On Being an Online Writer

When I first learnt about being a blogger it was 2007. I googled making money from writing and I found a post on the ProBlogger website about making money from your blog. To me this site just looked like any other site, I was young and dumb. I read a whole lot more articles by Darren Rowse in the coming days and I joined Blogger. Between high school and studying at University my blogs dwindled in readership and page views. I never really developed a website that would be able to compare to ProBlogger.

I felt like I was failing and I wanted to know why. I was inconsistent, that was my first problem, and my other was that I knew nothing about marketing my work online to others. I got Twitter in 2008 and started sharing my posts, unbelievably (to me anyway) I was getting traffic. I spent a long time researching how to market my work on twitter, even publishing an article for Darren's website twitip.com about the retweet feature changing marketing on Twitter.

I turned to writing screenplays and poems, I wrote short stories and last year I wrote a novel. I self-published it, I didn't even send it in to any publishers. I felt that my connection with my readers would be strong enough to warrant sales. I was wrong.

Being an online writer involved in Twitter, Facebook and Google+ I felt I was in a prime position for the people that were retweeting me and mentioning me and following me back and liking my posts to buy my book. What I realised is that being a writer online is a lot like being stuck on the subway, you want to get out and be mainstream, the people around you seem to want to help but what they really want is for you to help them and retweet them when they retweet you, they want you to follow them when they follow you.

Don't get me wrong, I don't blame others for my books poor sales. I don't have a problem with my community of peers. What not only I, but most of us have is a problem with being too nice to each other.

We only offer help, we won't critique each other's work, some writers online unfortunately will only interact based upon some unspoken rule that you must interact back. I try and help newer writers out; at www.literatizine.com I publish new writers almost exclusively. Being a writer online is like starting a business from the ground up whilst thousands of other business' are crowding around you. It is like opening a pizza shop in the middle of a million other pizza shops. It is a little harder to get people to buy your slice with so many options.

Being a writer online is hard work. I critique movies, television, books, I write short stories, poems, novels; I write news pieces and do short reporting. I wake up every day and treat myself like I am working in a newsroom; I treat myself in my own home like a professional writer.

I am an online writer, a freelancer from the comfort of my own chair/bed/floor/car; I am building the business of ME from the ground up among millions of others screaming "it's my turn now!" With a little constructive help from the community it can only get better from here. 

How to Develop a Writing Habit

I read in The Essentials of Screenwriting by Richard Walters two years ago that it is important to develop a writing habit. As I treat myself like a professional writer I find that having multiple means to write helps me motivate myself to write something new everyday. I can write a little of a novel, I can write an article for Helium, a poem, a short story a blog post on this blog or for my magazine Literati.

I set myself  word counts and I am generally happy to write about 400-500 words a day. For NaNoWriMo I will write much more than that but that is an extraordinary circumstance. Developing my skills day to day makes me feel I am progressing through my work at a good pace and that I never have to dwindle and pull my hair out over one project day in day out. Expand your horizons and start a few projects. Write a little everyday and finished products will pop up after a few weeks from just a little work a day.

The best way to develop a writing habit is to write! No tricks involved, no magic dust that i can sprinkle over you to make you produce like Hemingway did. Write and write and write until you can't write anymore. Start with small goals each day will help you feel the success that your writing could bring you.

The Importance of Gaining a Readership

The thing with being a self-published author is that without a loyal readership you put that book you worked so hard on up on Kindle or Smashwords or whatever you want and still get peanuts. That isn't an accurate representation of the work you must have put in to the novel.

Start a blog, write about things you love and people will feel the passion you have for the topic. Gain a readership, these people will be familiar with your work. I write as often as possible. I work on my novels in between writing for this writing tips/personal blog, I write a Travel Blog and I contribute to and edit a Literary Magazine, I also contribute to a Film and Television industry blog with my brother found here.

I have multiple ways for potential readers to connect with me. Blogs and websites are a great marketing tool. You should use them.

Writing Tips: Boosting your productivity

5 ways to boost your writing productivity

Some of the biggest problems we have as writers relate to our ability to produce. Whether it be creating ideas, making time to write or literally putting the words down on the page. Here are a few tips to boost your productivity.

1. Go on a Holiday

When my characters are stuck and when I am stuck in a story I send them somewhere else. This is a tip I picked up during completion of NaNoWriMo last year. They suggested sending your characters to the circus, I sent mine to Paris and I found myself with another 10,000 words of ideas in no time and I found a great way to finish my novel.

2. Interview your character

Ask them five or so questions to find out what they are like, what is their favorite movie? What kind of music do they like? Do they like Orange juice? It could literally be anything, try and ask them their opinion on the events that are happening in your story, you may find your imagination knew the answers already.

3. Set an easily achievable word goal

There is no point saying "I'm going to write 1,000 words a day" if you don't think you can write that much. I set mine to be between 400-500 words a day, because I know I can get to 400 easily. Once I get to 400 I can stop and sometimes I do but most of the time I find myself hitting 500-600 even 1500 on days I feel productive. Writing isn't about writing a novel a day. You don't have to finish everything everyday, take it one step at a time and don't stress about the pressure of word counts.

4. Make an appointment

I set 11 am as my writing appointment, I schedule it as if it is a class I have to attend. I have to be there at my desk or I am going to be late. Knowing what time I am going to write makes me feel more comfortable with the other things in my day. I am not as worried about finding a time because I include writing in my day planner.

5. Experiment

I just rearranged my office so my desk faces another way, it gives me the feeling of being in a new office. I feel more productive because the computer looks newer (even though it is 4 years old) a different view may even give you a different perspective on your writing. I even tried writing standing up like Hemingway, for a couple days I was exceeding my word count goals but eventually I got tired. 

It is okay to try something and not like it because the most important aspect is the trial. "I'll do it one day" writers don't get anything done today. What do you guys think? What are some of your techniques?