Robert Lee Brewer's platform challenge assignment for yesterday was to create a time management plan. He believes that we must manage our time so we can remain connected on our social networks and still spend the majority of our time writing. I have been fully aware of this ever since I retired from my day job in April 2010 and plunked myself in my chair at my home office and began my life as a full-time writer. Even though I allow myself a lot of time to write, I find myself wandering every so often to look at my email, check my Facebook comments and likes, see if anything is happening here at Choices, and respond to Twitter messages and retweets. I feel if I'm going to participate in the social media at all it's a matter of give and take. If someone gives to me, I have to give back. View from my office Just now I found a comment on an article that went live yesterday. If someone was generous enough to make a comment on my piece, I had to write a thank you right away, didn't … [Read more...]
Call to action – April Platform Challenge – Day 19
As part of the April Platform Challenge my task today is to ask you to do two things: Please click on the share buttons - they are big and prominent at the top of the right side bar on this page Please sign-up for my email feed see the little box just under the share buttons. It has room for you to type in your email address. Please click Submit when you've finished. And one more thing that is not part of my assignment: Please join me at the LA Times Festival of Books on the University of California campus either or both Saturday and Sunday June 21 and 22, from 12 noon until 2:00 pm. I'll be at the Greater Los Angeles Writer's Society booth number 970. Hopefully I'll be signing lots of copies of my book: Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide (Lucky Press, 2011). You can't miss me. I'm the one with the long gray hair. … [Read more...]
April poem a day challenge
In honor of National Poetry Month, Robert Lee Brewer, editor at Writer's Digest and creator of Poetic Asides, holds a poem a day challenge. I love to take the challenge because his prompts are always fun. He also provides his examples to help get us started. This month Robert has also created a platform building challenge through his blog: My Name Is Not Bob. I'm doing that one as well. Here are a few of my April PAD poems with Robert's prompts. Day 5.Write a poem about something before your time. Maybe it's a certain time in history. Or a type of music. Or a story that was shared by friends or familybefore your time. Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris brought back a world before my time and people that I would kill to have known: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald Porter, Baker, Picasso, Man Ray, and Dali all in the raucous 1920s. And for a little more romantic and quiet take he took us even further back to the 1980s Belle Epoque and the artistic worlds … [Read more...]
April challenges update
I took a break over the weekend and caught up today with my two April challenges. The Platform Challenge Days 5 through 8: Day 5. Create a blog since you're reading this you know I already have a blog. I also post at several other blog sites you might not know about: http://redroom.com/member/madeline-sharples/blog/ - Red Room blog http://www.naturallysavvy.com/savvy-over-60 - Naturally Savvy Over 60 blog http://www.psychalive.org/index.php?s=madeline+sharples&image.x=15&image.y=7 - PsychAlive blog http://tlswriters.wordpress.com/ - The Last Sunday Writer's group blog Day 6. Comment on a blog: Robert LeeBrewer posted a few possible ways to respond (and he suggested linking back to our own blogs). I think these are great suggestions. I just need to learn to follow them: Share your own experience. If you've experienced something similar to what's covered in the post, share your own story. You don't have to write a book or anything, but maybe a paragraph or two. Add … [Read more...]
April Platform Challenge – Day 2
Today's platform-building task is to set goals, including short-term and long-term goals. Robert Lee Brewer wants us to also make a list of goals to accomplish by the end of this year; and then, make a list of goals to accomplish before I die. Here are my goal lists: Short-term goals: Complete April Platform Challenge on My Name Is Not Bob blog Complete April PAD Challenge on Poetic Asides blog Get an ebook of my memoir ready for publication Submit poetry to chapbook and full-length book contests Have lots of sales at the LA Times Festival of Books Finish editing Keith Alan Hamilton's Nature IQ book of poetry Answer Daisy's questions for her SunnyRoomStudio blog Keep on with my social network marketing efforts Set up blog tour for release of my ebook Long-term goals (same as goals to accomplish by the end of 2012): Publish my ebook Produce and release a CD with Paul's music Finish my novel and find an agent for it Publish … [Read more...]
April Platform Challenge – Day 1
I've decided to enter Robert Lee Brewer's first ever April Platform Challenge. Anyone want to join me? Here's how he says it will work: On April 1, I'll post a task for writers to complete that day. (I didn't get April 1 until today) Each day afterward, through the month of April, there will be a new task for writers to complete on that day. At the end of the month, every writer who completes the challenge should have a stronger platform and be able to say they took part in the first ever April Platform Challenge. Day 1: Define yourself. I don't want you to worry about where you'd like to be or anything in the future. Instead, I want you to take a look at who you are, what you've done, what you're currently doing, etc. Below is a chart I'm using (with my own answers). Here's my information: Name (as used in byline): Madeline Sharples Position(s): Author of Leaving the Hall Light On (Lucky Press, 2011); Web journalist at Naturally Savvy and PsychAlive, … [Read more...]
