Trivialities

Changes?? In which I I’m even worse at handling change than I thought…

Hello, friends!

As you may have noticed…there have been some changes to my blog.

*attempts to curb my own hyperventilating*

I’ve been meaning to revamp things around here for a while, and early in the second month of a new year just felt like the right time to finally do it, you know?

I’m SURE you all have BURNING QUESTIONS. Don’t worry. I got you.

Why have you changed things?

I started this blog on a whim almost six years ago, and haven’t messed with the formatting much since then. The wordpress theme I originally chose was one that required large header images and, while I love photography and would love to take fancy pictures of books and such….I don’t. Because time is in short supply?? So more often then not, I ended up using stock images. Which…wasn’t terribly exciting.

Particularly the blurry stock image that was my blog’s header. Every time I looked at it, I just…didn’t want to look at it.

What things have you changed?

Well, the wordpress theme for one, but I think that’s pretty apparent.

  • I have a human name! Because I love the Temperamental Writer, but it’s more of a title really. And I really am a person, not just an elusive writing entity. I promise.
  • I shortened my blog’s name. Because it was very long? I’m calling it Trivialities now–although the web address is still All Things Trivial and Insignificant
  • I updated my About page (including such important information as some of the hills I will die on)
  • I added a contact page (in case you needed to scream at me about the most spoilery bits of a book you read at my recommendation)
  • I made myself a wee logo:

How do you feel about the changes?

*hyperventilating intensifies*

I know I tend to exaggerate and be very hyperbolic on my blog, but I’m actually physically light-headed right now.

Why, you ask?

Guys, I have no idea.

I know I don’t deal with change very well, but apparently I’m even worse at it than I thought? Every step of the way, I’ve been freaking out. Because, my blog has been a certain way for almost SIX YEARS, and now it’s DIFFERENT and AHHHHHHHHH.

I guess I’m afraid I’m going to wake up at 3AM in a cold sweat thinking “I WILL REGRET THESE CHANGES UNTIL MY DYING BREATH”

…Not sure why?

Or maybe it’s imposter syndrome, which I get a lot. I mean, I didn’t like the blurry stock photo header, but maybe it suited me better?

Maybe I am, in my heart, a blurry stock photo.

…

Other than that, I feel just peachy.

Miscellaneous questions:

Do the changes to your blog mean that you have changed in your soul and your posts will never be the same again?

*hyperventilating* I hope not.

Can I still call you Erik?

Yes, grandma. You can. I remain, in my heart, as much Magneto as I am a blurry stock image.

Why are you still hyperventilating?

I DON’T KNOW

I read your updated About page. What is Bandstand?

It is an INCREDIBLE musical. Go listen to it.

What’s your new book about?

Well, it’s–wait, who told you I was writing a book??

Are you finally actually writing the one you said you were writing? About the airships?

*crickets chirping*

*sneaks out the backdoor with my WIP behind my back*

***

That’s it for today! I hope to start posting consistently once a week, but we’ll see what happens?? Until then, I wish you all well!

How are you at handling change? Have you ever made major changes to your blog? Did it give you disproportionate anxiety? Do you get lightheaded when you’re hungry (because I do and I’m starting to wonder if hunger is actually part of the problem right now…)? How many books do you think a person can write before they actually write the one they told you they were working on? Do tell!

Elizabeth Hyde (The Temperamental Writer)

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17 responses to “Changes?? In which I I’m even worse at handling change than I thought…”

  3. YOUR NAME IS SO INCREDIBLY VICTORIAN I COULD NOT LOVE IT MORE. Ahem. I hope you will make Four Princes (Three of Whom Are Dead) Victorian like you said you might and publish it as Elizabeth Hyde, though, because THE VICTORIANNESS. (Why do I like this so much? It just MAKES ME HAPPY for some reason.)

    Anyways! I like the changes! Your blog is all bright and minimalist and cute now, and the new logo is so bright and minimalist and cute! And I like it!

    How many books can you write before writing the one you told people you were working on? Infinitely many! *nervous laughter* *also nervous glances at That Story and That Person I Foolishly Told About It*

    Also, I have not really changed my blog much, which…isn’t good because I NEED TO but TIME who has it? and I’m so bad at technology stuff I need to go read seven thick tomes about html and web design and then MAYBE I can get a result I like (so I tell myself) and I definitely cannot deal with that right now and I REFUSE to work really hard changing my blog only to still hate the result so…it’s staying bad for now. Uh. Yeah. *looks up in confusion* Where was I? Change? Overthinking it? You have my sympathies, mate. But also, looks great, and go eat some food for heaven’s sake where is your grandma she shouldn’t be letting you starve yourself like – Jem!! JEM!!? COME FIX YOUR GRANDCHILD

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    • THANK YOU. I adore Victorian things, so it makes me happy that you find my name Victorian 🙂 Unfortunately, I don’t think Four Princes is going to turn out to be Victorian–it’s leaning more medieval, methinks–but SARAH, MY NEWEST BOOK IS VICTORIAN AND I’M SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED. Considering how much I love Victorian-ness, I’m honestly surprised that it took me this long to write something Victorian?? How??? But I’m doing it now, and I’m SO EXCITED. (I mean, does it have a plot? Do I know what I’m doing?? Not really, but I’m gonna FIGURE IT OUT)
      *joins in the nervous laughter while causally sidling over to hide behind a bush before That Story sees me*
      Ugh, I KNOW. I put off changing my blog for like two years because I didn’t want to work on it and still hate the results because I Don’t Know How to Technology. (While writing this post I was having weird flashbacks of being thirteen and not wanting to wear anything other than ripped up jeans and a hand-me-down t-shirt, because if I TRIED to look nice and still didn’t look nice, people would be able to tell I was trying and failing and I would want to go die in a hole or something?? Oh, what an age that was XD)
      (Also, for what it’s worth, I never think your blog looks bad. It’s so chill and there are tree silhouettes??)
      Speaking of your blog, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO COMMENT ON YOUR LATEST POST FOR THREE DAYS AND WORDPRESS KEEPS EATING MY COMMENTS. If it doesn’t spit one of them out soon, I might have to just add one to this thread…
      I ate some food! Everything is fixed now! (But yeah, Grandma Jem should have fed me. I almost had to eat raw macaroni….)

