For the first time EVER, you’re going to get a little background about how Novelty Revisions became Novelty Revisions. Trust me, it’ll all make sense in a minute.

When I was a junior in high school, it seemed like everyone had their own blog. I wanted to be a writer, and didn’t really have an outlet for anyone to read the things I wrote unless I asked specific people (or begged, pretty much, I didn’t know any better then).

So in January 2009, I started a blog on WordPress called … wait for it … Writer’s Blog. OMG SO ORIGINAL GUYSSSS. It was a lot of weird stuff, I mean, I was your typical weird (in a good way?) 16-year-old Nerdfighter. Highlights included Sonic the Hedgehog ramblings and jokes about polygamy. Don’t ask.

Eventually, I’m not quite sure when, Writer’s Blog turned into Heartfelt. I think the point was to convey how I wanted to share words straight from my heart, or something like that. There were a few emotional posts, probably really personal stuff no one should ever post on the Internet. Let’s pretend it never happened.

At some point while I was in college, Heartfelt turned into Tales of a College Novelist. Some of you probably jumped on board at this point, which is when this really started to transform from a personal blog about my life to a content “hub” meant to help writers, I guess, write better. We got a Facebook page. We had a nice, very pink site redesign. I paid for a .com domain. Everything was great.

Except it wasn’t, because by the time I bought my domain, I wasn’t in college anymore, and it didn’t really fit my style anymore. I stuck with it for awhile longer, but toward the beginning of this year, I decided TCN needed to grow up a little. The pink smileys were getting a little old.

So while I was working full-time and wasn’t in graduate school yet, I spent my evenings creating what you now know as Novelty Revisions, which I designed to help writers, quite simply, learn how to put their ideas into words.

“Novelty” is a play on words: “novelty” means original, as in creating original content, but it also has the word “novel” in it, which is why it’s written Novel[ty] in our logo. Novel as in story or novel as in innovative—get it? We want to help you take your ideas and put them down on paper, but we want to help you carry them through the revisions process, too. In case you wondered where Novelty Revisions came from.

Anyway, it took me a little too long to figure out what I wanted this to be. I’ve finally figured it out. Well, mostly. See, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an expert. I get a lot of my ideas for posts from my own experiences as a writer, which is great and all, but I’ve been struggling lately. Not to come up with ideas, but to come up with ideas that will actually help our readers, which is the whole point of doing this in the first place.

Honestly? I don’t always know what you guys need or want to know. I don’t always know what you struggle with or what you’ve already learned. Which is why I started discussion-oriented posts in the first place. I think they’re more personal. I’m doing this for you. You’re the reason I make it a point to post every day. I’m here for you. I mean it!

So it’s the end of September now. I’m going to keep our LET’S GET PUBLISHED series going for a little while longer, and then we’re going to move into prepping for NaNoWriMo—which is going to be interesting, since I’ll be serving as an ML for the first time this year, and I don’t want to neglect all of you just because I have a region of writers to mentor. YIKES. Exciting, but terrifying. I don’t want to just throw content at you for the sake of having something new to post.

Here’s my question for you today: how can I help you write better?

From the idea-organization stage to the revisions stage of writing “stuff”—I want to be able to help you. But I’m not always sure how.

Would a weekly e-newsletter help? Did you know we already have one? You can sign up here!

Would more “how I do it” posts help? I don’t want to make this all about me, but does it help when I explain strategies from my own perspective?

I don’t know! If you have suggestions, comments, concerns, leave a comment. I’m open to feedback. I just feel like I’m not being particularly helpful, and that’s not good for any of us.

This site has come a long way since 2009. I’m proud of that. But for the first five or so years, I didn’t really have an audience in mind. Now I do. I don’t want to forget that.

I’m looking forward to what you have to say. You can be honest. I don’t take constructive criticism personally. I mean, unless you tell me I publish with too many typos. That hurts.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and health. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist, Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine, a guest contributor with Lifehack and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has also written for Teen Ink and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.