Failure IS An Option

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

-Thomas Edison

I am a writer.  I do something else roughly between the hours and 9 am and 6 pm to pay the bills, but I am a writer.  And to be a writer, unless you have great connections, a famous last name, or juicy Hollywood secrets to spill, means getting used to failure.  A lot of it.

I wrote my first book, an intertwined collection of short stories, and self-published it with Amazon, totally excited that I’d achieved a lifelong dream.  But I had no idea how to market it.  I tried blogging, social media, paid advertising, raising and lowering the price, but nothing seemed to work.  I thought finishing the book was the hard part, but this was the worst.  I did research after the fact to figure out what I did wrong.  I didn’t build a readership BEFORE publishing.  I didn’t tweet.  I didn’t hire a professional graphic artist or proofreader.  I was clueless.

So, I have a second chance.  I’ll try and do things right, maybe even succeed.  I’ll spend days submitting my book(s) to literary agents, and if no one bites, I will self-publish.  I will blog on the regular.  I will design a beautiful cover.  I will tweet.  I will get more followers.  And, after doing all that, if I still only make $6 in sales, I’ll buy another coffee and pastry with my earnings, sit in the corner of the coffee shop with my laptop and start all over again.  9,998 chances to go.

Blogging 101 – Today’s assignment: write and publish a “who I am and why I’m here” post on your blog.

I blog inconsistently (hopefully this challenge will help with that) but I blog basically when I have something to say.  Usually something that made me overwhelmingly angry or sad or “incandescently happy.”

I also blog because I love writing but I’ve never been able to do it professionally.  I blog when I have a story locked inside me that I need to tell. I have so many.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to organize all of the voices of the crazy characters in my brain and write a decent book.  One is slowly forming in my blog and on scrawled notes and journals scattered all over my house.  Once the story is complete in my brain, I’ll be able to finish it.

I’ve already self-published one novel, which was so therapeutic for me.  It wasn’t exactly autobiographical, but most of the characters struggled with a version of something I’ve faced in life.  Writing my way out of every situation made me realize I could do it in real life too.  I’d love to connect with fellow, like-minded writers and readers.  Everyone is welcome here.  I had so much fun with Writing 101. I look forward to going through this new Blogging 101 challenge with all of you and looking forward to more of the same!

Short and sweet today!  Can’t promise that in the future!