If you've been following along with my writing for more than a hot minute, you know I have no idea what I am doing.
I know I am doing it all wrong according to the experts (all of them) but I just can't bring myself to follow their stratagems – it just isn't me.
First of all, I refuse to pick a niche, which is pretty much mortal sin number one. I recognize I would be able to build a following much easier if I wrote and posted on my social media accounts only within one niche. But I am not only a mom – not only a boy mom, not only a girl mom, not only a twin mom, not only a mom via IVF/FET, not only a mom thanks to gestational surrogacy. I am not only a cancer survivor. I am not only struggling with anxiety disorders and advocating for mental health awareness. I am not only a budget traveler. Not only a family historian. Not only striving to live an intentionally simple, ordinary life. I am not only a writer – not only a poet, not only an essayist, not only an aspiring novelist.
You get all of me.
I may be doing it wrong by not trimming away all the extra parts so I can squeeze myself into the box of a niche – it may be confusing – but that's real, that's true, that's life, and that is me. I would no more want to focus on and share only one aspect of my life than I would want to quit writing altogether.
And I most certainly do not want to try to manage several pages, one for each niche.
So, I just keep doing my own thing – writing about all the topics, posting on social media related to all the themes, bringing the eclectic patchwork quilt of my life out to share.
And I just keep hoping that other people out there will read something I wrote and make their way over to join me by hitting those follow buttons.
Social media was my weakness to start – and I haven't gotten much stronger over the past year.
Part of me really wants to build a following and part of me wants to just not pay any attention to that number.
The experts have strategies for building followers, as well, which I also can't bring myself to do. I hate feeling like I am begging for page likes. I want organic growth and followers who are genuinely interested in what I am writing and sharing. I can't get behind the like-for-like threads and other means of blindly boosting numbers.
And, to be honest, it doesn't make sense to do so. Sure, it might look great to have thousands of followers but if even half of them are not truly interested in the content and Facebook's algorithms are only showing my posts to a quarter of them, it seems like I have set myself up to have most of my posts die a quick death for lack of interaction.
I wish there was another way to reach my audience, besides social media. Well, there is, a mailing list, but it is even harder to get people to hand over their email address than it is to get them to click the follow button.
So, I do want to try to retain my social media followers and, hopefully, gain more.
I set a goal to try to reach 500 likes on my Facebook page by my birthday, which is now only two and a half weeks away. In an effort to reach that goal, I have been hitting all the buttons Facebook presents to invite people to like the page. I am not sure if I want to do much more than that, so I may not reach my goal. The page currently sits at 452 likes.
I also noticed that every Wednesday I seemed to have one or two unfollows on Facebook. It could've been coincidence, but it seemed to me that my #WIPWednesday posts (at least the ones with my novel word count screenshot) were not well received in people's Facebook feeds.
Hence, today's Facebook post was a little different – a generally relatable meme with a link to the blog post. I will probably only share the screenshot of the word count when I hit milestones, but I am going to continue writing these weekly posts. These posts honestly do keep me motivated and help me to recognize how much I have accomplished. By default, I tend to notice only where I am falling short, which quickly becomes disheartening. Drafting these posts each week forces me to take note that even on the weeks I fall short on word count goals or receive multiple rejections, I still have made progress, I still put in effort, and I have still accomplished things.
Speaking of which, this is the #WIPWednesday post for this week, so here is what I have been up to since last post.
I was thrilled to learn that each of my three kids had a piece accepted to be published in the anthology I mentioned last week. They are so excited! A couple of edits were suggested and I helped them with getting those submitted / ready to submit.
I submitted a fun little piece for another SNAPSHOTS challenge.
The Mighty finally published the piece they accepted for syndication weeks ago, but it has not been featured.
InspireMore did feature my last piece on their Facebook and Twitter pages. I also submitted another for them to consider for syndication. And I sent in a couple syndication queries elsewhere, as well.
I (unintentionally) had a fitting post to share on #WorldReadAloudDay. And I worked on some new images for Instagram.
I also learned that That's Inappropriate is re-branding its contributor platform as Filter Free Parents. So, I worked on getting those links updated. I love the new name and look; I am hoping to have something published there again one day.
And I wrote some poetry this week, which is, as of yet, unpublished.
