{"id":547,"date":"2011-02-07T17:59:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T17:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/?p=547"},"modified":"2011-02-07T18:23:28","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T18:23:28","slug":"imageborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/07\/imageborn\/","title":{"rendered":"Image"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 2008 I got back into writing after a decade-long hiatus, and the buzz I felt with my first new short story filled me with a tremendous amount of hope not because the story was particularly good or worthy of awards (though from what I\u2019ve read, it certainly seems to be on both counts, even if I do say so myself), but because of the speed and clarity born of a new writing technique that proved very effective and efficient in getting me \u201cin the groove\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n

I then applied the technique to my memoir, Over the Hills and Far Away, and was astonished at how quickly I rewrote whole chapters at a time. I punched out a new rough draft in short order, did an initial edit, sent it out to readers for feedback, applied what I received, and felt I was close to ready for the big time.<\/p>\n

I next had to learn the business of publishing. As difficult as it was for me to write this particular book, I knew early on I had a lot of work ahead of me if I wanted to see the book become a success. Any idiot can write a book, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to sell the book, and even more to make the book a success. With that in mind, I set about building the necessary \u201cplatform\u201d \u2013 all the usual stuff including website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account. And I kept busy keeping all these things up to date, posting as often as I could, letting people know my progress. I thought I was doing everything right.<\/p>\n

I failed to consider how people might react to what I said on my personal page. In the past I\u2019ve expressed an opinion on politics, especially, and directed my comments at anyone I thought deserved them. It never occurred to me that someone might be deeply offended. It\u2019s now something I\u2019m conscious of, and because commonly I post simply needing an immediate outlet for frustration, more often now I write the comment and then delete it, which seems to serve the purpose well enough. If I do happen to post, it will probably be something neutral and unlikely to offend anyone.<\/p>\n

The point is that, as a fledgling writer, it\u2019s hard enough for me to get help as it is, and the last thing I need is to be alienating any segment of a potential audience. I have to be vigilant of the fact that people can be extremely sensitive. Maybe after I\u2019m established I\u2019ll have a little wiggle room, but for now I\u2019ll focus on the single most important challenge \u2013 getting the word out. For that I need to remember it\u2019s crucial I make the right impression, to convey the right image.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d my Facebook author page and I\u2019ll send you Chapter 1 of Over the Hills and Far Away. Pop on over to\u00a0#mce_temp_url#<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2008 I got back into writing after a decade-long hiatus, and the buzz I felt with my first new short story filled me with a tremendous amount of hope not because the story was particularly good or worthy of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-troubles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}