Learning and networking
It’s not just about writing
It seems obvious now but one of the things I wasn’t expecting when I took to writing as my main focus was the need to learn about social media. When I started I was an innocent in this area, my only touch point being a little used Linked In account. Since then I have set up Facebook accounts, a website, tweeted, blogged, issued mail chimp newsletters and flirted with Instagram. Finding the time to write the play or the novel can be an issue. And all these things can be done well, or badly, so training is useful and this week I went on a training course on ‘driving traffic to your website’.
Those lovely people at the FEU
One of my early decisions was to join the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, effectively a writer’s union which offers help and support to the lonely keyboard slave. The WGGB is, in turn, a member of the Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU) which runs a range of training courses for writers, actors, musicians and other creatives. This has proved to be a real benefit and I’ve attended courses on publishing, blogging and, now, website traffic. The existence of this weekly blog is a result of one of the courses, the fact that I’m now on draft2 of the novel is partly down to the second, and the image above results from the latest.
Images
I mention the image because it’s something I’ve struggled with. Everyone says there should be an image but where do you get them from? Well, now I know. There was a lot of other stuff, of course, and much of it will have broader application than where to source an image but sometimes the detail feels more immediately significant. Some of the other information or insights will take longer to mull over and apply, and some of the benefit is the sharing of experiences with other course participants and learning from them. I’m hoping to go on their Instagram course next and see what that adds. In the meantime, I’d recommend these courses – available to you if you’re a member of Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the NUJ or WGGB. So this blog has become a bit of a plug – but only because it’s deserved!
Image courtesy of Dave Morrison Photography, sourced from Flickr
