Writing as a Lifestyle

When you decide to take writing seriously, you're making a lifestyle choice as much as you are making a career choice. As a writer, you may have to change up your living conditions. If you haven't made any sells yet, that might mean stretching your $20 or leaving your work only to come home and work some more. It might mean staying up late to get a chapter in or waking up early to fit in an hour of editing before your day job. Frankly, you'll probably have to cut back on time with friends and family and hobbies, because to be a great writer, you have to not only write, but read, and study, and it helps to network and have an online presence as well.

I've been living a writing lifestyle for over a year and a half now. This post will cober some things I've learned that have helped me be most productive. It seemed fitting for National Novel Writing Month.

Embracing the Writing Life

Finding (Making) Time

The most important thing about being a writer is to write! This is your priority. This means you need to put in the time and effort. Talking or daydreaming about it, or staring at the keyboard isn't enough. If you're a parent or work at another job, like I mentioned above, this might mean fitting time in at night or in the early morning, or during nap time. 

If you have a more flexible schedule, try finding out what time of the day you write best, and schedule your life around it. I've heard that most writers work best right before or after sleeping, because that's usually when the creative side of the brain is active. It's true for me. So I wake up extra early and get in some writing before I go to work. If I have trouble getting back into my story in the afternoon, I take a power nap, and magically, writing becomes easier.  I was a little skeptical of this idea before, but now I know how it really can play a role in my productivity.

Getting the Most out of Your Writing Session

You've made the time, now, make the most out of your time.

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A Toast to the Closet Writers

Many writers, at some point or another, have been closet writers--they don't tell anyone they write, that they want to write, or that they are actually writing. If you find yourself in this situation, you're normal.

Writing can be very personal, like our story and characters are our own children. Or maybe you're a closet writer because you fear what others will think about you if they saw what you wrote, or because you fear you aren't good enough. Or maybe, you're just not ready to share your work yet.

Some of the best writers have been closet writers, and there are wonderful perks to being one.

So here is a toast to closet writers.

Successful Closet Writers

New York Times bestselling author David Farland admits to being a closet writer as a teenager. He'd hide his manuscript, fearing someone would find it. Now he has over 50 books in print (several of which have won awards), has worked in the movie and video game businesses, and is also a writing instructor.

But there are different levels of being a closet writer. Perhaps you aren't a full-fledged one.

While I don't know if Rowling actually kept the fact she wrote a secret, she kept what she was writing secret. She never even told her mother about Harry Potter. And even after publication, she was still somewhat of a closet writer: she showed no one her manuscripts. The first person to read them was her editor.

The Perks of being a Closet Writer

If you are a closet writer, you have something beautiful.

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Glipho: What it is and Why I Love it

Glipho is a new social media site specifically geared toward bloggers and writers. If you're like me, you just thought another social media site? How many of these does a person need?  That's exactly how I approached Glipho, but I had to give it a decent chance because I was asked to check it out for work.

And I fell in love with it.

I've been on Glipho a little more than 3 weeks. And I already have 122 followers. Of course, there is more to social media than followers. . .

Appearance and Feeds

Glipho basically looks like Pinterest, but instead has blog posts. They have a trending writer section and a trending post section. And you don't have to be the most popular person to be featured as a trending writer, which is nice.

Users have three feeds on their homepage. One feed shows the posts done by those we follow. One feed shows all posts published on Glipho. And the last one, the feed that really makes Glipho different than other social media sites, shows every post on topics you follow. For example, if I follow the topic "Writing Tips" every post published by anyone that falls in that category will appear on that feed.

So, if I write about Harry Potter, then whoever is following Harry Potter will see that post. This feature helps people with the same interests find and follow each other. And it helps users connect with the right audience.

The People

On Glipho, I'm reaching different people than those I have on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog. All of the users have been polite, supportive, respectful, and just downright kind. There's no gnashing teeth or destructive attitudes. I've never found a social media site with people like this. I've already befriended dozens of writers, and readers.

The team behind the site is also very helpful and willing to answer others' questions.

Beta

Glipho is still in beta (it's only been around for a few months), so it's not completely polished yet.

I'd like to see a badge or box of some sort that I can code easily into my blogger blog someday.

So How Many Social Media Sites Do We Need?

I don't know. But if you are a writer, never spend more time on social media than writing. True, social media can help your writing career, but it can only help so much. The most important part of your writing career are the stories you write, not how many tweets you've tweeted.

Pick a few favorite social media platforms and stick with those. Glipho just happens to be one of mine. (And if you are already blogging, it just takes a few extra minutes to post the same post there.)

You can check out my Glipho profile here. Or check out Glipho's homepage.

Someday I'm going to do a blog post (or rant) about social media in the writing world and how important or unimportant (time wasting) it is.

Let me know if you try out Glipho.

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