I know how to write. I know how to edit. I know how to craft articles that gain hundreds of thousands of views. I don't know how to market.
At its heart, marketing is about convincing someone that you, or your brand, is worth paying attention to. And that requires - go figure - your own belief that you or your brand is worth paying attention to. Or at least to be good enough at pretending that you can muddle through until you have enough clients that even you yourself can no longer doubt your own legitimacy. I don't believe in myself though. I know I have worthwhile things to say, I know I can take your work to the next level (I've done it many times). I know that I have the ability to teach authors to become better at their craft through my careful, empathetic feedback. So I should believe in myself, right? I should, but I don't. Because believing in myself would mean that I don't . Some of you may read this post and think, 'this is classic imposter syndrome. I don't like that term, though, because I believe very much in my own work. I just don't believe that I, Beka, am worth bothering anyone else about. How to market, when you find yourself ignoreable? I'm still working on that.
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So you want to write a story: Week 3
Writing is hard.
It's also easier than you think it is. Just like with anything you do, the best way to get better at writing is to keep practicing. This week's posts include advice on how to keep going even when you think no one likes it, why it's good to write forward rather than going back and editing your work as you go, and some tricks for figuring out where to go next if you feel stuck with your story!
So you want to write a story: Week 2 My series for NaNoWriMo on drafting a story continues! My second week of posts delves into some of the more practcal considerations around how to write a story, as well as some motivation for you when you feel like giving up:
I'm here to help!
Some of you might already know that November is National Novel Writing Month. Since I already write 15-20k worth of words every week between all of my outlets, I decided instead of setting myself the goal of writing 50k towards a novel in November (the goal of NaNoWriMo), I'd set myself the goal of writing a post every day helping you get there! Many new writers stumble over ideas of what's 'right' or 'wrong' in writing. Here's a hint: there's no right or wrong. It's whatever works for you. And, most importantly, it's remembering that writing is not editing. They might be related, but when you're trying to get ideas onto the page you cannot also be criticizing yourself, or else you'll never get that story written. It's okay to write messy, and edit later. My series of posts is being published on Tumblr, which is a blogging platform I really like! I'll be doing a roundup of my posts there each week, so you can pick and choose what you want to read. If you want to see everything I've written so far on that blog, you can visit my archive. You can also ask me a question through my ask form, and I'll answer it on the tumblr! Finally, without further ado, my roundup from my first week of posting:
I'll share the next batch of posts next Wednesday, but until then, if you want to you can go ahead and follow me on Tumblr or on Twitter so you can get my posts every day!
i do a lot of other things that i'm guessing you don't expect a 'real' writer to do. for example, i'm rewriting my fanfiction as original fiction.
right now. at this moment. what? isnt't that... derivative? yes. yes it is. but here's the thing. art is derivative. it has to be. art that's in conversation with nothing is lifeless. whatever gets you to put words on the page is a good thing. you can worry later, once the work of creating something out of nothing is done. for me, posting directly to a professional blog, with all the associations it entails, is a bridge too far for my anxious mind, so i'll share it to the void of my favorite social media platform first. |
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