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Humans have been telling stories for as long as we have been able to communicate. From early cave drawings to oral stories around the fire. Stories are what bind humanity, allowing us to be connected, nurtured, entertained and educated.

Modern technology allows us to share our stories in so many amazing ways – some good, some not so good. Because there is so much out there for us to consume we can actually start to feel disconnected by so much white noise. It can be overwhelming. There is so much information, so many stories, that it becomes hard work to sift through everything.

For the person with a story to tell, there are so many ways to share it that this also becomes overwhelming. Do you write an article, a book, blog, create a video or podcast?

It always comes back to your intention, what you want your story to accomplish. If you want to write a novel, that is obviously a book. If you’ve overcome adversity that could be a book, a documentary, a series of blog posts or all three.

At our last Publish for Profit session, we had Peter Helft, from Jongleur, talk to the group about using video to tell your story or to promote your book. Peter gave us some amazing statistics about social media platforms that really make it a no brainer in terms of sharing information to the wider population. The reach is huge, it’s easy to implement and free or cost effective (paid ads).

When you think about how most people consume media, visual platforms outperform everything because the majority of us are visual communicators. If you want to find out more about the different ways we communicate, or consume material, have a think about whether you are auditory, visual or kinesthetic in your preference. This site may illuminate things a little for you: http://visualteachingalliance.com/ OR you can google it!

So what does that mean for writers? It means that we keep writing but we can use different platforms to make our audience aware that we even exist. We need to do this because we need to cut through all the noise. When you think about the fact that people buy people (no matter what story you have), we need to connect with them. This is where the whole ‘author platform’ comes in. The upshot is that visual communication should be a BIG part of your marketing plan. Share photos and videos, live stream on Facebook and you will be able to reach more people and get your story into their hands.

At the next Publish for Profit, we’ll be learning about how to blog. Go here to find out more.

Blaise the book chick

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I love winter. Open fires, hot cups of tea to warm our chilled hands, beautiful winter sunsets. I’d love it even more if I could stay longer in bed in the morning, but you can’t have everything.

Today I am reflecting on the Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year, the longest night, a time for contemplation. Time to make magic. What does this mean to me? Does it mean anything? Maybe it’s nothing to think twice about and we go on with our day as normal.

Being a writer means EVERYTHING bears thinking about because that’s what writers do. We want to know the significance of things. It hurts the brain, doesn’t it? Writing is a vehicle where we can make sense of these ‘everythings’ in our head.

The Winter Solstice can be a great muse for our writing. There are so many aspects to what it is, the historical values, what it might mean to us that we can ponder and use in our writing. How do you do this?

One way could be to think about what the longest night might mean to nature? What are the elements that relate to nature that could be interesting in a piece of writing? Can we relate these to death, dying, or renewal? Do you feel that the solstice is the start of winter, or the middle? Are there dark, mystical themes that we can tease out and infuse into our writing?

Now think about the history of humans. How do you think the Winter Solstice might have been viewed over the centuries? There were most likely pagan rituals around it during the Middle Ages and who knows how it has shaped other religious entities.

How many questions have I raised here? I haven’t gotten to any answers yet. I haven’t made sense of anything at all so where is this magic that writing is meant to answer? This is the magic of writing. Not that we get a definitive answer to our questions but that in the asking of questions, and writing through them, we go on a quest to discover our own truths and eek out stories as we go.

Being a writer is a quest. A quest to knowledge and enlightenment.

Blaise the book chick

*If you’d like to discover more about storytelling, come along to one of my Meetup groups at the Busybird Publishing studio. More info about the next session is here.

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How do you tell people about your story?

Winter Solstice: A Creative Muse