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Ok, that is a slight lie...I joined Steem in May of this year, and this is a roundup of my journey so far.

I remember watching a Youtube video by an 'alternative' news source (read conservative / libertarian) at around the time Youtube started demonetising 'wrong thinkers'. Discussing other streams of income, Steem was mentioned in a passing comment. Intrigued, I searched and stumbled upon Steemit.

It looked too good to be true: you can get paid for posting content? Surely, this was a con. Nonetheless, I joined up and waited a week for my account to come online. I started posting about one of my hobbies, 3D modeling. I got hit with a Curie vote in my first week, to the tune of over $200.

Eager to see if this was indeed a con, the first chance I could I withdrew some funds in order to make a little online purchase, proving to myself and my girlfriend that yes, this was the real deal.

I started running a digital art contest and, eager to secure some funds to pay out in prizes, I got in touch with a certain fellow named @aggroed on Steemit Chat. Would he have any ideas? He sent me a link to what turned out to be a new Discord server called PALnet. Intrigued, I joined and got involved with his new project, @minnowsupport. It finally clicked to me that the biggest asset one can have on Steem is a community. I met many awesome Steemians there, making many lasting friendships. I joined the moderator team at MSP, helping newbies to the platform.

Steemfest 2 was announced and several Steemians started competitions to win tickets, flights or hotel accommodation for the event. I entered @theprophet0's contest and was overwhelmed with support from fellow Minnow Support members, securing my victory and the prize of airfare to and from Portugal.

I started up my @Muxxybot curation account in July, sharing and promoting minnow posts, those hidden gems that I felt deserved more exposure. I have steadily built a curation team of 22 people, some concentrating on poetry, others fiction, my newest members curate French posts and the rest curate other more general posts.

It was during my time at MSP that I met @rhondak - and she took my Steem journey into a new direction. She saw something in my retelling of a true life story I posted and encouraged me to try my hand at fiction writing. Meanwhile, she created the Fiction Workshop on PALnet and I joined in, developing my writing skills with the team of editors and other members there.

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As great as the community is at MSP, I had personal issues with another member and I no longer felt able to work alongside them. I made the decision to step down as moderator and to concentrate on my own writing. @rhondak and I formed a new Discord group, dedicated to writing, called The Writers' Block. It has been running since September 25th and has grown to almost 370 members. We initially catered to fiction, but diversified into non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting, and songwriting workshops. We also have an English language channel to help non native English writers. We are extremely proud of the community we have formed and enjoy lots of support from some prominent Steemians. There is a great crossover with MSP - in fact two PALnet moderators @swelker101 and @crimsonclad are also moderators at The Writers' Block - and we regularly send members between the communities as we see what their needs are.

Early last month the time came for me to travel to Lisbon for Steemfest. There was initially a problem with my airline going bust, but thanks to the enormous generosity of @rolandp and another member I won't name, I managed to secure new flights. I had an awesome time meeting many other Steemians of different nationalities, discussing their Steem plans and projects while representing The Writers' Block and sharing our future plans with them.

Of course, it wasn't all business. Much food and drink was consumed and a good time was had by all. I look forward to attending Steemfest 3 next year.

Since returning from Lisbon, I have gotten stuck back into running The Writers' Block, trying to write a little when I can. I put my new storytelling skills to the test and secured the top spot in a recent writing competition held by @hardfork-series. I am extremely proud to say that all top spots were taken by members of The Writers' Block. I also secured a runners up prize in @v4vapid's contest, and was ecstatic to learn @rhondak was the overall winner, and again, our members secured several other prizes in his contest.

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Christmas is usually a financial struggle for my family. Due to ill health I cannot go out to work. Thanks to the enormous rise in value of SBDs, I am happy to say that this is the first year we have not had to get into debt in order to make ends meet. Thank you Steem.

As I look back upon my journey so far, my turning point was speaking with @aggroed on Steemit Chat. It suddenly clicked with me that to get ahead on Steem/it you need to be an active member of a community. The correct attitude to take is not so much 'what can you do for me?' but 'what can I do to help others?' I have embraced this mindset and do what I can through my curating efforts with my own @Muxxybot account and @acidyo's OCD to help shed a spotlight on up and coming Steemians. Through The Writers' Block we try to assist writers to produce better work to share on the platform, giving it something of value. We also try to instill in them a responsible attitude to what they post and how they interact with the community. Through other social media efforts, The Writers' Block is trying to attract new people to this platform to invest and contribute to our overall success. My followers stand at an incredible 2520 currently. I would like to think that this is mainly due to my community efforts - although I am more than happy for them to follow my content, of course.

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My latest initiative is called Introduce A New Steemian, using the #ians tag. I look through the 'New' tab and search out introduceyourself posts from new Steemians to share on my blog. I write a post about them, upvote their post by 100% and pledge to forward all SBD made from that post to the new member. I am extremely proud to see others joining in this initiative with me.

My first seven months here have been a whirlwind. I have met many people I count as friends, some as an extended family. The support I have received from others has been amazing and I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of my followers and supporters a very Merry Christmas and a fruitful New Year.

To the moon!

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Are you a writer or keen to learn? Do you wish to join a community of like-minded individuals who can help hone your writing skills in the fields of fiction, non-fiction, technical, poetry, songwriting or playwriting? Join us at The Writers' Block.

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