How I Got in the Game -- The April Platform Challenge Anniversary Post

I tweet every blog post “I #amwriting The Life on Clemson Road.”

In that statement alone, I’m expressing how far Robert Lee Brewer’s April Platform Challenge 2012 has brought me.

Let’s break it down: I tweet.

What? Not too long before April 2012 I thought Twitter was a self-indulgent busybody software of the highest order of narcissism and shallowness.

Now, I host Tweet chats for the Wordsmith Studio group every Tuesday, follow the Twitter feed for #thevoice and every major awards show, and participate in #litchat and #pitmad to discuss others’ books and pitch mine. 

It’s about the conversation.

I will write an entire post on Twitter etiquette, by the bye, since I have been in meetings with people who seemed to think the Twitter conversation was more important than the people in front of them. Ugh.

Okay, part two of the phrase: every blog post.

I blog? What?

Yep. Shhhh… you’re reading it now. 

I KNOW! It’s crazy. 

This was my platform, my way to tell people what I can do, what tough decisions I make and how, where I’m struggling, where I’m succeeding, and when I’m running.

But, yeah, a blog is an ultra-scary personal confessional kinda like the way reality stars talk to the camera, right?

Nope.

It’s a place to practice my essay writing skills, to show my professionalism and my leadership.  I started out blogging daily but as I warned, I suck at daily things. So then I went to weekly and I’ve done pretty well with that.

I read somewhere that I don’t have to produce more content, I have to give people time to find what I’m producing. So I keep promoting the same posts and hope to get new hits, new interest, new comments. This approach has worked to bring in new readers but it may be a tad annoying to my loyal followers.

Sorry, loyal followers, for harassing you.

Okay, part three of the phrase: #amwriting

It’s a hash tag writers’ group led by Johanna Harness. I found them on Twitter and frequently visit their blog. I occasionally do #amwriting sprints in the a.m. with Johanna via Twitter.

I was a member until they got serious and redesigned their site and realized I’d only ever written a bio for them and dismissed me. No hard feelings. I was, at that point, arm-in-arm with Wordsmith Studio.

What #amwriting did for me was awesome. It showed me how online writing groups can really support one another and made me willing to commit to WS. It showed me how to use hash tags to really find and follow a conversation, making me a good candidate for the second position I took in WS. But we’ll get to that.

Okay, fourth part of the phrase: the Life on Clemson Road

Yes, it’s the name of the blog. But it’s also the phrase that describes the journey we’ve been taking since Discount Tire Company promoted Charlie to take over the first store in Columbia, located on Clemson Road.

I’ve used the blog as a confessional (a la reality TV) but I’ve also used it to cope with this incredible change in our lives.

So back to Wordsmith Studio and 

what this whole April anniversary means to me:

I said to Charlie the other night, while describing the wonderful love letter the wonderful Veronica Roth had written to our WS cohorts, that this group has been the right fit at the right time. 

When one of our members who has since had to bow out due to illness, asked me to take over the Goodreads group, I had no idea how to work that web site but cheerfully accepted.

When Khara House asked me to pick up the Tuesday Early Birds chat I had no idea how to work that either but cheerfully agreed.

Then I wrote a guest post for the fiction blog about submitting.Me? A veteran on something about writing?

All of this to say that the best part of the April Challenge from 2012 was chiseling out my inner writer and finding an outlet to create, share, and participate.

As I love to say on this blog, “Get in the game.”

Thanks, Robert, and Wordsmith Studio writing buddies for getting me in the game!