My Journey as an Author -2

Today continues my attempts to establish an online presence to both grow a community and increase readership. It is early, and there has been little progress, but these things generally start slow.

I am quite pleased that my application to be a writer for Simily is in the works. For those of you unfamiliar with their platform, they provide a space for creative writers to share their writing. You can even earn a little from views if you are in a country eligible for profit sharing. It is as much as $.02 per view, which is significant.

My current plan is to identify the various platforms where I can post my writing and thoughts. I see Simily as one of the central pillars for this plan. It provides a space for regular, serialized content, which is designed to bring readers back and keep retention high. It also provides the opportunity to break longform content up into smaller sections, essentially increasing the product while reducing the work. Making many smaller posts has the added benefit of creating secondary posts on other platforms. Whenever something is published to Simily, I can alert a subreddit, make a post on any number of other platforms, or react to my own writing in some article or thoughtful reflection. These are great chances to generate interest, and even consider my content more thoroughly, which can improve my writing.

Additionally, I have continued to prepare my substack. Again, this might be unfamiliar to some, but Substack is another platform which serves to help creators provide subscription based content. There is more to it, and I recommend readers interested in developing their personal brand explore Substack if that seems interesting. Although, it is well developed, offers a considerable amount of customization, and is consequently an effort to set up satisfactorily. As someone that hates design, choosing the right pictures is a difficult process that has me vacillating between two nearly identical options. I would rather get to work, which leads me to my next bit.

I am a writer, and that means I produce writing. Though my main thrust is books, I am preparing serialized content for Simily. To achieve this best, I have a very clever plan. In the past, I have adapted public domain works for a modern audience. There are many great stories and famous novels which have entered the public domain, becoming free to use by anyone. You can check Project Gutenberg if you want to see some of what is available.

I have the thought to adapt specific novels which lend themselves to my worldbuilding and writing. Specifically, I am starting with Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Princess of Mars. This is a great choice, since it was serialized content from the start, in the very format I am after. That means that he produced regular segments of writing which had a clear result and ended with a cliffhanger. They are satisfying chapters to read. But there is room for improvement. Written economically for magazines, I have plenty of places to add in greater detail, waxing poetic, and building out scenes which lost out to necessity. More than that, I benefit from having the entire corpus available to me.

Whereas Edgar Rice Burroughs had to figure out one book after the next, I see where the story ends from the beginning, and can make corrections or additions earlier which help make a cohesive experience. Characters no longer suddenly appear, but can be introduced well before their moment of need. Aspects of the world are hinted at in advance of their introduction. Themes are established when events were merely let to happen.

It is not a simple task, but enjoyable. And I am looking forward to sharing progress in this respect. Of course, once I get on Simily, you will be able to read my work there.

That's it for now. So, noses back to the grindstone.