Those of You with Itchy Feet
Wanting Something Else?
I know the seemingly noxious snubs we have endured from the uncaring (to us anyway) Medium powers that be and the mysterious algorithms that seem to make, what at one time were exciting stats into what now are stinking stats; there is light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s like finally going to the doctor after you’ve been complaining about whatever isn’t working anymore. A solution? Yes, take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
There is that.
The other solution is to go elsewhere, as I have heard from many writers. I am following that advice myself. I’ll just take my ball and go somewhere else. I’m starting to write on Substack. I’ve decided, rather than cross-posting articles from one platform to the other, to write individual articles for each site.
In the meantime, I am starting to pay more attention to my long-standing Talking to Spirit website, my Pinterest, Instagram and FaceBook sites (3 of them), and to work on developing an author’s website.
The other thing is a long-held dream of mine: I’d like to be a published writer. Any money I earn will be a bonus since I am retired. Having gone the traditional route of waiting politely on publishers who tell me, “No thanks, but keep up the good work and try later,” I am pursuing self-publishing with KDP at Amazon. So, we’ll see.
You’ve got to know a whole lot more about the publishing business than you do if you rely on an existing publishing house, but you get to keep more of the money.
Any more advice would be to pay more attention to where you are spending your time. I heard a favorite author of mine, Steve Higgs, say recently on YouTube that you get up earlier to have an extra hour or two to write every day. It is what I used to do back in the day when I had a 40-hour-a-week job.
I have attended a number of NaNoWriMo challenges over the years. Writing 30k, 50k, or 80k words in a month’s time is a huge incentive to get some work done. There will be another one in April. They’re probably offering workshops and Zoom meetings to gear up for it. Also, did I say it was free?
The next one will be the July summer camp, and after that, the November novel writing challenge.
I just signed up at NaNoWriMo to finish my second book in the Get a Job series. Funny how that worked out. You compete against yourself. So, everybody who meets their goals get to be winners. Everybody who participates is eligible for discounts on writer programs, and folks who finish get deeper discounts.
So, whatever floats your boat. Just get busy with it.
