Are You Sure You’re Doing The Wrong Thing?

 
Life should not be comfortable; it isn’t to a person’s advantage to have it so.  Nor should art.  Never have the masterpieces of life or art been pleasant or easy.  They are always rugged peaks to be ascended by the few. ~Nikos Kazantzakis

About 30,000 years ago, the earliest examples of the cave art of our ancestors began to appear. And from that moment in history, we sought to express strong feelings through imagery. This proved a great intellectual breakthrough for our species. And I’m sure those first artists were lauded and offered the best food the tribe had to offer. This breakthrough was of paramount importance to everyone.

In effect, man could ‘freeze’ part of his environment long enough for his powerful intelligence to think about it, to manipulate it, to understand it fully. ~ Readers Digest, The First Two Million Years.

This led to teaching aids, toys and tools. Therefore, art has played a quintessential part of our evolution. A friend raised a great topic the other day on Facebook. She asked a question which set me to thinking for days afterwards.

I love Facebook. There, I said it! Sometimes, the discussions that start there are the best conversations I have in a day. They’re wonderfully honest.

            Back to the great question posed. My friend has been going through some of the more stressful events of life in recent times. Then a colleague went away, and sorely missing her, my friend was left questioning her course in life. An artist and writer, she posted this status update:

I’m not even sure why being able to draw has a purpose these days...it doesn’t seem to have any artistic or financial merit. I always thought it was a divine gift. What should I do with it? Please discuss

I thought, wow, that’s such a thought-provoking topic. People chimed in with ringing thoughts like, It is a really simple and cathartic way to channel your juju and to process whatever it is inside you which needs to be processed.

Another commenter shared this quote: "Art is not about making a living it is about making a life." The wise words of Paulus Berensohn

 

 

Fired up, I commented, “My oil paintings will outlive me. I kind of like that. However, leaving legacies aside, a world without art and artists of all kinds I would not want to live in. Our purpose may not be expressed in the same clearly linear format of hours done/recompense given/living earned sort of thing as other people get to do. The arts are about much much more than that. They're about spiritual, emotional, mental, physical expression and transmutation and magical processes. The arts provide the rest of mankind with those most important of elusive experiences: hope, and inspiration, and aspiration and joy.”

They're about the alchemy of being reminded to look up and remember the bigger picture.

 

Where would any of us be without it? I’m quite sure that art led to the development of the written word. We don’t just want the arts, we depend on them. As the world becomes more burdened and soulless around us, we need our artists and creatives more than ever. So, if you were chosen, and have that destiny, bless you, and keep going. You're 'remembering the universe' for everyone. Don’t ever give up!

 

My pal, the writer PJ Reece and I were having an email back-and-forth once on the topic of being transported by our work (as lowly writers). In signing off, he said, “Ah!  The eastern sky is lightening.  I gotta go.  An hour from now my best interests will be hijacked by appearances and the everyday mind, and I will be buried under gravel, again.”

            And that’s it. Life railroads over us with demands and needs. We're earthed by the fact the bills have to be paid, the toilet scrubbed, the son’s nose wiped. This week, I go to see my dentist, my car needs a panel beater, and take middle child to have the gunk sucked out of his ears. If I couldn’t read, or see a movie, or look at a painting; if I didn’t have my ‘art’, my books to write, I would not survive. For me, as a creative person, these channels of expression form my outlet and wonderfully, they have the potential to uplift others as well one day. That’s sublime. Transformative.

 

“Where There Is No Vision, the People Perish” The phrase comes from the Bible’s book of Proverbs, and it expresses an important truth: Humans, in order to live effectively and happily, need a goal—a vision—to pursue. ~ Paul Rosenberg

 

Yet these days, the artist, the writer, the singer, is no longer at the top of the food chain. The ‘artist’s way’ as Julia Cameron coined it, is not for the faint-hearted. No. You must have courage in your heart and steel in your spine. You must 'have your stirrups on', as my sister would say. The arts are not generally regarded as a high status profession. Admiration is saved for the famous. No one, not your family, not even your spouse will respect your choice to go the artist’s way unless you’re making money. For writers, there are a small tier of authors on the top shelf, the bestsellers, who make a good living out of writing fiction. The rest of us  will only ever do our writing alongside our ‘real job’. It’s unappreciated, underpaid, and I have to say, a fairly thankless path.

 

 

 

As PJ Reece said, I guess all outsiders are symbols of failure in the eyes of the mainstream. It reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s long-ago mentor who, concerned for Leonard’s onward path, asked him:

“Are you sure you’re doing the wrong thing?”

 

 

I know I am. I’m happily following my muse, thirty five years later, I’m still writing for children - despite everything - still doing the wrong thing. And it continues to light up my life. How about you? Mojo intact? Are you doing the wong thing? I love to hear from you...

 

See ya’ in the funny papers!

