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@Daeus how dare you shove your superior experience off on me!
No, you’re right. I guess I wouldn’t go so far as to say I haven’t done any planning— I have a basic idea of what I want. The blog actually serves two purposes for now (or once I get it running). The first is to help other writers by sharing what I learn. The second is to promote my work using short stories and poems and such until I actually have something I can start selling *cough*whenI’meightynine*cough*, and then I’ll transition more into that phase of things.
For the first stages of this I’m pretty much going to focus on seeing how deeply I can build a web of connections in the community, both with readers and other writers. I’m not going to try to go extremely broad until I have some dedicated followers who can help me with that. That will give me a small, relatively forgiving pool of guinea pigs to learn on, which will give me confidence and support once I step out and start going bigger.
I have an outline/strategy for publication, yes… rough… very rough… but it will be at least a year before I have anything I can actually sell.
Right now, I guess I’m just gathering together all the pieces and fitting them in place beforehand so I know roughly what to do when I get there.
What do you think?@kate-flournoy All in all, I like it.
I was thinking for a while if it would be better for you to not have a blog and have an email list only, but after reflecting on it, I don’t think that would be best. That is, as long as you plan to blog for a while. Is blogging something you see yourself doing for many years to come, or are you mainly blogging because you need to build a platform, and it wouldn’t be a top priority if you one day had a strong reader base and didn’t have to blog.
If you would keep blogging even if it never led to a single book sale, then you absolutely need to have a blog. If, however, blogging isn’t a big passion of yours, I would say you should at least seriously rethink things and you probably shouldn’t even have a blog at all.
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@kate-flournoy If getting a good mentor is possible, I’d definitely seize on the opportunity. Like @his-instrument, I downplayed the importance for a while. Then I found one. And while I currently only have one on the publishing/marketing/business end of things, it’s insanely helpful and is going to help me avoid a lot of pitfalls. If I could find a fiction writing mentor I could learn from who would have the time for me, I would seize that in a heartbeat.
I don’t think “depending on someone else for full support sacrifices good lessons in self-discipline and sufficiency.” Will you learn slightly less discipline and sufficiency? Well, sure. But we also lose discipline and sufficiency when we do anything else in life with a teacher (learn how to drive, learn to play an instrument, learn advanced mathematics), and no one argues it’s a bad move because of that. An effective teacher/coach can help you avoid the pitfalls that may have held you back for a while, and so I personally don’t think that’s a helpful mindset to think in.
IMO, the big question to ask is if this should be a priority. Having mentors is great–especially on the business end of things since there’s less helpful content available for free on business than on writing itself in my experience. But the time you spend looking for a mentor is time that could have been spent elsewhere. So that’s the question I would be asking yourself if I were in your shoes. 🙂
And in terms of the platform discussion, regardless of whether or not you run a blog, you should have a website for yourself where you can start directing leads and building a mailing list. If I were you, I would give that a high priority (I should have done that myself much sooner than I actually did).
Hope that helps!
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Guiding authors at Story Embers.
@Daeus thank you. Good thoughtful answer. Believe it or not I actually hadn’t thought about it one way or the other; doing long term or not, but now that I have, it’s a definite yes. I never really set my heart to do anything unless I’m going to do it long term anyway. 😉 If it was just for promoting myself— yep, website. But since I feel like I have a lot I need to teach, it’s gonna be a blog. And since I’ll never stop learning, I’ll never run out of things to teach, therefore I’ll be doing it long term. 😛
But yeah, it’s definitely a passion. I feel like it would be ungrateful and irresponsible of me not to pass on what I’ve learned and help other young writers who might be struggling with the same things. That might not mean amazing million dollar comprehensive courses or anything, but I’ll do what I can.
@Aratrea thank you as well. I’m definitely going to have a website. It will be a blog as well (I might separate them later on, depending on what the road looks like a few years down) but yeah, I’m definitely going to have a ‘landing page’, so to speak, for all my stuff.
Great point about priorities. Right now, it’s not. I know where I have to go and basically what I need to do to get there. I’m confident with the resources I have (KP has seen to that 😉 ) There’s nothing a mentor could teach me right now that would be helpful or revolutionary to where I am this moment.
Thank you. I needed that question.Hey, @kate-flournoy ! It’s been a while. 🙂
I was just rereading a book (I highly recommend, especially for new or struggling writers) called “Writer…Uninterrupted,” and it asked that I make a list of people who were on my writing “team,” like “List the one teammate you would call when you are in trouble on your quest.” I realized that I don’t have one. While I have this forum to post questions on, and the YWW group too, I don’t have one person I go to when my writing hits a snag. Either I fix it myself, or it just stays snagged. :/ Not so great, right?
Whether it’s a mentor (someone who is ahead of you in their writing journey) or a colleague (who’s alongside) or both, I think it is really important and helpful to have someone who’s writing sense you trust and that you can communicate with on a regular basis. I know the communication part is hard for us writers because we get busy and obsessed with our own projects…(not speaking from personal experience or anything.) 😉
Anyways, I’m looking for someone like that. 🙂
@Overcomer I know! I’ve missed you. 🙂
That sounds like a great book, and that is an excellent thought. I have a grand total of two colleagues (@Daeus @Hope) but we have strengths and weaknesses that balance each other out, so we can all learn from each other and teach each other in different ways. You’re right; those partnerships are crucial.
A writing team to ‘help you on your quest’ though… I like that. 😀I really don’t think I’m the right person to help you out on this @kate-flournoy, especially since… well, you’re one of the people who helps me with my writing the most.
But I’ll be praying that you find a solution to this.
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@That_Writer_Girl_99 thank you. That means a lot. 😉
I’m actually making a blog too, @kate-flournoy , mainly to give me practice in writing and sharing my work regularly. My blog is mostly for non-fiction though, articles and snippets of stuff, but I also hope to use it to build my platform. (I’m not overly concerned with that at this point though. I’m just focused on developing my writing discipline and confidence.)
@Overcomer nice! Share it with us once you have it running. 🙂
Sure, I will. 🙂 Be sure to share yours, too. I can’t wait to read it, @kate-flournoy .
@Overcomer *glances around cautiously**whispers* here. Have a link. It’s not running yet but I have it up and a few things on it, and if I don’t give it to you know I’m gonna forget. 😛
Oooh, thanks! *Grabs link* You site looks so cool, @kate-flournoy ! 😀 Oops, *starts using whispering voice* sorry. 😉
I just read that story you had on it, The Broken Scythe. Wow…I have chills, seriously. I love it! 🙂 I’ve always liked your writing, @kate-flournoy.
@Overcomer oh good. *grins* I like giving people chills.
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