Etcetera OG ✎ COMPLETE

OH HOW THE TIMES ARE CHANGING

Hello, friends.

It's been a minute since I've posted anything here, which is generally how I have to start every single ETC update (*nervous laughter*). And you're probably wondering what this is all about. What times are changing? And how?

These times: 

When I joined Wattpad, it was October 2010 and I was 15. I followed Jordan Lynde here from Quizilla. There was a chat bar at the bottom of the Wattpad website and we had permanent statuses on our profiles. Levi (JustARegularGuy) became my internet husband, xSnowKiss (Yessica <3) quickly befriended me, and then I met even more incredible people (hi Alli and Cassie and Sarena ily). I was writing Justin Bieber fanfiction and making the transition to 1D fic. 

This year, in a little over 2 months, I'll be 24. I've been here for almost 9 years. I still talk to most of the people mentioned above, and I have many new friends here. I'm still writing 1D fic, but I have yet to finish the very first one I ever posted on Wattpad (Bandnapped...rip). I'm also writing other things! But more on that in a minute. I'm a Wattpad Star, I've won a Watty Award, and somehow - despite years of hardly any activity or engagement on my end - I still have a follower count that make my IRL friends go bug-eyed when they first learn about it.

You know how you read books sometimes that are separated into parts? Like halfway through it there will be a new page that simply says "Part II" before you read on? 

This is how the times are changing. Welcome to Part II of my Wattpad career. (I say 'career' in the loosest definition of the word.)

As much as I really really love writing ETC things - album reviews, mixtapes, book hauls, whatever - I'm going to be closing up shop here. You're going to notice a cover change and probably a book description change, and I've deleted a few older parts that make me cringe (I had a lot of aggressive thoughts about One Direction in 2015 wow). But otherwise I'll leave all my reviews and odds and ends up as they are. I just won't be posting any more of them.

In place of them, I'm going to be starting a more organized project. It's just going to be a monthly newsletter-type thing where I can keep you posted about what projects I'm working on, if I ever host any contests or something (I'm really looking far ahead here lol I have no plans for contests in the near future), what music I'm listening to (briefly - no more song-by-song lists) and which books I've recently read and enjoyed. Every single month on the 25th is when a new post will go up. 

I want to keep this strictly Wattpad-focused, so you'll mostly just be hearing about the things I'm doing here. Because! If you haven't noticed, this Part II of my Wattpad career is meant to keep me busy and active and present again. I've been gone for so long, but I have so many plans and a lot of motivation. And I want to keep you all informed and also stay in touch with anyone who wants to chat about it all! So the comment section each month will be our little hang-out spot.

You're going to notice a few changes on my profile over the next month or two as well. I'm not sure when I'll get around to each thing individually, but my profile picture is going to change; my header is going to change; my entire bio is going to be revamped; and TROTSS is probably going to get a cover change to somewhat match Elf Bites and Fate Chances Moonlight. 

And THEN, my friends. Then we will be in Part II. That doesn't sound very cool actually, so let's call it Phase II instead. Book II? Ooo, yeah Book II sounds more appropriate for an online writing community. 

My first post for the newsletter will come in June, and that's where I'm going to announce the first project you'll see me working on in this new era. I can tell you right now though that it's not fan fiction and it's not anything you've seen me post about here before. But I'm very excited about it and I hope you'll enjoy it!

Until then, I will see you with the next Elf Bites chapter sometime next week.

Carissa x