Writing

After the monthly meeting of our Christian writers' club I am forced to realize how little I actually write and how little I promote the material that I've written. It is true that I haven't written anything that is for sale or worthy of marketing in any way, but there is an awareness that someday that may be the case. Building a brand and a base may not be a bad idea.

In the past few years, I have been surprised at the number of people that are writing and publishing books. While I have always thought that I might do that (and even have a couple of ideas and starts) I have yet to be inspired or motivated (or disciplined) enough to actually do that. These simple posts at Out of My Hat are the best that I have managed.

As for my blog (blogs if you count the times that I occasionally post on healthy living), I only share them on my social networks and have seen the readership dwindle to a faithful few over the years. At one time I was getting over 100 hits per day. Controversy, coarse attitude and general curmudgeon-ness has managed to cut that in half. I think perhaps I am writing to one demographic and marketing to another (when marketing at all).

Perhaps separating my personal Facebook account into two accounts -- one for business and ministry, and one as a personal account will help. If you are a pastor, minister or Facebook friend through church contact, please go to my new account The Message in Magic and "like" it so that you can follow my ministry related posts there. I will soon be dropping you from my personal account and will be using it for family, friends and personal contacts from ordinary life. Truthfully, you that are ministry friends or business accounts care little about day to day postings. It is not meant to offend anybody. It is just a way to catalog contacts in a more efficient manner for everybody.

I have no plans for a separate Twitter account, but that may change.

I am currently only a week away from completing my personal 30 Day Writing Challenge and will continue to try to post more often. I also think that I will work more towards some real writing every day (think books I have started on) which was probably the original intent of the challenge, anyways.

I do have some ideas about regular series of posts for the coming year. You know us retired guys have all kinds of time on our hands for such projects, right?

In any case, I will continue to write and I hope that you will continue to read. If you find something worth sharing, please do.

John <><