On Platforms, Bios, and Being “Remarkable” – aka, Lots to Do

So I have been doing some research on the whole setting-up-a-website thing.  Turns out that as an aspiring author, I have to do a great many things.  In no particular order, these are a mere smattering of the things I apparently have to do:

• Develop a platform to sell myself, of which a website and blog are only the beginning;
• Be “remarkable” and differentiate myself from everyone else in the universe who also is an aspiring author as well as everyone else in the universe who just likes having a website and blog;
• Get over my “I don’t like having my picture taken that much” thing and have interesting shots to draw attention and make me real to people who do not know me (this of course only matters if people other than those who already know me ever actually visit my website and/or blog) – fortunately I happen to have my own personal Francletographer at the ready to help with this;
• Develop a clever and unique way to present biographical information (again, the whole “make me real” thing);
• Figure out how to tag myself/my website/my blog so that Google will pick me up for things other than “Jill Elizabeth Teehee”;
• Write blog posts regularly, but not too regularly (because apparently when one is searching for a blog/RSS feed to follow, one is advised to go all Goldilocks-ish and pick those who post not too often and not to infrequently – Rick, whatever would I do without you pointing these things out to me?!);
• Comment regularly on other people’s blogs (because apparently it is not enough to say what one thinks on one’s own, but one must also say what one thinks about what other people think – this is getting exhausting…);
• Be interesting and thought-provoking but not alienating (teehee – in other words, I have to be a Republican running for office – look harmless and friendly and intelligent and purposeful and action-oriented, but actually say nothing that anyone on earth could ever say “HEY – I disagree!” to…); and
• Do all these things while ALSO taking SOME time to work on the actual writing projects I have going, because these are all things intended to brand me for an eventual launch of said writing.

EEK, she said.

So, here I am, back in novel/short story land – that is, I am again faced with a veritable plethora of things I have to do and an utter lack of insight as to where to begin.  Why, why, why is nothing easy?!  (teehee)

Some of these things will take time and necessarily develop as I do more blogging and develop more of a voice/presence.  Some of them require research – EEK, that sounds like WORK, and this whole writing thing was supposed to be about NOT having to do work!  I object, she said loudly and with a deeply furrowed brow.  And ALL of them require more self-discipline than I’ve been required to produce for some time now – again, this REEKS of work-like-ness, and I am not amused by that one little bit.  Not one little bit, she said.

Still, I find myself oddly pleased at the growing list of things to do – and not only because of the joy of checking things off the list, or of having things to put on a list that are real and not merely dumb things that allow themselves to be readily checked off (like “Play Treasure Isle today” or “Have lunch with ME” or “Get up before noon”), but because they mean I’m really doing this (finally).  I still don’t know if anything will ever come of any of it – whether I’ll ever actually write a full and complete story (long or short or in-between), get anything published, find a single reader who doesn’t already know me, or convince anyone to “help out a fellow American who is down on his (her) luck…” (random Bugs Bunny reference – kudos to anyone who recognized it) – but regardless, I’m just glad I have had the opportunity and the support to try…

No more sappy now, promise – I have work to do!