"We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth." - George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)The idea that "no man is an island" couldn't be more true than for a writer. While many people imagine a life of solitude, where the writer spends her days in a dark cave - a hermetic alcoholic, the truth is that today's Hollywood screenwriter needs to be very well connected and quite the social butterfly if she wants to succeed.
One way to stay connected and extend our reach (audience) is by embracing technology. Easier said than done for those of us over 40 who did just fine before the days of Facebook and Myspace. Embracing new technology is not as easy or fascinating for us as it may be for those writers who came along just a single generation later.
Back in the day, we knew and appreciated the importance of face time. We followed up meetings with thank you letters (yes, snail mail) or phone calls. It wasn't uncommon for a person to have 50 or 100 numbers committed to memory and leaving behind an address book at a party was only a partial inconvenience.
Today the concept of staying in touch is pretty much the same but the mechanisms are very different. We can now keep up with thousands of our friends and contacts at a time. And, as in the past, it's crucial to "like" or a comment when an associate posts something of mutual interest on a social networking site. After all the hard work of writing and editing your masterpiece you're going to want an audience it share it with. You can begin to develop that audience now.
A big piece of the successful marketing campaign for WATERCOLORS
involved word of mouth, blogging, an active presence on multiple social network sites and other online strategies. This led to countless opportunities for screenings, print and television interviews and other publicity that helped boost the film's DVD sales. Identify who the editors, publishers, agents and producers are in your field. Start your own little database of people who could be influential to your development as a writer. Get to know their needs and preferences. When you have a project you know is a match, reach out to them. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Few things are as important to success as getting your name out there. Today, the tools are almost unlimited.
This week's suggested website: Oneword.com (www.oneword.com) This site has devised a fun and effective writing tool. Log in (it's free) and the site provides you with one stimulus word. The assignment is to write something that pertains to that word (off the top of your head) for one minute without stopping. A timer will let you finish your last sentence after sixty seconds. Log in and see what other writers came up with using the same word. This is a great way to stay sharp.
This week's writing prompt: Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time. This week's exercise deals with personification and perspective. Can you bring life to an inanimate object? Disney did -- time and time again. Imagine your sunglasses could talk back to you. What would they say? What do they want out of life? What are they afraid of? It's all a matter of perspective. Get inside the "head" of your toaster. What does it long for? Have fun with this one. Give your selected object a personality (a paranoid bicycle), some fatal flaw, a compulsive behavior (or anything else that strikes your fancy). Make it come alive. Give it center stage and let it have its say. Have a great writing week.
