Writing, Reading, and Organizing

Debut Substack post...

I've been busy setting up clients on Substack, but have so far neglected posting my first weekly note. Part of my procrastination was caused by not being sure what I wanted to dedicate this space to. I have narrowed down my options. All my social media and my website blog are dedicated to marketing, productivity, and serving other creative entrepreneurs. And I truly love doing that. But Unleashing the Next Chapter started eleven years ago to document my love of writing, my recovery, and what I was learning. It grew into a marketing business. I am extremely proud of how UtNC has grown in the last decade, but find I miss having a space to distill and share what I'm reading, writing, learning, and currently obsessing over.

While I only have one subscriber (Hi Leann!), it seems like a good time to set the intention for this space. Welcome to Kathryn's Next Chapter, dedicated to my personal brand and creative musings. I would like to say it's my "author platform," but that seems a bit presumptuous. Over the last few years, I've realized I much prefer digital marketing for a day job over being an author. While I've published a few short stories, I have discovered that writing to a deadline, and knowing an editor is waiting for me, is way more stressful than handling a large account. That stress seems to sap my creativity.

Don't misunderstand, I'm still writing. But my focus is writing for MY enjoyment and entertainment, not to publish. If I do end up with something worth publishing, I will consider doing so. Actually, I am working on a short story now that will be included in the next UtNC Creatives Community Anthology, but I had that all planned out before creating the call for submissions. (If you'd care to submit a short story, here's the link to the submission guidelines.)

What's more important to me at the moment, is having a place to interact with readers and writers about WHAT we are reading, learning, excited about, and to share ideas and resources that feed our creative souls. I realized over the past few months that I desperately miss grad school, and having  accountability and discussion to stretch myself. On YouTube, I've been following some wonderful literature, philosophy, and knowledge management channels. I am also on Goodreads, but find I just use that as a place to track what I'm reading. It's more of a log than a community. That is probably my own fault. Maybe I just haven't take the time to optimize how I use that platform.

Meanwhile, I have ten books in-progress.  Wow! Different genres, formats and purposes.

For work:

• You Are the Brand by Mike Kim on Kindle

• Email Marketing Demystified by Matthew Paulson, on Kindle

• Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz on Audible

• Reader Magnets by Nick Stephenson on Kindle

• The 10 Commandments of Author Branding by Shalya Raquel on Kindle

Fiction:

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis: Complete Audio Collection, on Audible

• Marigold by Will Clarke, paperback

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas on Audible

Inspiration:

• The Power in Prayer by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, paperback

Literary Criticism:

• How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, paperback

The paperbacks, I love because I can annotate them, and create notes at the end of chapters, and list quotes I want to pull on the back covers. Then I process my notes into Evernote so it's searchable and tagged for later use in creating content. The Kindle books allow me to quickly highlight important passages and quotes, and I can then copy and paste those notes into Evernote as well. The audio books I try to reserve for fiction because they are more difficult to take notes from, although I often stop at the end of chapters and write a bit of summary and reactions -- again in Evernote.

I try to actively read in my field for business purposes, and I'm becoming more and more convinced that it may be time for me to write my own marketing book for creatives. So much of what is available isn't relevant to authors, artists, designers, entertainers, or artisans. Some of the books I've read are by authors without a marketing background, but the information is often out of date or incorrect.

I've also been deep diving into the personal knowledge management (PKM) space. I stumbled across this in my passion for all things productivity. I've been teaching productivity tools and techniques since the early 1990s. Yes, I'm that kind of nerd. I've had an Evernote account since 2013. I was taught to organize my notes in binders, and a variation of what I now know as Zettelkasten. So now I use Evernote for CODE (Capturing, Organizing, Distilling, and Expressing per Tiago Forte in Building a Second Brain. I use Asana as my project management tool, and I use a bullet journal for planning and quick notes.

I'm fascinated by what processes other readers and writers have in place for capturing and organizing what they are learning.  As David Allen says in Getting Things Done, "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them."

Welcome to this Substack! I'm curious to see how this develops. I love that this space provides options for you to comment and that we can have a conversations. And if you are active on Goodreads, find me there at  https://www.goodreads.com/kathrynmcclatchy. I'd also love to know how you use Goodreads, and any Groups you are active in. My favorite genres are Suspense, Fantasy, Business, and Victorian Literature.

Until next time, unleashing curiosity and creativity…

~~ Kathryn