I am in no way associated with Pinterest beyond being an enthusiastic user. I’m have not been approached by Pinterest and am not being paid for any element in this post. I merely wish to share with you a tool that I find invaluable as a writer and believe you’ll find an asset to your writing.

If you haven't caught the other posts in this series, link to them from here: Part One: The writer's best friend, Part Two: Do it once, do it right, Part Three: Injecting your brand into your boards. Enjoy!

Click Character Image Bank images to access below...

So, lockdown has killed my writing groove. What can I do to reignite the spark? ​If, like me, you’re feeling a bit lacklustre, less than inspired, tired, or frustrated, but you want to keep in the groove of writing without actually putting pen to paper or fingers to keys, what can we do to keep the fire burning? I find if I step back for too long, I lose the urge completely and won’t write for several months – hardly ideal when I’ve chosen to pursue writing as my career. Allowing such a gap, even in these unusual times, could spell the end, the implosion of my goals, and I’m determined not to let that happen.
After a spell of musing, I’ve come up with plenty of activities you and I can get on with to support our writing and authorship without feeling forced. In fact, this is a great time to concentrate on growing your knowledge and expertise of your craft, and to do small things now to get ahead. I’ve put together a list of ideas (feel free to add yours in the comments) that are sure to spark interest, some of which may surprise you. I’m sure there’s something here to keep your passion alive.

At this unsettled time, keeping your mind focused on the singular task of writing may be a challenge, but there are plenty of tasks you can apply yourself to that will support you as a writer, and help you get prepared for when you’re ready to tackle the manuscript again.
 
My (small and gentle) goals during this time are to:

1. Immerse myself in story
2. Grow my social media presence through interaction and building on my follower base
3. Learn more about my craft
4. Prepare for next stages

I've really only set goals for this time so I can ensure I do a bit of each. It's totally up to you if you want to work this way.
 
Here are some ideas to support each goal:

1. Immerse in story…

• Read – start with an old favourite, then go wide and deep – try a new author, new genre…
• Try listening to an audiobook
• Watch – TV, Movies – pay attention to story, character development, plot…

 
2. Grow meaningful social media…

• Be active every day on existing platforms (even for short bursts)
• Refresh your bio, images, hashtags, etc.
• Join a new social media platform or delete what isn’t working for you
• Have a cull – check through your following list and see who is and isn’t active – cull those that aren’t
• Plan ahead for new social media posts
• Plan/build/refresh your website (check out ideas here)
• Plan or start a blog (check out ideas here)

 
3. Learn your craft…

• Catch up on your learning (have a look here to start... getting started, plot development, character development, setting development, short story tools)
• When reading/viewing, take notes on how plot and character develop - pose questions to research
• Start building your own research board/s on Pinterest (check out mine)
• Check out other author websites – note what you like and what works well (try starting here)
• Do some journaling (check out my blog post) – find out where your sticking points are

 
4. Prepare for the future…

• Set up next year’s planner or journal (clever tip here) 
• Refresh your planning documents
• Choose some prompts that inspire you for future writing (try mine, or check out the ones I've gathered)
• Create your own writing prompts
• Try writing a short story or flash fiction if the mood strikes
• Hunt out some future characters/settings
• Start a storyboard

 
These ideas are just the beginning. I’ve caught a few other blog posts out there with more, so hunt them out if you haven’t found something that takes your fancy on mine.
Do take a rest if you need it. We can’t be totally enthralled with what we do all the time, but we can maintain forward motion. Even when we’re feeling lost or completely anti, there are small actions we can take to get through the hard spots. There’s inspiration to be found in the work of others, and through other mediums. Every little step you take now will help you get through and come out the other side in a better position to restart your writing passion.

​In the meantime, stay safe, wash your hands, take those little steps.
Happy writing,
Emily.

​
P.S. ​Do you have ideas that others might find useful? Please add them to the comments to help your fellow authors through.

Ready for posts two and three? Just click!

​First up, I have not been approached by anyone or paid to write this post. I’m singing the praises of Pinterest solely because it’s an essential and brilliant tool in my writing kit, and I want to show you why, so it can make your writing life easier too!

​For those of you unfamiliar with this platform, Pinterest is essentially a search engine, but unlike the majority which allow you to bookmark pages, Pinterest has been designed to be the ultimate place to capture exactly what you want off different sites through images and links. It goes beyond that, too, allowing you to create and share your own ‘pins,’ ‘boards,’ or account.
There are numerous different blogs on how to set up an account, and the basics of using Pinterest, so I’m not going to reinvent the wheel outlining how to do that here. Instead, I’ll give you my tips and tricks for making Pinterest work for you as an author.

