writer no tech knowledge, my posts won't link to categories

I read a post that is similar to mine, but I’m posting a new question because the responses are too technical for me. I’m as beginner as it gets. I’m a writer, but my experience with wordpress is a constant learning curve and a stressful painful 1. I don’t remember which version of wordpress I am working with. If you feel my post needs to moved to another forum section, that’s fine, I wasn’t sure where to post this. I’m happy to work with it, but it’s been a crash course and I’m feeling very frustrated. I understand SEO, but yoast and plugins and things, it’s greek to me. The problem I am having is very simple. I added categories to my posts and I added very good seo tags, but the posts are only appearing on the right hand side of my blog, and not underneath each category page section they way I want them to. I was given step by step instructions to follow and I followed them as well as I could, but I seem to be missing something. Please, I ask that any guidance, suggestions, responses anyone offers to help please be as simple and plain and you can. I mean no harm to anyone, but I am a bookworm nerd, not a tech nerd and I am a total novice. I am not a website designer or developer. I’m holistic organic writer artist and I want my wordpress blog to showcase my artistic work. Also, my hands are full with my delayed near 4 year old toddler son so please be gentle and talk to me like I’m 4. I’m a writer, but also a hard working Mother. Thank you for understanding.