Chuck Wendig made another "25 Things" post, this one about what writers should know about social media. Read it. Absorb it. Use what you need. (Especially relevant is this: "People want to follow other people." So, you know, be a person.) Also, he used the word "behooves."
Amanda Hocking made a good post about bullying. Let me say, first of all, that bullying as a pet cause annoys the hell out of me. I'm jaded by all of the anti-bullying chain status updates on Facebook, though. I do think that the Internet has revolutionized bullying and I think it's worth educating yourself, especially if you have kids. I also think it's important to take a personal stand against bullies, no matter how non-confrontational you are.
James Killick posted about rejection and why it has to hurt. The quote about writing being easy, just sit down and "open a vein" came to mind when I read it. In real life, I'm pretty stoic and reserved. This has come from a lifetime of extreme emotional ups and downs. When it comes to my writing, I'm broody, moody, emotional, and deathly afraid of rejection and negativity. None of that stops me. I guess I'm also stubborn and determined.
This week, I discovered a blog dedicated entirely to ideas for promoting your book for free. It has been a couple of weeks since the last update, but the ideas there seem like good ones. In any case, it certainly can't hurt to check it out and see if there are any ideas you can implement.
You should be reading Sirra's blog. This week's post was about voice in writing, but it's worth going back to read her post about douchesm in promotion, too--the comments exploded in a snarkfest of hilarity.
Stella Deleuze posted about conflict in a novel, which was helpful to me because it's something I struggle with. Remember how I mentioned I'm a non-confrontational person? And how I tend toward the stoic and reserved? I don't "get" confrontation and high emotion, so it's something I don't feel I write well. The other kinds of conflict she discusses, more internal conflict, make more sense to me, but those sorts of conflict are difficult to convey effectively. I think it's worth identifying them and working on them. She also posted about how to annoy your social network contacts. Especially if you're new to this game of self-promotion, check out the post. Read it in conjunction with Sirra's post above. Learn what not to do.
It looks like this was the week to learn about how to use social media for professional purposes.
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