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      • Ah well, we need more medieval murder mysteries anyhow. (Autocorrect just tried to capitalize “murder”?? and I’m confused.)
        IT IS??!! HURRAH!!! SOUND THE TRUMPETS! LET THERE BE REJOICING IN THE STREETS! I truly love Victorian stuff, and I only recently realized how much I MISS it (cuz I read it all the time as a wee young kidkin), and THIS MAKES ME HAPPY. You will figure out the plot. The plot will be irrelevant anyway, because CHARACTERS and POCKET WATCHES and FROCK COATS and HANSOM CABS. It will be splendid.

        (What an age indeed. XD You gave me flashbacks to my own such phase…which occurred in high school, actually, which I am not proud about but hey. XD)

        (Thank you. Tree silhouettes ARE a net positive, it’s true.)

        WordPress WHY. I haven’t seen any of them and I don’t know how to fix it (have we mentioned Being Bad at Technology), I’m sorry. Hopefully it doesn’t persist? *quietly goes and bangs head repeatedly against a wall because WHY DO I PUT UP WITH YOU, AGAIN, WORDPRESS?*

        *patient sigh* Come here, I made some apple pie, keep that around for next time. Grandma Jem is a grandma, grandmas take really long naps sometimes, it happens. Consumption of raw macaroni, on the other hand, should NOT be happening.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Clearly, we should always capitalize Murder. Characters, frock coats, pocket watches, and hansom cabs can be enough to distract the reader from the fact that you have no idea what a Plot is. Particularly if the elements join forces… *makes a mental note to include a scene in which a character wears and frock coat and checks their pocket watch while riding in a hansom cab*
        (Shortly after writing that comment I thought about it more and realized I wasn’t thirteen…I was sixteen. An unflattering realization that I could have happily remained oblivious to XD)
        As WordPress seems determined to Hate me at the moment, I think I’ll just drop the comment in this thread (because I could let it go? but at this point it’s about Not Letting WordPress Win as well as Principle and Honor)
        *accidentally eats half the apple pie before you tell me to save it* Grandmas DO take really long naps, don’t they? All the more reason to eagerly await my own days of grannyhood when long naps will be more socially acceptable

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      • Clearly. Always. Murder.
        Indeed, obscuring one’s view of the empty lot where a Plot /ought/ to have stood (only the builders scratched their heads and realized they did not know quite how to build such a thing) is what they are FOR. I shall look out for that scene, when this book appears in the world, and shall feel vastly superior to all the readers who don’t know the dark secret this concoction hides from their uninitiated eyes.

        Dude, I also cannot WAIT to be a grandma. Even more for getting to be a Sophie Hatter-esque pinnacle of unfiltered grumpiness than for the naps, tbh.

        Liked by 1 person

      • THE PRODIGAL COMMENT
        *intense drumroll as I try for the fifth and hopefully final time to comment upon this excellent post*
        These are excellent. Particularly the LOTR ones. I think I always knew deep in my heart that Tolkien wrote LOTR out of a great and abiding love of spelunking.
        I have wanted to read Assignment in Brittany ever since I heard (saw?) you mention it a while back–but now I REALLY need to read it because there will be potato digging content. I have long felt that the great flaw of much literature is the lack of potato related content. Unfortunately, my library doesn’t have said volume, but one of these days I’m going to do something DRASTIC and BUY it somewhere–solely for the potatoes, of course.

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      • *to servants, offstage* PREPARE THE FATTED CALF
        Well done, son. *shakes your hand enthusiastically* You have upheld the honor of the bloggers. You have stuck to Principle and Honor. You have Not Let WordPress Win. I am proud.
        Right, though??! I always heard people talk about how Lord of the Rings really grew out of Tolkien’s deep enthusiasm for philology, which I was always confused about till I realized “philology” is a synonym for “spelunking.”
        Heh. Now that you say that I’m all of a sudden questioning myself: “was it actually /potatoes/ he was digging? I /think/ it was potatoes??” So…yeah. Hopefully if you go to such drastic lengths as reading it (or even buying it *collective gasp from the audience*), there will be potatoes. (I confess the shoeless American inexplicably hiding out in the midst of the French potato field distracted me a wee smidgen from the potatoes themselves. A weakness in my character.) Since of course, without potatoes the book falls all apart.

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      • BE THOU VANQUISHED WORDPRESS (…except it isn’t because it’s still refusing to let write comments on anyone’s blogs *weeps*)
        I will henceforth begin using “philology” in place of “spelunking”, since they so obviously mean the same thing.
        IF THERE ARE NO POTATOES, I WILL FEEL DEEPLY BETRAYED (although, a shoeless American hiding in the French potato field just might distract me from being so very upset…)

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      • I AM SO SORRY I HAVE FAILED AS YOUR GRANDMA FORGIVE ME ERIK

        (I was indeed having a month-long nap)

        *stuffs apology chicken enchiladas in your hands*

        Congratulations on your new changes!! Your name is very pretty and your logo is very pretty and I’m a proud grandma for you handling this change. You’ve done a good job and I look forward to seeing your blog be like this for the next six years! xD

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