Please welcome the super awesome Stephanie Sikorski to my blog today! She is so much fun and I love her. I know you will too. Here she is helping us to …
Be a Better Blogger in 10 Days!
I love writing. But I hate the demands of blogging. I love virtually meeting nice writing people via Twitter but cave under the pressure to sound clever in 140 characters or less. I want people to find my blog but can’t ever figure out how to promote myself without sounding like I am, well … promoting myself. I’m happiest when one of my essays makes a real difference in somebody’s life but loathe the pressure to repeat my own awesomeness. It makes me want to keep the lid to my laptop closed for weeks on end. Which in turn makes me sad because as I already mentioned I love writing.
This is my wrestle. And some days I feel ready to tap-out.
There are times I seriously ponder going offline and writing for myself. Avoiding the pressure of eBooks, self publishing debates and traffic analytics sounds like a sweet relief. The advice barks at me: create a platform, tweet, guest blog, comment strategically and have a catchy tagline. It’s all great advice but totally exhausting. I just wanted to write.
So I admit, I am completely inept at identifying my traffic sources, using html code and creating badges. I simply have a little blog. A little bitty blog. Heck, I haven’t even purchased a domain. Despite all the advice to the contrary, I just can’t believe that eliminating the word ‘blogspot’ from my address is going to suddenly be the magic key that propels my blog into BlogHer infamy. I mean, c’mon let’s admit I can’t ever compete so long as Ree Drummond remains the Godfather of adorable Pioneer Woman?
Of all the experts’ advice, my favorites are the folks who promise that if your work is good enough it will be discovered on its own merit. I often take that advice to heart and relieve myself of any template, wordpress and rss feed guilt and just return to my first love; writing. I admit there are some days when I pretend no one is out there listening or reading my work. It seems on those days I am free to let my thoughts flow. My fingers literally fly across my keyboard as the words just tumble out unaware of hits, comments and subscribers.
So I’ve abandoned the how-to-be-a-better-blogger-in-10-days advice. I don’t know if my template is user friendly or my headshot accurately portrays my personality. And, well, if those choices mean I’ll never be published, that I’ll never get a book tour or my memoir never makes it to the big screen (which would really be too bad as I’m sure Julie Roberts would play me fantastically) then so be it. For I would rather stay in love with writing than get sidetracked with vlogging, tweeting and platform building. I love writing and in the meantime that’s all I’m interested in doing.
About Stephanie:
Find her online!
Thank you SO MUCH Stephanie for a fun and insightful post. You saved my blogging-behind today because I crashed my computer last week and am clawing at straws to keep up with my life! This post has made my day. I can’t thank you enough and if I can ever return the favor, please let me know!!!
My very FIRST book is available on Amazon & I am a happy dancing mess!
You have 5 children, work 2 jobs, write a blog, contribute to a newspaper and find time to wrote other things? WOW. I need your energy!
These are perfect thoughts as I sit in front of my computer,working on a story I love but doubt will cause much of a stir.
Writing for writing’s sake is tough. However, it makes the world a more interesting place. It makes people themselves more fascinating as I hear their stories. Then my characters breathe more fully.
Yet I have no illusions that social networking will bring fame. Since I began writing with screenwriting, low expectations for commercial success have been a part of my world.
Thanks for saying I’m not the only one who strives to write like a million will read it with the reality that maybe it’s only one. And one is enough.
Such a refreshing post! Amen.
This is a wonderful post, Stephanie.
And incredibly honest. I love it.
Hi ya! First thanks Julie for letting me guest post although I am the owner of a “little bity blog”. I loved having the chance to do this!
Hope your computer problems are on the mend!
And to the commenters, thanks a ton and bunches!
I got an AMEN! Yippee!
I don’t know how I do it! Energy? What energy? You know that phrase cup runneth over? Mine is like a flood. Good thing I’m organized. I’ma list maker and I only write once maybe twice a week at this point.
Even though I dream of sitting in a coffee shop and writing and writing and writing….
don’t we all?
I think everyone’s voice matters.
I think yours matters and mine matters.
I think it matters whether or not we have an audience of one or a million.
I was given a voice and a love for arranging words.
I will do it because I can.
Not because the hordes love it.
Write on people! Write on!
Hi Stephanie,
I’m going to echo Kami: “Such a refreshing post! Amen.”
It becomes a tad overwhelming climbing through all the expert advice on how to blog, how not to blog, how to blog before your published, and then what to do after (oh, to have THAT problem).
I will admit when I saw the title of this post in my RSS feed, I almost didn’t click on it because I thought, “I’m not up to learning what I’m doing wrong on my blog today.” But your post helped me breathe a sigh of relief. Thank you, Stephanie. I’ll be heading over to your blogspot next!
(Thanks to Julie Anne for hosting you too!)
Steph is an awesome friend and writer! Thanks for supporting her!