Branding your platform, or platforming your brand?

When you are first thinking about starting a new blog or website, if you're like me and you go searching for tips and tricks to make it look interesting (eye-catching but easy-to-maneuver), one tip is often to make sure you know what your site's purpose is and make sure you keep the focus on that. If you blog is about being a first-time mother and is for first-time mothers, you shouldn't stray to movie reviews. If yours is a crafting blog, there shouldn't be posts about your trips to the gym. 

I've always thought this was good advice—your goal is to build a brand, so to speak, and talking about anything and everything dilutes that brand—but I've also always had a hard time sticking to that. CoffeeQuill was a blog I began because 1. I am a writer, and 2. A writer has a blog, for them to talk about their process, their stories, their tips and tricks, and the challenges and delights of publication. 

But earlier today I was reminding a friend that they are more than a writer. It can be a big part of a person's identity—it certainly is for me—but it isn't the whole of who I am. And frankly, there are only so many posts one can make about the importance of the oxford comma. (Don't get me wrong, I will defend the oxford comma to my dying breath, but there's only so many times someone wants to hear about it, and I know from experience, for someone people the number of times is often zero.) 

I am a writer, but I also love music and art and fashion and history and nature and crafting. I take photographs of the flowers around my neighborhood, and landscape pics of the sea. I sew stuffed animals and messenger bags and totes. I wire-wrap gemstones and create necklaces and bracelets. I loved sculpture when I took it in high school, and the only thing really stopping me from doing it now is space and equipment. I love fantasy art, and am essentially teaching myself Photoshop to improve my digital art and graphic art design skills. Don't get me started on my love of watching (and critiquing!) TV shows and movies. 

I have a variety of social media outlets, tumblr for the fandom primarily, twitter for short bites about important issues in the publishing and movie industries. Both of these to address, signal boost, and examine issues of privilege, equality, and representation. Facebook is for more daily life things, keeping in touch with friends I don't get to see as much. Livejournal (yes, I'm still on LJ) for personal venting and self-analysis, and for keeping in touch with some authors who also use it (I am not the only one!). And two blogs, Red-Inked Leaf for very specific editing posts (updated rarely because so much has already been said, and I don't want to rehash the same things without adding something new or different). 

That leave CoffeeQuill. As I said, it started as a writer blog, but my interests are varied. 

I made a Yakul (from Princess Mononoke) for a friend of mine.

Here's what I realized. Even though I think it's a good idea to have a focus for one's blog, there is a way to do that while still bringing in the variety of interests you have. 

That mom blog reviewing movies might do so from the perspective of someone who needs/wants to bring their child, or for whom being a mom has changed their perspective on what they find amusing or worth their time. The craft blogger talking about their time in the gym might be examining time management—how to fit in crafting with self-care or other obligations. Or they might be talking about how the gym provides them the energy to craft, or a chance to generate ideas, returning home with a lot more plans for things to make. 

I write fantasy. I create worlds that are informed by my knowledge of art and fashion and history and politics. The publishing industry is informed by and informs the world's ideas and attitudes about equality, representation, and diversity. The photographs I take sometimes become inspiration for locations, and the drawing and painting and crafting are ways for me to give my mind a break when a story is being difficult, and sometimes they help me visualize something I couldn't before. When I post about the ABC show, Once Upon A Time, I am breaking down the story structure and looking for ways to make my own writing better. When I write about white privilege, I am examining my own attitudes and seeing how they inform my writing, whether I want them to or not. 

The key is bringing it back to your platform, your brand. It's not always easy. (I'm sure there are posts where I could've done better to bring it back to the writing angle. It's a learning process.) But it's worth the effort. You get to write about something you enjoy, and you give readers a bigger glimpse into who you are. 

The author blogs I've most enjoyed have been ones that also talked about their families and pets, their daily walks, the shows they enjoy watching, and the issues that are important to them. There's more to them than just the writer, and it's okay to show that.

Didn't post yesterday

Boo on me, I know. But I was still fighting the Fever-y Head Cold of Doom. doomie doom.

I'll try to make up for the lapse with an extra post soon. If not today, then sometime in the next week or so.

I did spend yesterday thinking about my writing, though--even when my bedsheets were laying lightly on top or smoothed beneath me, and I felt tangled in then--I still feel like I wasn't completely lazy yesterday.

Mostly, my thoughts were drawn to the myriad agent, editor and writer blogs (both published and unpublished) that I visit. So many of them mention at some point the need for a writer who wants to get published to be confident, but not overly-confident (horror stories from agents receiving the 'of course you can't understand my magnificent work, you have to read it to see its stunning depth'). Bloggers in the know say writers shouldn't send out query letters until they believe their novel is the best they can make it. Not 'good enough,' not 'good,' but great, as close to perfect as the writer can accomplish.

