Side Effects

Two years ago I sat in a CPE class, the same annual one I'm taking now and wrote my first article about writing because someone told me this was a good way to promote my name and learn.  I think I wrote two or three articles, entertaining myself to keep from falling asleep from long sessions without moving.  Sue Carey, the newsletter editor at the time for Smoke Signals, a publication of Smoky Mountain Romance Writers, was kind enough to use those articles and more to come.  Writing articles helped me write tighter, a skill needed for fiction work.  I still love sharing my writing journey through articles.

Around that time, I began using a free website, treated as educational by the host, to learn HTML coding and begin promotion on the internet.  The free site, a clever marketing tool by the host, was of great benefit to me.  I had imagined using a web designer at some point when I became published, once I realized the value of an internet presence, but that little taste of coding took hold of me and has never let go.  By the end of that year, I launched two paid websites.  I'm still surprised that computer coding is as fascinating to me as writing.  I'm only disappointed that I don't have time to study codes more often and grow faster.  It's a slow process, but I never grow tired of learning new tricks.

Besides coding, writing has also provided a platform for learning audio promotion through podcasting.  I'm a baby in this venue, but one has to start somewhere and I can see this promotional tool working for me when I come to the point of giving workshops.  Hearing one's voice in an audio file, available to anyone in the world with computer access, helps one get over self-conscious thoughts.  Planning a podcast episode with an interesting topic is similar to a workshop, not to mention learning to enunciate better for public speaking.  No different than writing novels, practice in the form of doing brings about improvement so much faster than being in a constant state of preparation.

There's three new things, side effects, that came about because of writing, specifically writing toward publication.  When I became serious about writing, my naive thoughts were not on promotion and I had no clue that promotion could be fulfilling and stimulating as well as fun.  I usually don't like surprises, but I've been thrilled with these and can't wait to see what I'll learn next.