The blogging vacation is over. This month I gave myself time to do some information gathering and thought collecting to try and sort out the direction I should take from here on out. I’m still thinking through a lot of things and I didn’t work intensively on this all month long, but I feel like I’ve made some progress and that it’s time to start posting again.
Through Jeff Goins I found out about a podcast series called Get Published, which is produced by Michael Hyatt, the former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishing and an experienced writer and publisher. In addition to listening to several of the podcasts this month, I have been poring over his blog the past several evenings and gleaning a lot of helpful information from it.
My biggest mental block is what to write…fiction or nonfiction, this story or that story, this devotional or that devotional. I have gained some sense of what my purpose for writing should be, but I’m still in the dark as to the what, which I feel is backwards from most other writers. Be that as it may, I feel that it’s time to stop letting that hold me back from forging ahead- it’s one of those times to say you can’t steer a vehicle that’s not moving. So, as I’ve been reading and listening to all of the great advice I’ve discovered, I’ve been formulating some plans and pondering the next specific steps I need to take. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
1. Start posting regularly.
2. Get my own domain name (which means I’ll have to start a new blog, unfortunately! I inwardly groaned when I realized that my existing blog name isn’t going to be relevant to the kind of content I want to produce, so I have to start all over with a blog under a domain that will be relevant to my content. Which will most likely be my name, since that will give me the most flexibility while I continue to develop my personal brand.
3. Become more reader- oriented in my thinking (and therefore writing): write for others, not myself.
4. Find some magazines or websites to submit articles to.
5. Get connected on more social networking sites (I cringe at the thought of this one- I’m just not a big social networking person)- specifically, get more active on Google + and start an account on Twitter (something I never thought I would do).
6. Get some pictures taken of myself to use for my blog.
One thing that I’ve been trying to do as I’ve been working at determining my purpose for writing is looking at Christ’s life and how He interacted with people, and just trying to better understand His role as part of the Godhead. For quite a while now I’ve had a hard time understanding Christ- I’ve learned things about God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, but God the Son has puzzled me in different ways- it’s hard to describe what goes on in my mind when I think about it. So in an effort to gain the right mindset as I begin to write for others, I’ve been reading small sections of the Gospel of Matthew at night before I go to bed. I hope to write some posts later about what I’m learning through that, because I have plenty to chew on and not enough time or focus to chew on it and I hope that writing about it will help me with that!
Well, I think that’s about all I have to say on the subject for now. Please forgive the rambling nature of this attempt to corral my cerebral wanderings! This is one of those semi-personal posts that I write just so I can keep track of my progress on the journey to getting published. 🙂 Next on the list are some Christmas-related posts! It’s that time of year again, and I’m hoping it doesn’t fly by too quickly!
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