Wednesday's writing related ramblings - May 13th 2015

You don't need any recognized qualifications to become a published writer; you just need to find your own writing style.

Are you feeling like life is rushing by, yet struggling to even sit down and write? Well, 'wannabe' or 'aspiring' authors, if yeez doubt yeez can write, at whatever age, please read this great post.

When I write, I try to just let the words flow as they will, and worry about writing rules later. How about you? Do you let your inner child write? Or does the adult part of you insist on taking control from the start?

Also... Is writing just a hobby to you? It isn't to me; it's much more than that to me! This is probably part of the reason why I don't usually have issues with writers' block, and am mostly good about self motivation. However, if you're a self-published writer - or, indie author, as some prefer to be called - and motivation is a problem for you, here's an article on tips for the motivation of the indie author to help you.

Or, if you're a poet with writers' block, then these tips on growing students who love poetry may help you. I know they're aimed at helping children, but they could just as easily help adults.

Of course, once you have your story - or poetry collection - figured out, you'll want to figure out your target audience. So, here are some tips on how to identify your target audience to help you with that, so you can start working on your marketing strategy.

Not having much luck with your marketing strategy? Well, here's an article on the top ten reasons why your marketing efforts fail, which may offer some answers. Officially the tips are aimed at actual businesses, but selling books is technically a business, and it doesn't hurt to bear the tips in mind.

Another thing which might help is to support your local library by donating print copies of your books. It might sound like a strange marketing strategy, but sometimes people who borrow a library book will later buy their own copy if they enjoyed it, and having your books in circulation gets people talking about them, which is a good thing.

Having visitors to your blog - or social media platform - is a good thing too. But, are you struggling to come up with new ideas for posts? This article on blog post ideas for writers: solving the "what do I blog about?" conundrum may help. As mentioned at the end of the article, there are more ideas in 101 blog post ideas for writers (part 1) and 101 blog post ideas for writers (part 2). There's also this list of 365 days of blog post ideas for authors and writers and this one with 101 fabulous blog topic ideas. Some of them would be great ideas for bloggers in general; writers or not.

Before I end this post, I just thought I'd ask... Are there any topics in the lists linked to in the above paragraph, which I haven't discussed, that you'd like to hear about from me? Or, any I've touched upon in posts or interviews, which you'd like to hear more about? Or, are there things you'd like to hear about from me that aren't mentioned on the lists at all? If so, list them in the comments section of this post; whether directly on my blog, or where it appears on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. I'd love to know what you'd like to read about.