Of Opportunity and Online Influence

Prompt of the Day #13

Pick your favourite short story or poem, reread it, make any last minute changes. And submit it. Send it to a literary magazine or an online newsletter; give it to a favoured teacher or a extremely critical friend; thrust it out into the world and accept whatever praise or criticism you receive. 

Do it.

 Now. 

Nothing is ever going to happen if you don't make the move to make it happen. 

Scribblers, the modern world is at our finger tips. You're taking part in it right now by reading this blog.  

Do you really want to live like this?

Carpe Diem! said Horace, Seize the Day! You should be doing the same. Everyday that you write you're engaging in an art that will only come to fruition if you make the move to make it happen. You can't sit and hope that dreams come true, writing isn't about that. Writing is about publicity, in many ways the audience is more important than you are. Which means you have to go out and find one. Even before you publish, you need to think about who you're trying to engage with - even if it's people just like you. 

The online community is huge, there are hundreds of writing websites out there: Writing.com, Figment.com, Helium.com etc etc. 

You have no excuse not to show at least extracts of your work to someone. You can put them up briefly and take them down once you have a second opinion. You can accumulate a portfolio and create a cult of personality for your authorial persona. These are easy, abusable opportunities you can't afford to waste. Everyone else can use them, do you want to be left behind?

When you apply for internships (which I'm doing right now) or seek any kind of employment, you don't apply to just one or two names or businesses. You send off dozens of letters, print page upon page of CVs, spend hours composing emails that you know will likely not be replied to. And when you don't here back you keep calm and carry on with a little bit of your heart aching but knowing that you have no choice but to keep applying and keep trying. 

If you meet someone who might be able to help you, whether it's at an event, a conference, your local book store, on the train or because you accidentally picked up the wrong bag at the airport, use them. Make contacts, find out their details and email them or call them as soon as is polite. Don't ever pass up an opportunity that comes your way because you don't know how often they'll come up , or at least not without thinking about it. It's good practise to find out more about any chances you're given.

Think about some of the 'famous' today - you have singers such as Birdy, whose angellic voice arches away from her gawky, fifteen year old self and is beloved by many because she was discovered on youtube. Similarly, Bo Burnham, a 20-something American comedian was discovered on youtube and consequently sang at the Youtube Awards and was awarded a prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Charlie McDonald, Phil DeFranco, Jenna Marbles - they're all youtube sensations. Blogger Neil Pasricha has just published 'The Book of Awesome, after his wordpress blog became somewhat of a positive thinking cult. How do you think the Huffington Post started by the way? Or Perez Hilton? Or The Daily Beast? If those don't count as success stories I don't know what does. 

So seriously Scribblers, take every opportunity you can and use it well. You never know when you might finally break through into the real world. Then again, my favourite version of my favourite song by Otis Redding sit below and the singer, whose powerful voice collects silver coins on the streets, claims that he's in 'the joy industry'. Hopefully those things don't have to be exclusive principles for us. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
 SCRIBBLER