Agonizing and Ecstasizing Again
When a fledgling story of mine on Medium garnered unexpected and enthusiastic encouragement, including multiple calls to turn the story into a novel, a series of events was set in motion that I could not avoid. I’m going to talk about one of those events here.
You might have experienced the same.
I needed to redesign my website.
Many things about the site made it inconducive to self-promotion.
- The site was static and needed to be dynamic.
- The site was monotonic and uninspired.
- The site did not encourage engagement, nor was it inclusive.
- I’d made the site all black and white in a fit of self-indulgence.
- The site theme I was using was out of date and unsupported.
I needed to remake the whole damn thing.
That is, I had to turn one thing into another.
I’ve messed around with website design before. I use that action word on purpose because it can be messy.
Beginning the process is much like leaping off a cliff. I’ve also done that before, though only as a child, and the cliff was only in the child’s eye.
The first step I always take is to destroy everything in sight. That’s what works for me. I’ve tried the other way — gradually transforming what exists into something it was never meant to be.
Like life, that approach often tends to fail.
It’s usually better (and easier) to create something entirely new.
I found a theme devoted specifically to Book Authors and promptly installed it.
Having never worked with this theme, I found myself at the base of a new, mountainous learning curve.
I began chanting my life’s mantra: patience, persistence, perseverance.
I began to climb.
I’ve assembled a toolkit for pursuing creative writing projects — metaphorically. As fellow artisans in the same trade, you’ll probably recognize them. Fundamentals like Canva, Google, and Microsoft Word. Elegant additions like Midjourney, Grammarly, and Medium itself.
But the hammer in the kit — the go-to tool for smashing and rebuilding — is the glorious gizmo of our times: YouTube.
Without YouTube, I’d be lost and lost beyond all hope.
I don’t always understand what’s shown or said there, so I’ve developed a coping routine.
For instance, I googled, “Can I create custom flowcharts in Canva?” I came up with the chart above. If you look closely, it’s a lousy flowchart. Still, ecstasy came from figuring out a new solution, while agony came during four hours of incredible frustration attempting to ascend this brand-new learning curve.
It was only one of the dozens I encountered while developing my new site.
Any solutions to my problems meant answering a primary question: What is the source of the problem?
Where does the obstruction arising between what I envision and its implementation originate?
It could be from any of these sources:
- The host of the website (Bluehost).
- The theme provider (Elementor).
- The web content manager (WordPress).
- The plug-in developers (Varied).
Incredibly, I encountered no compatibility issues among these sources.
Here’s me, thanking heaven in great relief.
The new website is complete after a week of ecstatic bliss and devastating agony.
Like all such profound moments, I now measure time as “Before” and “After.”
Like all dictates of spiritual wisdom: “Remain always in the magnificent Present.
Translation: “Do not abide in the in-between.”
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