Welcome to Pixelated Prose
pink and white flowers with green leaves.
Hiya! I’m Frances Ferland. It’s lovely to meet you.
Since this is my very first post on my shiny new blog, I figured I’d tell you a little bit about myself, so we can get to know each other a little better, and give you an idea of what you can expect from me in the future. Sound good?
Perfect.
To quote The Sound of Music, “let’s start at the very beginning.” Okay, well maybe not the very beginning because I’m pretty sure you don’t care where I was born or when. So, let’s start at the beginning of this blog.
It was 2020. I’d been teaching college English for about 4 years — as an adjunct professor with non-existent job security. I’d been given required courses, so most of my students didn’t really want to be there. My time slot was at 7:10 am twice a week for one of the classes I taught, so I also didn’t want to be there, at least until the Starbucks kicked in anyway 😂
And then the pandemic hit.
Let me tell you: teaching via Zoom? Nope. No, thank you. It’s a hard no for me.
I have endless respect for every single teacher out there who had to figure that out and then stay at it for the duration of the lockdown and every snowstorm since. You are stronger than me. And probably have orders of magnitude more patience.
I did not have the stamina for it.
On my first DAY of teaching over Zoom, I had a student lay down in his bed in pajamas and go to back sleep with his camera on. We could all see him sleeping in the light from his screen. He absolutely did not care. No word of a lie.
So, instead of dealing with cranky kids who didn’t care and departmental politics all while navigating weird Zoom class formats, after that first semester I quit.
I’d never loved being in the classroom. It can be immensely fulfilling and inspiring. Some of my best friends teach or taught. Too often, though, for me it was frustrating. Managing students who actively don’t want to be in your class is exhausting. And the politics behind the scenes didn’t help.
The teaching part? The helping a student figure something out or discover something new? That part, I loved. The rest of it? I wasn’t sad to wave good bye to my classroom when I left.
Metaphorically, since it was still lockdown and I would still have been teaching on Zoom.
I went to work for my dad, running the office at his construction company, which is fascinating and can definitely be a challenge. I love his company and I love how much my dad loves his work, but construction has never been in my skillset. I wanted to find something that was.
I wanted to find something where I could teach, without worrying about forcing my students to pay attention. But I also wanted something where I could create.
Creativity, whether that’s writing or crafting or design, has always been a core part of who I am. My grandmother taught me how to crochet when I was about four and I never looked back: crochet, knitting, cross-stitch, photography, bookbinding, jewelry making, block printing. You name it, I’ve probably tried it or it’s on my list to try. Creation is one important way for me to express myself and connect with other people, friends and strangers.
Writing is another. My cousin taught me how to write around the time my grandmother taught me to craft. I decided then and there, that I wanted to be a writer of stories. It wasn’t until Middle School that I landed on novelist as a goal, over other writing paths. So far? I haven’t quite met that childhood goal, but I’ll keep you posted 😄.
When I left my teaching job, I knew I wanted to do something that married both sides of me, the educator and the creator. It took a few years, but I finally found my way to a job where I can teach and inspire and help, while also getting to create and adapt on my own terms.
That job is web design, a field that I literally stumbled into thanks to a close friend. The two of us decided to start a podcast together. Because I had more free time, I volunteered to ‘do’ the website. How hard could it be, I figured? I’m creative and tech savvy.
Harder than I initially thought 😂.
That didn’t stop me from becoming OBSESSED with the process, though. A cascade of youtube videos and reading followed - See this for one of the places I started my journey.
The seed of an idea was planted.
Why couldn’t I do this for real? For a living? After all, I was already a writer. I’d had several short stories published and I did two master’s theses. I knew I could create content. And I’d taught English, so I knew I could teach clients how to use their pages. I could also review copy quickly. After having corrected 20 essays in two days, copy review would be a breeze.
The best part? The job is adaptable, remote, and self-scheduled. Which means I don’t have to leave my puppy to go sit in an office somewhere and I could work from Disney World or the top of a mountain if I wanted to. What’s not to love?
But of course, a great job is all well and good. It definitely fits in well with the lifestyle I want, but it doesn’t quite scratch the teaching itch. I enjoy sharing what I know with people who are interested in it.
The key word there is ‘interested.’ The kids in my classroom weren’t.
I was clicking around on the internet, reading blog posts about web design, and it HIT me. Blogs! Blogs are an excellent way to teach people who are interested.
That’s where Pixelated Prose comes in.
Writing and creating are a part of me that I love sharing with others. As a former teacher, there are definitely hacks, tips, and tricks that I’ve seen and used that could help you navigate your way through the absolute maze that is communication. So buckle up and join on me on this journey. Hopefully, we’ll both learn something along the way.
a close-up, black and white picture of a typewriter.
Still with me? Excellent. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty here. My posts will cover a wide variety of topics in communications and creativity, from writing advice to job applications, from web design to marketing, with a splash of Behind-The-Scenes thrown in. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll never miss a post. Just keep an eye on your inbox every Tuesday.
You’re part of that whole project too. It’s not just me shouting into the void (I hope. 😬). The skills and information that you need are going to feed into the topics I discuss here. I’ve got a million ideas swirling around in my head — and spilling onto various apps on my phone and computer in list form — about topics for future posts, but I want to hear from you too. I want to be able to help in the areas that you need it and share on the topics that you want to read.
My inbox is always open for suggestions about future topics.
