I’ve been into non-fiction books lately, which is NOT like me but I’m always open to my likes/dislikes changing so I’m just going with it. Of course, one of my biggest interests is writing and my book, so I’ve been reading some books on both.

I’m in the middle of Fast Fiction which I’m hoping will help me get faster at actually WRITING. But the clincher is you have to do all your PLANNING before hand. This has always been a sticky point with me. I don’t like prep work. I don’t like to tape shit up before painting, I want to just get to painting. I don’t like moving shit around so I can get organized well, I like to just start organizing. And similarly, I don’t like to start planning too much when I should be writing.

Because planning is HARD. UGH. it involves THINKING AND PLOTTING and sometimes these things aren’t fun. I can lay down the FUN scenes, it’s the little bits in between the fun scenes!

I’ve also been reading about marketing and how ideas spread. All this keeps pointing toward DEVELOPING A PLATFORM. which. Yeah. It must be capslocked. It’s a capslocked kind of thing.

So it’s all social media this and social media that and networking and pimp your work and *SOBS*. I kind of identify as an introvert! I LIKE being at home! I LIKE not talking to people. I LIKE being by myself. Can’t I just know that the book is good and it will eventually take off? Maybe? Someday? with luck? and maybe some black magic or a ritual sacrifice?

The answer has been a resounding NO.

I mean, I’m on social media. I like tumblr, and Pinterest and I do okay with Facebook [although too much FB makes me angry]. So I’m out there, I’m just… Out there for me. I reblog the stuff I like and pin the stuff I like and blog about stuff that’s on my mind and I don’t really worry about ‘creating an authentic brand,’ or if it all has to do with my books.

I wish I could say ain’t nobody got time for that. But I guess I have to make time?

 

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3 comments on “But I thought building a Platform meant like, you know, pieces of wood?

  1. Sarah_Madison

    When my first story was published, several well-meaning friends showered me with highly-recommended books on writing, and I dove into them with glee because that meant I was a ‘real’ writer now. It didn’t take long, however, before the resources just stymied me altogether because, OMG, I was doing *everything* wrong! It reminded me of the time I got my very first mine-and-mine-alone dog and I read every dog training book out on the market. In no time flat, I was confused by contradictory training methods. When I tried things that didn’t work for me emotionally or didn’t make sense to me from a behavioral standpoint, I realized I had to pick the training method that resonated with me personally and stick to it.

    So it was a bit easier to understand where my intimidation and discouragement was coming from when the same thing happened to me with the writing (and to a lesser degree, the marketing) information. I had to keep an open mind, but I had to choose what worked for me best.

    I came across this blog post on productivity that you might like:http://t.co/pzzTeijFAN

    What made me groan was some of the things you mention here. I’m more of a panster than a plotter–in fact, it terrifies me to plot too much because in the past, that’s always been a storykiller for me. But as I’ve always said in dog training, it’s hard to correct bad habits you’re secretly proud of. I’m probably just a little bit proud of how organic my writing is, how I can sit down with only the vaguest idea of where I want to go and somehow the car gets there, as though guided by spirits. The truth of the matter, however, is that sort of writing spends a great deal of time waiting for inspiration to strike (while wasting a lot of time on social media instead). Both need to be tackled with a little planning ahead of time–I need to plot out what I want to achieve in a particular scene. I need to limit my time on social media–get on, post notices, interact a little, get off. Set a timer, if I have to, but I can’t afford to waste 2 hours every evening on social media because it is easier than thinking about the next chapter. You’d think I hated writing! I don’t, but I do resent the need for discipline sometimes.

    I follow Chuck Wendig’s blog for writing tips and Kristen Lamb’s for social media. Lamb’s book “We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media” is an excellent base reference for marketing and social media. I don’t agree with everything she says, but I went back and changed a bunch of things I’d done initially in setting up my platform so that it worked better for me. http://amzn.com/1935712187

    As for Facebook, I hated it at first, grew to like it better as I made friends and interacted more over there, but I keep coming back to the fact that a) it makes me depressed and b) it makes me angry. I find myself getting enraged by news reports and reposting them to my own wall, while at the same time feel sorry for myself because I’m not vacationing in Bali, haven’t won the lottery, haven’t lost 50 pounds, and don’t have a national bestseller. 😉 I know *part* of the way marketing works is to make friends and support their successes, but darn if I don’t think Facebook is an unhealthy place for me.

