Are you taking notes? Whenever I speak somewhere, people in the audience are furiously scribbling. For myself, I always take notes, mainly because if I don't write it down it goes through my two ears like the wind.
Most writers I know love to take notes, heck, even non-writers do. Everyone's taking notes. Here's my question, what do you do with your notes?
Are you publishing what you write? Here's what I find incredible: only a tiny percentage of writers are actually publishing on the Internet. Most writers, even serious ones, aren't publishing their work on a blog.
Why Aren't You Published? I keep asking authors about blogging, mainly because I love seeing their reactions. One non-published author expressed fear people would steal her work. I don't know, maybe that's a valid argument and something we should all be afraid of. I don't see it that way, but I could be wrong.
It doesn't matter that it's free, practically, that it's a great way to quickly get your writing published and available to the world, or that it's so user-friendly even my cat could probably start a blog…
What I find really odd is that there are so many writers trying desperately to get a book published into print… at great effort and great expense. Yet I tell them they can publish for free on Amazon Kindle, and they respond with a glazed-eye look or disinterest.
Maybe it's just me, but if I were as talented as some of the authors I meet, I'd want to get my work "out there" in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Okay, I may have to just accept the fact that some people are slower to adopt new technology than others. I know I should realize how hard it is, after all, I'm a reformed techno-clutz myself.
I imagine a funeral of an unpublished author being buried with a ton of handwritten notes. What a pity not to share with the world…
I started this post because I read a very good piece about the practice of writing from Chris Brogan and want to share it with you. I recommend you read it here:
Publish often. Another place where our practice falls down is that we keep tons of drafts of things around, but never publish. Here’s the truth: If it’s not out there, it doesn’t count as much. (Journal keepers, I don’t mean you. Put down the purple pitchforks.)
Get your work out there onto the web, onto blogs, into the hands of other people, whatever. Get it out there. The more you publish, the more people will take swings at it, the more people will riff off it, the more you’ll get the chance to get feedback.
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