The past few days, with this cold (or whatever it is), I can't help but wonder where I fall in the spectrum, except to know I am not firmly on the crazy over-confident end--I can be rather practical-minded, I like to believe. I do my research, and double-check it before sending out queries, so I have the most up-to-date information. But I can also be a pretty anxious and neurotic individual, and I'm finding it difficult, after a summer with my head in this one novel, to see whether it is as good as I can make it, or if I'm just too close to see its flaws, and a bit too tired. I don't know if my worries about the quality are justified, or just my over-active anxieties.

Anyway, that's what was going through my head while I was sick, so you know, grain of salt.

I want to present myself, especially with this, my "official" writing blog, as a competent and reasonable person. At the same time, it's chronicling my journey towards publication, and the worry is a part of that. I debated whether to mention how neurotic I can be, but this anxiety is a part of me, and it's part of my process as a writer. If I continue to receive form rejections, then I'll reevaluate my novel. Until then, and from now on, I'll keep the jibbering anixety to myself. For your sakes, dear readers. Because I care. ;P

Happy writing,
Sabrina

October First: Catch-All and Linkage

The countdown begins to my-favorite-holiday-on-which-I-have-nothing-to-do, Halloween. I love Halloween, the idea of dressing up as something magical and maybe a little scary, a night to pretend I'm someone/something else--it's like taking the stories I write a step further.

When I write, I am, in some ways, every character. I need to get in their heads, know how they think, how they react, how they feel. On Halloween, instead of quietly looking over the shoulders' of these fictional characters, I can walk the street as someone else.

@_@

Not to take that idea too far, I just love Halloween.

It's incredibly sad that I never have any plans for the night. Candy for the handful of kiddies that show up, yes, but my family never has parties, none of my friends have parties as far as I'm aware, and I'm not a dance club kind of gal.

But moving on. October 1 also marks the not-quite-midpoint of Banned Books Week, as well as the first day of NaBloWriMo--National Blog Writing Month. Seeing as how I love to read, but have been lax in my CoffeeQuill blogging, I want to attend to these both.

Briefly, a WHAT TO EXPECT:

Tomorrow, I'll post about Banned Books, talk about this year's list, banned books I have or have not read, and share an anecdote from 2003.

Then, it will be my fervent attempt to blog each day of October. I don't imagine I'll keep up the once-a-day post after this month, but if memory serves, it takes about 21 days to form a habit. If I can manage NaBloWriMo, maybe I can manage a more regular posting schedule. I'm already making a list of topics to post on.

LINKAGE

On Publisher's Weekly, there's a vote going on--PW is planning to do an interview with an urban fantasy author, and they want to know which UF author people want to read about. Voting is happening on now, and you can go here to cast your choice. You don't need to log in to leave a comment.

Today also heralds the guest post on "The Charming Bracelet," by "Only Milo" author Barry Smith. Jennifer Ambrose, the author of the blog, is running a Big Idea--a chain letter of sorts, but with a book. Receive it, read it, sign it, blog or tweet it if you like, mail it to someone else. Eventually, the book returns to Jennifer and more writers and readers are aware of a debut author. The book sounds interesting, and you can go to Jennifer's blog for more details about the book, Smith, and her chain book idea.

ETA: While writing about NaBloWriMo, I knew there was one more blog I wanted to mention. By the time I got to Linkage, I forgot. 'Cause I'm a dork like that. Seeing as I love Halloween, and by extension, October, here is a link to Writtenwyrdd's short fiction contest. 500-1,000-word horror story. Halloween as the deadline. Prize is a cuddly Chthulu plushie. I haven't written much horror, but for that, I'm going to give it a try.

(Thanks to Writtenwyrdd for reminding me I wanted to post about this.) :)

So that's October 1, day one of NaBloWriMo. 30 more days to go.

Happy writing,
Sabrina

UPDATE 1

So I've started, finally, with the side bar o' links.

First up, links to blogs by writers, some whose work I've read, others whose blog I stumbled across in my internet meandering (and boy, do I ever meander). It is incomplete. I'll add more soon.

Soon to come, a list of links to agents' and editors' blogs. (Is it an unspoken rule that writing blogs require a link to Miss Snark? ~grins~)

I might add a third list of websites that caught my fancy, possibly including writer websites, whether they have a blog or not.

Also, although this'll go up next to Jenny Rappaport's link when I do the second list (I may very well start it today, why not?) will be Lori Perkin's new blog. She also started it as a new year's resolutions, and we humble writers get a nice look at an agent with 20 years of experience and perspective on this crazy biz called publishing. (Too much? Maybe. Oh well. It's my mood.)

This has been your friendly neighborhood blogger with an update.

Note: The 'linkage' part of my labels should be read as if you were Paulie Shore. A continuation of the imitation is no fault of mine. So I disclaim.