Month: June 2015

When I was a teenager, the only ‘platform’ I knew about was the one we stood on during a concert in choir and some rather uncomfortable shoes. Well, they were uncomfortable until you got the hang of walking in them. You had to rely less on actual ankle movement and more on setting your foot down and kind of rocking forward on your feet. The group, ‘KISS’ wore some pretty extraordinary platform shoes back in the day. I always wondered how they didn’t end up in traction.

They always say you should write what you know. Or write about what’s on your mind. Well, my ‘platform’ is on my mind today. From what I’m reading and researching, the days of writing a manuscript and submitting it, being rejected and starting the entire process over are covered with white out. They are gone. Now you have to find someone actually taking submissions…(good luck) and then you need to be ready to market your book. Oh, and have a platform.

I’m still researching this and I’ve found a lot of amazing advice through blogs and websites. What I’m extracting from all this reading and research is that you need to have a group of people you are targeting with your writing and you need a following. You need people interested in you and willing to support you in your endeavors. One article I read today said the building of your platform can and should take place before you write or submit officially. That is my paraphrase. In other words, start building a following long before you contact a publisher. Who knew? Certainly not me!

At this point, I’m still trying to figure out the marketing of something I don’t have. I’m also coming to terms with marketing and selling a book because I already have a following. I’m kind of wondering about needing a publisher when I’ve already done much of the ground work. But don’t attack, I’m in the learning process here! I’m still thinking this all through. I do well with something if I can put it into terms I can understand and then apply it. (Exactly why Algebra and I didn’t mix!)

So, if I buy all the ingredients for a cake, make it at home, bake it in my oven, decorate it and then serve it to my loving family and friends that already know me and generally eat what ever I serve them…I’m good? If I have all the notes, thoughts and dreams for a story, type it on my laptop, share it wherever I can, make it pretty and marketable, my loving family and friends will read it…and I’ll be published? Sounds good to me!

Seriously though, I would appreciate any advice or things you have learned in this process called ‘writing’. Please correct my ‘take’ on platform or add to it. I’m kind of in the middle of nowhere and having a hard time finding the bread crumbs.

As you can see, I’ve been kind of playing around with this site. I did that with my furniture when I was first married. I moved it pretty often, sometimes once a week. Now my living room furniture stays where it is for years at a time. I’ve become comfortable with it there, (or too lazy to move it). But I prefer to think of the first option.

That all leads me to the picture on my header. (I think that is what it’s called!) Although the ‘hall’ is heavily ornamented, there’s something about the way the light is coming in the windows that makes me want to jump in there and run to the end. Of course I would have on a wedding dress with a long train and veil, both flowing behind me…lifting on the breeze stirred by my quick retreat. And yes, it would be a retreat. Not a retreat in a bad way. Not running FROM something, but running TO something or someone. Maybe running from the confines of the room or the situation to the openness of the garden beyond and all that sunlight that is streaming in. And yes, there is a garden beyond. Filled with fragrant roses and graveled paths, ornamental benches waiting for an occupant or two. Did I say I would be barefoot as well? With pink, sparkly toenails?

How is YOUR imagination? What do you see or imagine when you see the above picture?

My love of reading and writing come from creating those pictures in my head. I used to tell my children that reading was so much fun because you could ‘watch’ the book in your head, kind of like a movie. I’m sure they thought I was crazy in that area and many others, but they didn’t watch much TV or movies while growing up. They all loved to read at one point in time. I was so excited when each of my children learned to read and then enjoyed it. It is such a simple pleasure!

So share your thoughts on the above picture. I love to hear what people’s ideas are on things like that. There are so many possibilities…