Writing is about so much more than just putting words onto a page. It’s about reading. It’s about redrafting. It’s about editing. It’s about publishing. And, much as many writers loathe to admit it, it’s about marketing, too.

I’ve always aimed to cover every aspect of the writing process on The Writer’s Cookbook, but the menu structure has always been more of a reflection of my mind, and my loves: fiction, poetry, productivity, creativity, and marketing. A part of me knew this wasn’t right, but I didn’t know what to change it to.

I’d initially planned to change the menu structure when the site’s new look went live. However, because everything else was ready to go and I still didn’t know what to change it to, I left it as it was.

And then…

Last month I joined Andrew and Pete‘s marketing community ATOMIC (which I’d highly recommend).

I’ve barely scratched the surface of their great content and have already learnt loads. Some of these learnings I’ve already put into place, while others I’m excited to try out in the near future.

Recently I had my first Open Hours meeting with them, and they helped me to come up with a far better menu structure than the one I’d been using since December 2016(!).

They made me realise that while I’d narrowed my focus significantly (they have no idea how haphazard it was this time last year!), it still wasn’t as narrow as I thought it was.

Poetry is very close to my heart and brings in a lot of traffic to the site. But since I’m not actively writing, publishing, or performing poetry right now, it’s difficult to create regular content around it. Not to mention I don’t have any products for poets to buy (unless you count Productivity for Writers, which covers all forms of writing), so I can’t monetise any of this content.

After I decided to focus on writing and publishing fiction in 2015, poetry had to take a step back. The focus of the blog became fiction, productivity, and self-publishing. But it still wasn’t reflected in the site’s structure…

And now…

The menu reflects the different stages of the writing process: research (aka reading), first drafts, editing, publishing, marketing, and of course, productivity. (After all, you can’t write if you’re not in the right mindset 😉 )

This new structure is much more focused and hopefully makes it easier for you to find advice on whatever stage of the writing process you’re at.

I’ll still cover all forms of writing—from poetry to screenplays to stage plays to blog posts to copy—but the main focus will be fiction.

You’ll be able to find advice on all forms of writing in the writing category. All the old posts on poetry, scriptwriting, and copywriting are still in there too. (I never delete anything if I can help it!)

If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like me to write about, or puns revolving around The Writer’s Cookbook having a new menu, please do share them in the comments! I’m definitely missing a trick not being able to come up with any puns… ?