Year of Exploration

2012 was the Year of Exploration.

After mostly ignoring all forms of social media, (besides Facebook) this year I dove in with the idea of putting myself and my writing out there instead of having it languish amid the piles of rejection slips from magazine editors and literary agencies.

My Social Media Findings:

• Twitter – too short
• Tumblr – too young
• YouTube – too exposed
• WordPress – just right

On WordPress I found a comfortable home with people I like. Random strangers actually read my words here and tell me that they like what they’ve seen. I won’t delete myself from those other places, as I have become a fan of many social media stars. And my time exploring there was not wasted, as I have learned much about the social media world and my place in it.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned: while luck still holds a huge chunk in the pie chart of social media success, the most important piece is, as it has always been, HARD WORK.

If it were easy, everyone would do it.

What Success Means to Me:

• Get something published (in the old fashioned way)
• Get a thousand followers on WordPress (reach for the stars, baby)
• Feel like I deserve the appellation, Writer (I’ll know it when I feel it)

If I want to succeed, I must do the work.
But I don’t want to do the work.
I’d rather curl up with a good book, or watch a good movie, or click around the web until my clicking finger hurts.

I don’t make resolutions, I think they are nasty things to do to yourself. You have no idea what will happen to you next week, much less over the course of the whole year, how can you promise yourself to do this or that thing and expect to succeed?

However, next year I want to say, 2013 was the Year of Hard Work
Hard Work means sticking to a writing routine instead of just writing when inspiration, or a good prompt hits. It means being disciplined and focused. It means practice, practice, practice. It means consistently submitting and posting. It means going from this level of writing to the next.

I know I am a good writer. If I just work a bit harder at it, maybe 2013 will be the year I become great.