stray away from utilizing TikTok to put my articles out there.
- Website Set Up: I faced a lot of learning curves when it came to setting up my website. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to lay things out and having working links. I am pleased to say that I now have a better understanding of WordPress and how it works.
- Unhappy with work: I spent a lot of time working on videos or articles that I either ended up scrapping or reworking entirely. These pieces of work did not fit up to the standard that I set for myself for this project. This was a huge challenge that I encountered during my time on this project.
Project Process
Each week looked a little bit different depending on the time I laid out for this project and the goals I had set. I spent most of my time writing and editing articles. I started the project by setting up the website. I then switched between writing articles and fixing issues that I found on my website or TikTok account. In that time I also posted 2 TikTok videos.
An Overview of the Experiences I Had
This project was extremely humbling for me. I have had things come pretty easily for me in the past. This project showed me that not everything will come so easily. There were a lot of learning curves and roadblocks when it came to this project. In the end, I found to love it.
Insights and Takeaways of the Project
My biggest takeaways and insights were:
- I love to write
- Creating something that I am proud of is extremely important to me
- I can do hard things
I plan on continuing this blog and hope to learn more as I progress.