Build Your Writer Platform One Plank at a Time

Build Your Writer Platform One Plank at a Time. Your Platform is the launch pad for your visibility. Your Platform gives you access to your readership. It gives your readership access to you. If your goal is to be published and read – you must build a solid writer platform.

You Do This or You Continue to Do This – One Plank at a Time. You do not have to do it all at once. You do not have to do it hurry. That will plunge you into frenzy. Frenzy is not an effective mode for accomplishing anything. Resist the urge to dash about in frenzy.

Your Social Media Presence is a Good First Plank. A pile of planks actually. Still – approach this effort one step at a time. No frenzy. No dashing about. One plank at a time means you will not become overwhelmed. Here is the first thing to remember about this first plank.

The Most Important Thing about Social Media is the Nature of Your Presence There. Your Presence as in how you Present yourself. The nature of that presence must be a conscious, even calculated choice. You think it through – or rethink it through – at the very beginning.

Begin your Thinking – or Rethinking – with This Crucial Question. Since my goal is to enhance my visibility – how is it in my best interests to be seen? Which means you must also ask yourself another question. Why am I on social media? What do I need to get out of being there?

These days I am on Social Media mostly as a Teacher. I want to attract people to me in a way that will make them open to my message. Which means it is in my best interest to be likable, approachable, pleasant. Someone you will enjoy learning from. That is my conscious intent.

You Must be Consciously Intentional Too. Be aware always that social media is not a small peephole accessible only to chosen friends and followers. Social media is a giant picture window. Everybody can look through that window at you. Decide what you want them to see.

Think Hard about What You Need Your Very Visible Presence to be. If you need to be a political firebrand – or any brand of firebrand – rant away. If you need to be a sex pot – vamp away. Be aware always that you make this choice for your writing career as well as for yourself.

Build Your Social Media Presence in a Way that Works for Your Writing Career. Which is all about building relationships. Make relationships your priority. Talk about the people you are connecting with as much – or more than – you talk about you. Put their needs ahead of your own.

Use your Social Media Presence to Serve Your Followers. They are potential readers. Pay It forward in advance to your readership. Give them – first and foremost – what they need. They will keep following you for it. They will support and encourage you and your writing career.

Lasting Relationships will be the Happy Result. Relationships that form the foundation of your solid platform. A place where you can firmly stand. A presence that works for you and your writing career. As you – Build Your Writer Platform One Plank at a Time.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”  “The best one yet!”

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How to Notch Up Your Writer Discipline

How to Notch Up Your Writer Discipline. For starters, write regularly. Let the rich experience of creativity sink deep into your psyche until you feel out of balance without it. I used to say, “One page or one hour a day minimum.” Now I say, “Often enough to feel the need to return the next day.”

Discipline Your Work Environment. Carve out a corner of your own. Virginia Woolf talked about “a room of your own.” Crowded circumstances can preclude that. A space that encourages a writing mood will suffice. Make that space as private and comfortable as you need it to be. Keep your writing paraphernalia nearby. Notebooks, files, pens, computer, a lamp shade covered in story ideas.

Acquire Quality Writing Equipment. Do so by disciplining your spending on other things if that is necessary. Most important, do so by believing this absolutely crucial truth. You deserve what you need to succeed.

Discipline Your Commitments. Cut out every non-writing activity that you can. Ask yourself, “Is there somebody else who can do this? Does it have to be me?” Say no to new requests for your time and energy. Ease the inevitable disappointed reaction with a smile and this gentle suggestion. “Ask me again next year.”

The Exception is When You are Paying It Forward. Invest in your career by investing yourself in your writing community as often as you can manage. Find a balance that benefits both you and others. Do not hide your generosity. Serve in the spotlight, but do not brag. Graciously accept thanks and acknowledgement of your efforts.

Discipline Your Family and Friends. Post your work hours. The refrigerator door is a good place to do that. Insist on no interruptions at those times. Tell your people how important your writing is to you. Make them hear you. Eventually, they will get it. Do not back down.

Discipline Your Telephone. List your daily work hours on your voicemail message. Say that you do not take calls during your work hours and mean it. Keep a smile in your voice, but do not apologize. Mention the hours when you do receive calls. Eventually, they will get it. Do not back down.

Discipline Your Online Activity. Identify your personal online time-burners. Activities that are minimally productive to your career. If you cannot resist, do not indulge during your best brain time. Never indulge during your writing work hours. Use your online activity to build your career, your public platform, your visibility. Limit online playtime to your dim brain hours.

Escape-Write through Stress. Life is full of stressful situations. They can stop your writing progress in its tracks. Use that stress to enhance your writing instead. Powerful storytelling is intense, so is stress. Incorporate how you are feeling into a dramatic scene from your current work. Your body, breath, immediate environment. Feel it all. Adapt it all.

The Purpose of Discipline is to Carry You Deep into Your Story and Keep You There. John Gardner called this place “the dream of the book.” Discipline helps you inhabit that dream and write from deep inside your imagination. Because deep inside is where your best stories live. Discipline helps you get there. How to Notch Up Your Writer Discipline.

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Alice Orr. Teacher. Storyteller. Blogs for writers at www.aliceorrbooks.com. Former literary agent. Author of 16 novels, 3 novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Novel That SellsAmazon says, “This book has it all.” Updated version coming soon. Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Alice’s latest novel – A Time of Fear & Loving Riverton Road Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.A Time of Fear & Loving

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end. The best one yet!”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road

How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road. I last posted here about  a technique for boosting your writer’s Imagination. The fourth entry in my Attitude Adjustment series. Confession time. I did not boost. I did not adjust. I walked away.

I needed rest. Maybe you have felt the same. I am done with resting now and ready to get back to work. Please, feel free to join me. Return to a rediscovered writer’s journey. Or repave the road you never left. Here’s How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road.

Life changes when you start your day writing. Wake up. Wash your face. Brew a cuppa. Begin to write. Fall into the world of your story where doubts disintegrate and make believe reigns. A world more truly real to a writer than day-to-day and down-to-earth could ever be.

Plus – something else equally enthralling. After each first-moment-of-the morning writing session, an aura of its captivation magic remains. Your mind feels less fettered. Your worries press less heavily. Even your To Do lists have lost a huge measure of their tyranny.

Need a kickstart? Try this prompt. “I would like to introduce you to my favorite self.” Or. “Meet my favorite character.” Choose the one that attracts you most powerfully. Do not ponder. Put your pen to the paper, or place your fingers on the keyboard. And just write.

Let your imagination fly free. Open your senses wide and turn up their volume. See every detail at maximum vividness. Listen to each glorious sound. Taste your words on your tongue. Smell every scent, pleasant or unpleasant. Feel it all, both outside yourself and within.

Write it down. Fragments of thought. Impressions. Dialog snatches if you hear them. The sensations. The silliness. If you catch the spark of a writing idea, record it, but only briefly. Then abandon yourself once more to your flight into this wide open moment, whatever it may be.How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Think of this day every day as a jewel on the thread of your life. Know that this day, this moment, is a precious step on the extraordinary journey of your writing experience. Place your jewel artfully. Admire its beauty. Take each step with every fiber of you at high alert and maximum awareness. Recognize the wonder.

If a discouraging thought appears, let it pass. Everything you need for your journey is right here, right now, wherever you are. Each step along your road will take you toward the place you need to go. You are on your personal path to your personal writing triumph whatever it may be.

Never relinquish your Power of Enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that enthusiasm is the energy you need to fuel yourself in life. You are energized. You understand How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road. There will be no stopping us now.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/