Yvette K. Carol

http://www.yvettecarol.com

The Melee of Marketing for the Modern Writer

 

 

             I'm running late, don't tell me, I know! I've been chasing my tail all day, trying to get to this post. Here I am, scraping in for the 1st of October in the U.S.A. It's 11 p.m. here right now, and in accordance with the wonderful Insecure Writer's Support Group, I'm posting on the 'first Wednesday of the month'. And this is a special Wednesday, because it's an opportunity to post possible entries for an anthology the IWSG is putting together, advice for writers.



The Oxford Dictionary describes ‘melee’ as ‘a confused, noisy struggle'.
 

I saw the word melee in my thesaurus under ‘Disorder’ and thought; wow that describes the minefield of marketing for the modern writer very well.

I read a lot of blogs (I try to keep up with about thirty-five a week). In the last few years, there’s been a jump in the wealth of information on how to market oneself and one’s books. It’s a rapidly evolving field. Advice that may have worked five years ago, is no longer applicable now. Even in 2011, Alan Rinzler said, ‘That $50K space ad in the New York Times? Forget it. It’s only for the author’s mother. The twenty-city bookstore tour with first class airplanes, limousines, and hotel suites? A waste of money. Not even an appearance on the Today Show can guarantee more than a brief spike in sales....The old ways don’t work.’

The old ways of self-promotion don’t work! What does? For the writer battling to write their masterpieces, and keep up with the business of self-promotion, the competing voices of advisors are a whirlwind. The key to this maelstrom is that a lot of the advice is conflicting, sometimes even coming from the same source.

Take for example the advice of the greatly esteemed writer, Bob Mayer, who participates in ‘Slideshare, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. all from home,’ as a form of self-promotion. He said, ‘I used to not be a fan of book trailers, and while I don’t think they do much direct selling, they increase your digital footprint. And they’re cool.’

So, I felt reading this, that he was advocating we writers participate in most forms of social media. Yet, in the same breath, Bob also said, ‘Focus on craft; not marketing and promotion. You can’t promote crap. The best marketing is a good story; better marketing is more good stories.’

 

It’s hard to know which way to go.

 

Did I mention that one definition of melee is ‘noisy’? I’ve only been looking into the question of how to do subtle self-promotion the last few years, and I’m overwhelmed with the conflicting opinions. Everybody has one.

 

It's easy to get swayed this way and that. Then, the danger, if we do too much self-marketing, is that we get absorbed into doing the daily rounds to the extent that we never get back to our manuscript! There was a stage there for me, where I found myself awake chatting to people on LinkedIn at one in the morning. And yet, I hadn't edited the chapter I needed to finish. I knew I had to work out a better balance. 

           I heard a famous author had once said of the differences between published and unpublished writers, ‘Published authors see marketing as part of their mission to entertain, help & inspire others. Unpublished authors see marketing as their publisher’s job.’ It's my duty to build my platform. My brand is my responsibility. It's an inescapable part of being an author today.

I went back to the trenches and started digging. I found a wonderful book with solid guidance as to how to navigate self-promotion in the digital age. ‘We Are Not Alone’ by writer and social media guru, Kristen Lamb. I applied myself to all her principles, and I'm gradually working on my platform. 

           Of marketing, Ms. Lamb recently updated this book, 'The Rise of the Machines', and said on her blog, '1) discoverability is a nightmare 2) less than 8% of the literate population are devoted readers 3) the remaining 92% equate reading with homework and a chore. Thus, we have the task of convincing 92% of the population to spend time they don't have engaged in an activity they believe they dislike…and spend money to do it.'

 

Sometimes just the thought of what I need to do next makes me feel tired.

 

I like Jane Friedman’s simple approach too, ‘When writers ask me what the most important thing they should be doing to further their career—aside from write—it’s almost always start your own website.’ If only things could be this simple.

My dear friend, writer and YouTube queen, Maria Cisneros-Toth and I discussed the thorny issue of how to work on our brands while keeping it simple. We decided that the best way would be to restrict ourselves to the forms of social media we enjoyed the most. The forms that were never a chore.

         I chose our online group over on Wanatribe, Writing for Children, and my website, Facebook page and Pinterest, my blog and newsletter.

I’ve found since then, that I can sustain these sites, which as Bob Mayer says, increases my digital footprint. I’m also still able to do the important business of writing.

I say, find what you’re comfortable with in terms of social media commitments and accept that that’s your limit.

         As for the melee of voices on marketing advice, at this stage, I like to see what they’re saying and course-correct only when absolutely necessary.

 

 

It’s a matter of survival. Sanity. Yours. Mine.

Till next time,

Keep smiling!

 

 

Yvette Carol

 Anne R. Allen ~ ‘We writers tend to be a delusional lot. Most of us know the average writer doesn't make a bunch of money, but we secretly believe our own efforts will bring us fabulous fame and fortune. Or at least pay the rent. When we start out, we're certain our books will leapfrog over all the usual obstacles, and in record time, we will land on the NYT  bestseller list and the cover of Time. Don't be embarrassed. The delusions are necessary. If we accepted the reality of how hard it is to make a living as a writer, we'd never get that first sentence on the page.’