My first week on Hive, a post by @killerwot crossed my feed- HPUD? What the heck is that? As I explored his post, I found myself carried away in inspiration! He spoke of setting HP goals, and detailed how he met them. He also addressed things like tokens, which read like Simish to me- the last five weeks have been information packed! 😂 We will get back to that...

In his comments section, I set a goal to have 100HP by the next month. I'm already committed to writing for at least two hours a day, in an attempt to get better. Working on a novel, I've struggled to adequately represent the world and characters I've made. So, why not bring that writing to Hive, with an additional goal attached? Well, today marks a month- so, did I do it?!

Yeeeeeeeesssss!!

Thanks to so many amazing people, I've met my goal and some! I've found myself exploring a lot of things I never would've considered before Hive. @jamerussell sent me a post by @yaziris on HTML, I decided to have a go. I was maybe a bit too ambitious... I pulled images in a zig-zag left to right, impressed with how good my post looked in preview- but then, oh no!!

I didn't read the part about horizontal rulers carefully enough, and I have posted soup. Panicked, I run to the terminal to plead for help, and who else is around but YAZ! Holy cannoli, I was SO embarrassed. I had just credited him for helping me learn how to post... soup.

Yikes. A big lesson was taught to me that day, ask for help! The terminal, and really every Hive discord, is full of friendly people. Since then, I've checked my code with one of them if I try something new. I'm actually starting to understand some HTML code now, because of Hive!


I can attribute my power up today to two factors, the lesser of which is transferring over steem, I'm halfway through my power down there, on an account I thought I had lost for years!

The biggest factor is community: The Ink Well, Thoughtful Daily Post, Ladies of Hive, Dreemport, Scholar and Scribe, and Freewriters in particular have welcomed me in, and encouraged me to participate. Each one of those communities has Mods that interact with new people, and help them catch the buzz. It makes it easy for non-tech minded folks to find a place to thrive! Cheers to them!

@jamerussell was the first person to reach out, inspiring and encouraging me. Soon I met all kinds of great people who did the same, @yaziris and @thekittygirl who are bright lights to anyone lost off the coast here, always dedicating their time to helping on discord. Which of course brings to mind @wesphilbin who seems to be everywhere, offering kind words and a helping hand!



The illustrious @snook became a friend too, gently nudging me in the direction of better formatting. Now, if I don't hear from her on discord for a few days, I get worried. It's amazing how hive brings us together! If I were to list all the friends I've made here, or credit everyone who's helped me along, this would turn into quite the cluster... So just one final tag:

@itsostylish helps curate and inspire authors every day, along with the other awesome Admins of the Ink Well team. A requirement to enter weekly contests there, is to engage with other writers. Because of this, us fiction writers get to know each other. Although my vote isn't worth much YET, I really love curating, and the hive spirit of lifting each other up through engagement!

Two weeks ago @itsostylish generously delegated me a hunk of HP, enabling me to do so much more here! I don't know what made me happier, that she valued my curation, and wanted to invest in it... or that she believed in me enough to want to delegate in the first place! I was absolutely inspired! I want to give her the warmest THANK YOU for her friendship and support!

Okay! Let's power up :)

Woot! Today I was able to double my Hp!! That brings my total HP including delegations to 665! My next goal will be to once again double my natural HP of 249 by December! In the meantime, I plan on diversifying my Hive though tokens, which I finally understand a bit! In particular I'm interested in Pimp, pizza, leo, and Lady. Excited to see where the next month takes me!

It was great to participate in my first HPUD, here's to many more!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me in my first month!

^{All images in this post created with free elements on canva}