Working for the Man
Natalie Frank, Ph.D.’s Medium article, How NewsBreak Threw My Writing Off Track and How I’m Regaining Control of My Writing Life confirmed something for me, mainly that writing for someone else’s agenda is not for me. Unless they offer a six or seven figure advance, and then we can talk.
I ran hard in the rat race my entire architectural career, albeit to see my designs turn into actual buildings, so I’m not complaining, just saying.
And she’s right: it takes a hell of a lot of discipline to be successful at about anything — I assume most folks watched the Olympics last week — yeah, some is genetics and who your parents are, but mostly it’s blood sweat and tears and if writing’s your passion, why complicate things more than necessary?
As I was reading Frank’s article, I was reminded of Tim Grahl’s simple but sage advice. Something he taught me: when thinking about marketing the work, keep in mind all the ways to use the same work multiple times. So this will be my take on his take.
I now write primarily for two platforms, Medium and my website, www.goposted.com. Parenthetically noting, I might have named it ‘going postal’ but some don’t love dark humor. And I write for both platforms so when I finally get the novel from hell finished, I’ll have a few people who want to read it. Or at least that’s the theory.
As far as I’m concerned, connecting with readers is the only point in writing. You can’t get rich at this gig unless you’re Steven King, god bless his evil little heart. 2,000 words a day, my ass! Though, his book, On Writing is one of the best in the field.
Tim Grahl encouraged me to start with the website — you need a place for interested folks to connect with you — so you need a website.
Self publishing is a lonely place, sending blogs into the ether, but starting out, I had passing familiarity with creating a respectable website via SquareSpace — so the website came first. Plus I’d already self-published poetry — another day’s story — so I could get that already-published poetry to work again. Just link to the page. Tim would be proud.
I’ve been publishing the blog + newsletter every Wednesday for the past several years. It takes a day to write the first draft — maybe two , depending on inspiration— and a day to edit and add photos. For photo-heavy blogs, such as those written about libraries I was fortunate to design, the photos took more time, that and doing research to support a poor memory for dates.
Wednesday is publishing day. The remainder of the week is spent editing the novel — as Stephen Sondheim says ‘finishing the hat.’
On Medium, I often write in response to other writers, mostly those who inspire. Not looking to go off on other writers on the Internet — that’s not rocket science. I’ll appropriate anyone’s best idea but for shame if I don’t give credit. It feels good to recognize the talent of others, hoping magic might rub off. It comes from the years of reading — like one-way conversations — wishing I could talk to Mark Twain, Dickens, Philip K Dick, Ursula Le Guin. It’s a long list.
Dawn Field used to call that ‘red pen praising.’ I should have paid better attention. I published several articles about Dr. Field on the website, and I still miss her badly. Being connected to someone only by email doesn’t happen often in my experience, but when it does, I try hard to pay attention.
So I add links in the newsletter on GoPosted site to my Medium articles, giving them a boost in readership, and giving the newsletter recipients more to wade through. John P. Weiss gracefully lent me one, as did Sean Kernan, a man who never sleeps for all that he writes.
And occasionally, I add links in the Medium articles, such as this, back to the website. Nothing’s new under the sun — someone said that a few years back… but bears repeating for those of us who take pleasure in rereading the well written.