​Things to note: a ‘board’ is like a folder (you can have multiple boards on your account. I presently have 38). Within your board you can have ‘sections’ or dividers with different titles related to the subject of your board. A ‘pin’ is the item you’re saving, or tucking into that section that you can come back to later. A pin can be a single image with no link, or it can be a title page that, when clicked on, can lead you a whole blog post or website.

​First: it’s a place to promote myself and my writing. I have boards that illustrate me as a writer and person, my blog and other social media platforms, and my books and stories. These are my marketing boards that help me get my brand across. Many of my pins contain links that take you directly to my website or places you can buy my books.
Second: I use it to learn and help others learn my craft. I have ‘Write!’ boards to inspire others to join the writing way of life. From how to develop a character or plot, to images and prompts for inspiration, I’ve saved hundreds (if not thousands) of excellent tools to help you on your journey as a writer.
Third: I use it to learn and help others learn the business side of being an independent writer. Titled ‘Biz,’ you can find everything here from how to build a website or blog, to different forms of publishing and marketing.
Fourth: it’s a tool for developing and illustrating my stories as storyboards. Each of my stories gets a board, and each board is sectioned depending on what I want to store or show. Common headings here are: characters, setting, and research. I also have character banks (with thousands of entries to help you put a face to your characters), and a ‘research for stories’ board in which I tuck bits and pieces I might need in the future, and could help you out should you need to know about anything from survival skills to period costume, science to crime and combat, and heaps more.

​The internet is truly your oyster when it comes to Pinterest, and you tailor your boards to suit you. You can even have public boards (seen by everyone), or private boards (seen only by you), so if you want to save things that aren’t relevant to your writing life, but happen to like sewing or cooking and want to save pins on those topics, you can save them just for you.
Like other social media platforms, you can follow other accounts, or follow a selected one or more of their boards. Likewise, you gain followers – people who see what you’re pinning, and can pin those things too. The key to gaining followers is to pin, pin, pin. Several pins in short bursts throughout the day seems to be the most effective strategy. I’ll pin anywhere from 10 to 50 pins in a day depending on what else I’ve got going on. You can also create your own pins, but everywhere I’ve looked advises to start by pinning from what’s already out there (when you pin someone else’s pin or follow their board or account, they’re notified of that and might pin from you or follow you back!).

​Starting out back in 2018 I had no clue of what an Author Platform was. None. I had accounts on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, and was keen to get my book out into the world, but had a sticking point: it’s scary. To start, following complete strangers on the internet goes against the grain of inviting strangers into our lives, and as for direct messages, well you never know what’s going to pop up in there! To be frank, it scared me, but I had no idea how important a social media following is for an independently published author or for a newbie looking to get a foot in the traditionally published door! I needed direction, so, like for most things I have no idea about, I decided to do some research.
During research into publishing I came across the term ‘platform.’ Having not long built a house, all I could imagine was bare earth all smoothed out and ready to build on, and this image actually isn’t far from the truth. Your platform is the foundation of followers, fellow writers and creatives, friends, viewers…anyone who could be considered a potential reader. It pays not to be a hermit (that’s a bit tough! I hear you introverts cry), but it’s a fact of publication that having a followership really helps. I utterly get the reluctance to venture into the public world with your book baby, or to create a public image of yourself, I’ve been there! I’d not long come through a period of depression when I decided to go the whole hog with my writing. I was in a space of wanting to hide, I mean, why would anyone want to know about me? Why would they care about my stories? How would they even see my one tiny text in a gigantic world library of books? Well, at the start they didn’t, and that’s the point of starting early.
Deciding on how you want to portray yourself can take some time, and so does building the confidence to take that step into the public domain in your newly claimed role. I’ve done it all in little caterpillar steps (to date, two years), and as time has gone on I’ve built myself a platform. I started with family and Facebook friends. I researched platforms and social media (you can find the blogs etc. I used on my Pinterest board here… [insert link]), I created accounts, and I waited, and very little happened. What was I doing wrong? Read on to find out.