    1. Margarita Gakis

      I’m going to check those links and books out!
      With FAcebook, I like the pages I follow, but I tend not to follow anything too… newsy?? like I follow I fucking love science and huff post and Team Weenie [for dachshunds] … things like that. And I found I liked “pages” like that better than “people” and I feel bad about that, but not bad enough to stop only looking at my fun pages! So for FB, I get on there, check my pages and once I start getting too deep into other stuff I find I don’t like it. The thing is… like… I feel like on FB, most people are selling themselves. Selling themselves as a martyr, selling themselves as the end all be all, selling themselves as the best this and the best that… But, you’re only seeing what they present, and most people don’t even REALIZE how they present themselves. or maybe more of the do than I realize. But what I feel is… if people saw themselves through the lens of Facebook, a lot of them would be very surprised by how they come across. I try to post stuff I like and that’s important to me. and sometimes that means I’m talking about rape culture and sometimes that means I’m posting a dog in sunglasses. but i hope if some third party put it all out in front of them, they would see me as a fun, funny, well rounded person who’s got a good life and is happy with what she has, but also works hard and cares about things.

      I HOPE. But I think a lot of people would be surprised if they realized that based on their FB posts, they seem like deeply unhappy, bitter people who have no outside interests. Now watch my FB friend count go down as people read this! *shifty eyes*

      Yes! The way I avoid writing you’d think I hated it! and I do all this ‘calculating.’ like my most recent calculations. If I want to finish my book by January, and I estimate that it will be 90000 words, I had to have started writing July 1st at 500/wds a day and since I DIDN’T and I’m at 5000 words and I should be at 11000 words, if I want to catch up I have to bump up to 1300 words a day…

      NO JOKE, I LEGIT DO THIS. I think because I need some kind of benchmark? I have to know I’m hitting a goal? Because I’m a nerd?

      A combination of all three, I fear.

      1. Sarah_Madison

        Facebook often feels to me like a place of shouting and bullhorning, and people maintaining their lives are far, far better than yours–unless it is beneficial to that person for their lives to be far, far worse than yours for some reason. I have made some friends there, and the more time I spend there, the stronger those connections become (kind of like Live Journal back when it was the favored fandom platform), but I’ve been home for 2.5 hours tonight and I still have as yet to open the WIP. Yes, I made dinner and walked the dog,, but I’ve been farting around online too.

        This really hit home for me: I try to post stuff I like and that’s important to me. and sometimes that means I’m talking about rape culture and sometimes that means I’m posting a dog in sunglasses. but i hope if some third party put it all out in front of them, they would see me as a fun, funny, well rounded person who’s got a good life and is happy with what she has, but also works hard and cares about things.

        I realized that anyone reading my Twitter or Facebook feeds would come to the conclusion that I’m a writer, a geek, a pet lover, and… a very angry woman. Angry about a lot of issues women face these days. And yet I swear, in addition to feeling as though I need to make my voice heard on issues that matter to me, I also am trying hard to avoid being the person who constantly advertises themselves. So yeah, I hear you. And maybe I need to be a little less enraged and look for the better things to share instead of the things that make me angry.

        Yes! The way I avoid writing you’d think I hated it! and I do all this ‘calculating.’ like my most recent calculations. If I want to finish my book by January, and I estimate that it will be 90000 words, I had to have started writing July 1st at 500/wds a day and since I DIDN’T and I’m at 5000 words and I should be at 11000 words, if I want to catch up I have to bump up to 1300 words a day…

        Yes! This is *exactly* why NaNoWriMo is such a story-killer for me. When I get into that mindset, the word count matters more than the quality of the word themselves and the stress of not making that daily goal just looms greater and greater… and the words dry up. I’m working on setting attainable, realistic goals that will not shut down my feeble creative flame at the moment. 😉

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