Words creating worlds
how to live a creative life...
Don’t listen to me. What the hell do I know? I should probably explain.
I am narrowly an expert on having a writing career. Narrowly because my one area of expertise is me. I know what works for me. My goal isn’t for you to follow a path that isn’t your own but to maybe point my headlamp into the darkness to reveal the steep drop on the side of the trail and head you to the path covered in soft pine needles over there.
If we want to be a creative, and I use that term intentionally, I have not found anything else that resonates with how I spend my time. But this word, as a placeholder holds enough for me to be able to make my point.
You will have to be comfortable with being awful. I mean I encourage you to stink up the whole room with your suckiness. It is this bravery that allows us to be better. Ignore negativity and boldly sing out of tune, dangle those particles or “ummmm” yourself into oblivion on your chosen media.
In the end, you will have to turn your back to the audience anyway. At least this is what I believe. If we continually chase market share or attempt to give the masses more of the same we will be descending toward mediocrity pretty fast. I am not suggesting to leave your common sense or cast marketing efforts to the wind but I am thinking we need to be brave. Think of your work as an orchestra. To do the best work you will need to focus on the task at hand — not on what is happening behind you.
If you are like me, or like most of us, you aren’t a big fan of self promotion. Unfortunately a writing career is a business — and needs thoughtful consideration. I learned the hard way how to make this work for me. I wrote the books and watched how the industry supported my work or where it failed miserably (not sending the PR about the book release because their person was on vacation — large tech publisher.)
Here is a masterclass on the whole shebang. I can honestly say that most, if not all of the literary fiction I have read in the last 10 years was because of Brad’s author interviews. The Craftwork episodes are sheer gold.
Writing is hard but rewarding. I ignored SEO and wanted my clever little titles to do the heavy lifting and a host of other oversights that are easily corrected.
Are you also looking for balance between your shiny uniqueness and insights to fine-tuning (or launching) your writing career?
Giddy up…
Here is another of my favorites…
A cool thing I discovered…
Jane Friedman mentioned this resource…stay tuned for how I plan to implement this into my creative workflow.
The Best Audience Research Tool on the Web | SparkToro
This works on your websites if you have relatively robust traffic. If not, here are a few ideas to perhaps improve traction.
Maybe you have a substack or are thinking of launching?
Do your research!
If your readers are already reading these resources, maybe sharing a news story in your newsletter will expand your reach…