​The biggest mistake I made in the beginning with social media, was assuming that people would come to me.
I still consider myself a newbie at platform building, and for me it’s been two years of mostly research, trial, and error. I’ll tell you that it takes time and a certain amount of guts (or just close your eyes and go for it, like me) to start making those connections. But the sooner you start, the better, and almost every author I’ve come across will tell you to start before you publish. That felt wrong to me, and so I waited. I didn’t have anything to share, did I? Actually, I did, and so do you. Had I joined the #writingcommunity on Twitter sooner, I could have tapped into a wealth of experience in planning and writing books. There are literally thousands of authors out there who are willing to share their expertise. I could have asked about publishing, advertising, how to beat writer’s block, or what the heck a platform was in the first place! So, I’ll tell you now, it’s never too early to begin, and baby steps are better than no steps.
The one secret I’ve got that can really help you isn’t such a secret really: if you want people to find you, you’ve got to get out there and amongst it by following others. You’ll find that many people you follow, particularly on Twitter and Instagram, will follow you back, and add you to their #writerslift (a way of sharing people to follow), and then you’ve got your foot in the door! Hooray!
 
But what social media apps should we as writers/creatives be using? How many? What should I post? There’s no easy answer there, sorry, it’s up to you. All I can do is share what I use, and urge you to have fun with it!
 
I use four main apps – Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I’ve listed them in the order I find them most beneficial to me as a writer and I’ll tell you why below.

Has this blog helped you? Do you feel more confident in putting yourself out there for having read this post? Do you have questions about platform building on social media? Let me know in the comments section!

Thankfully we’ve had a slightly quieter month in the Larkins house. Last month was a bit much for me all round. People who’ve known me a long time realise that I’m not a great ‘coper.’ I need prior warning, time to digest upcoming events, basically, space enough to get excited about things. Luckily I get eleven months for birthdays, this month including my eldest niece’s fifteenth birthday (FIFTEEN?!) and my youngest niece’s first birthday (I can’t believe she’s one already)!

​I’ve hit a staggering 5000 followers on Twitter! Back in February 2018 when I joined, I thought that 500 would be an amazing number. I thought the thousands were for famous people, and anything over 5000 meant you’d made it! It’s funny how your goals move as you get to them. I still look at others over the 5k mark and am in awe of these incredible presences on the platform. I, in the meantime, am still just me, learning all I can from the amazing #writingcommunity family I’ve become a part of. Actually, I do have to admit to feeling a tiny bit famous now. I’ve been asked to guest post on a fantastic blog run by two lovely, creative ladies. It’s an exciting development that I hadn’t anticipated, but the longer I think about it, the greater the sense of achievement becomes. Little by little I’m getting out there into the world, and I’m managing to do it from my safe spot on the couch behind my computer screen.
But here I am procrastinating again. My platform is one thing, but it doesn’t mean that much if I don’t actually WRITE SOMETHING! This month my greatest accomplishment (aside from the guest post invitation), is having entered all my plot data into the writing document for The Weight of Expectation. It’s been a slog, and at times an interesting one, but it now means I have to bite the bullet and get writing! What grates is that this is my third re-plan and re-write. It’s the gritty part of writing where you want to throw the lot out the window and set it on fire because it feels like the whole thing is crap. Actually, having just written that sentence, I now realise why I feel so resistant to it: it’s the gritty bit. It’s the hard the uphill slog before I get to the rollercoaster downhill of revision and editing. Yay! Eek! Damnit! LOL.

I hope now that I’ve had my big ‘ah ha’ moment, I’ll be able to put it all into practice over the coming, potentially challenging months. I’ll have to monitor myself more closely, to get on a better routine with my blog writing, to take time out when I’m in a mental frizz, and to embrace the opportunities to spend with family in celebration. After all, we don’t know what’s around the corner for ourselves or those close to us. It could be brilliant and inspiring, or it could be difficult and life-altering. Whatever it is, we need to be as prepared as we can be either way, and for me that means keeping on top of my rollercoaster – recognising the highs and lows as they happen and doing what I can through writing and quiet time to smooth the ride. I’m finally recognising my Thing and making the most of it.

Next month I’ll be looking ahead to the silly season, the summer season, and for many in my family, the birthday season. It’ll be interesting to see how I’ve gone with my Thing through all that chaos!

​From One Writer to another, good luck finding your Thing!
Until next month,
Emily.

​Psst! Yes, you!
Join me on Pinterest to make use of the section I’ve added under ‘About the Author’ on self-care. I’ve added this in response to my low this month to remind myself of all the great tools I’ve been taught to maintain my mental health, and to collect new inspiration I find as I go. You can also follow me to benefit from all the hours I’ve spent scouring pins to give inspiration to your writing, creative business, and to see what I’m working on. My Pinterest account is a resource intended to get every writer into creative mode and is full of tips and tools to enhance your writing experience. Visit today!