Share something Everyday
It works like a Charm — Show Your Work Series {3 & 4 }.
Share something small every day — the best writing advice I ever received.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been diving into the key takeaways of Austin Kelon’s book Show Your Work, from a writer's point of view.
This week I am dying to share with you the writing tips, I learned and adopted which really worked well for me.
So without further ado…
i) The Little somethings
I came across posts from several writers, who write and publish a blog post every day (Those humble brags)how do they do it I have no clue.
With a full-time day job and a bronze medal in procrastination, I assure you I am not one of those superhumans.
Writing a story or a blog post per se can be a time-consuming art. The time takes to make your finest craft may differ from year to week. And I love taking my sweet time.
During that period, you need to feed your audience. So share something small every day.
Document yourself, Look back at the work that’s in progress. You’ll find these itsy bitsy crumbs — The trope you are working on / the books you read / the people who inspire and influence you.
Share with your readers a glimpse of it every day. Leave a bread crumb trail. Keep them on the edge for what’s coming.
ii) Get Social(s)
When I say, share something every day, it can range from a blog post to a text post. It could be a YouTube short or an Instagram reel.
You can post your thoughts. Your muse, the quote that drove you to write the blog, or the place where you sit and design your main characters.
There are multiple social apps like Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr — choose a platform that suits your niche. Take advantage of them to Show your work.
I prefer and use Pinterest to share and promote my work however LinkedIn works just fine too.
iii) The Million Dollar question
Only because you can post everything, doesn’t mean you have to post everything. In this culture of tap and scroll, it is easy to get carried away.
Be mindful of what content you want to share online. Remember nothing is deleted off the internet. Taking your audience behind the scenes works to your advantage until you know the line.
Hence every time you post something, ask the Million Dollar question “So What ?”
Ask yourself — Is this helpful? Is it entertaining? Is it something I’d be comfortable with my boss or my mother seeing ?” ~ [ Austin Kleon, Show your work ]
If you have this feeling in your gut, telling you otherwise, hit the Save as draft button and walk it off.
iv) Buy a domain
What is a Domain? One might ask. It is a website in your name or under any name per your liking.
Your website is your Bat cave. All your work online can be traced back to it. Your blogs, your books, your Instagram posts. It’ll work as an archive for all of your digital products.
You can buy a domain from any website builder such as Go Daddy, Wix, WordPress, etc. After a few Google searches and YouTube videos, you will be good to build your website on your own.
Of course, it will not be perfect, it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need a fancy, glittery page. It just has to be there to accommodate your work; that’s all.
In case you don’t want to complicate things or don’t have the patience to build a website, You can simply start with Medium — This platform will enable you to grow as a writer one post at a time.
The Beauty of owning your own turf is that you can do whatever you want with it.
Whether people show up or they don’t, you are out there, doing your thing, ready whenever they are
~Austin Kleon, Show your work
V) Give attribution
People often tend to forget this or they simply don’t care, I am not sure.
Whenever you are using someone’s work as a reference, When you highlight/quote their lines in your work, it is decency to give proper credit to them.
Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you ~ Matthew 7:12 (NLT)
How pissed you’ll be when someone uses your work to limelight theirs and not give you the credit.
It is okay to use other people’s work in what you do, they are what inspires you and drives you. However, giving attribution to them is a non-negotiable and noble thing to do.
Notice those little captions below every picture on medium posts ?? Like that. A link back to the source of the respective work won’t hurt though.
Also, as a thumb rule if you don’t know whom to give credit for or link back the work, don’t use it.
To Sum it up:-
- Share something small every day, and take advantage of the social apps to do so.
- Be mindful of what you share and ask yourself, is this gonna help someone? Then hit the publish button
- Own a website, and fill it Your work, ideas and what inspires you. Stuff that matters to you
- When you wanna share something of others, offer a shout-out to the original creator.
One quote every day, one blog every week — Perhaps it doesn’t seem much at the beginning though when you look back after 6 months or in a year, you’ll end up with a social account that people adore and a full-functioning website with 52 posts.
It’s like the old saying goes, Small raindrops make the great Oceans.
Show Your Work # 3 & 4
Shout out to Austin Kelon and his book “Show Your Work” for helping me grow as a writer. I highly recommend it for new writers or any creators. Here is the Amazon link in case you decide to buy it.
Hope these writing tips help you a bit to sharpen your writing pencils, it does give me some applause and your comments.
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