So, how is my little experiment with passing the time at work going?
Well, it could be going better to be honest. I’m still finding too many excuses (and they are excuses) not to pull out my phone and screw around on Threads for the short amount of time I have for breaks. I mean, fine, it’s downtime and there’s nothing inherently wrong with using said time to mindlessly scroll social media…but like I said, I don’t want to do it anymore, and I’m trying my damnedest to get OUT of that habit.
I’m just not trying hard enough, really.
On the plus side, though…I have been doing a damn fine job of maintaining a level of Zen while at work. For a little while there I was letting myself get too frustrated and/or distracted and reactive to situations, just like I would do in the past, but that doesn’t happen nearly as much these days. Sure, I’ll get a bit snippy or grumble to myself in certain situations, but I’ll let it go very soon after and not continue to dwell on it.
And creativity-wise? I’ve scaled back the prep work, so to speak. For a while there I was carrying a small but bulky notebook in my jacket pocket, which did get its use, but I’m back to the old-school ways again, using my trusty back-pocket pad. Why? Because it provides lower expectations. I’m not writing anything big there, but I am starting to write down more lines of lyrics/poetry and the occasional WIP note. And that’s all I really need right now.
It’s been a little less than two months since I closed down my Twitter feed, and I can’t say I’ve missed it all that much. Sure, I still pop in from time to time for a minute or so, just to ensure I don’t lose access and to check in on those I follow who aren’t online elsewhere, but other than that, I stay well away.
I’m still on Bluesky and Threads, but even then I don’t stay for too long. Again, maybe for a minute or so. I spend more time with my east coast friends on our shared Discord, to be honest. My Instagram these days are mostly pictures of our cats Jules and Cali. Weirdly enough, the most time I’ll spend on social media is to watch some lawn care reels on Facebook, because they’re a lot of fun and surprisingly calming to watch.
That was the whole point of this detox, really…it wasn’t to take a vacation away from social media but to recalibrate my brain so I’m no longer beholden to it. I still feel like I could better use my time during breaks at work, but I’m not really beating myself up over it. I feel less stressed out, for starters. I feel less inclined to give into a daily rage about whatever nonsense is going on in the world. I’ve found a healthier social balance and I’ve decided I’m going to stay there for a while.
Does this give me more time for writing? Sure! I’ve been doing a lot of world building work for Theadia during breaks and slow times at work. I can get through a good chunk of revision work on Queen Ophelia’s War on a daily basis. I can zip through my daily 750Words. All this, and still have a bit of time left over to relax with non-creative fun things! Time management for the win!
I’ve looked at a few of my year-end posts from the last couple of Decembers, and I’d like to think that I’ve made good on quite a few of them over the last year or so. I’ve shaken off a lot of the lingering fears, fixed a lot of bad habits, and given myself a much healthier outlook mentally and emotionally. It was a long time in coming, but I’m glad I’ve finally gotten to where I wanted and needed to be.
Because this means I can move forward with a lot less fear and distraction now.
So what do I have planned for 2024?
Well, writingwise I plan to return to cons! I’ll be at BayCon in Santa Clara on July 4-7 and I hope to be on a few panels and maybe even a few readings. It’s been a good few years since I’ve put myself out there — partly for obvious health reasons, what with Covid and all — but mask in hand and multiple vaccinations, I’ll be ready for it.
I have one, maybe two novels I’d like to release as well, Queen Ophelia’s War and Theadia. Depending on which one gets done and ready first, I will let you all know as soon as they’re ready. And I have one or two entirely new projects I’d like to work on as well. It feels great to be working on projects again after the various delays and hiatuses, to be honest.
But what about the everyday, nonwriting stuff? Well, some of that will remain offline I suppose. I’m making a concerted effort not to be so terminally online via social media, as that’s been the biggest time-suck over the last several years. Most of 2023 was spent relearning how to balance my life both on and offline to a level I’m comfortable with. [It also helps that a certain social media site has been deteriorating at an increasingly rapid pace over the last several months. I’ll be locking down my feed there at the end of the month and hanging out mostly at BlueSky and Threads come 1 January.]
Anything else? Well, I still have a few more days to go before the end of the month here at Welcome to Bridgetown, so I’m sure I’ll be talking about it more soon enough.
Still trying to detox from social media, yeah. It’s a bit tougher than I thought, and I know it’s partly because I’m such a passive creature of habit when it comes to things like that. The birdsite is a hot mess these days, and yet I pop in during breaks at work. I check on Discord even when I know most of my east coast friends have logged off for the evening. And I know part of my passivity is wanting something mindless while on breaks at work.
So perhaps I should do what my coworker does and bring in a word search magazine! Heh. I could also continue the Going Outside thing too, just that I put that aside during the weird weather we’d been having as of late. Still — no reason not to get back into that much healthier habit, right?
Because my eyes aren’t happy with the strain using this phone as much as I do.
[Posted this last week at Walk in Silence and am reposting here to cover bases.]
Meanwhile here in San Francisco, the social media birdsite may either be transforming into something altogether different or it may be going down in flames, and either way it’s going in real time as its New Owner experiences…er…growing pains?
ANYWAY. If said birdsite crashes and burns epically, you can always find me at the following fine internet establishments:
SOCIAL: Discord: joncwriter#3974 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jon.chaisson.7 Instagram (where I post all sorts of pictures of local scenery as well as our cats): https://www.instagram.com/joncwriter/ Twitter (until it implodes or all my friends leave): https://twitter.com/joncwriter Hive (I’ve just signed up and I haven’t quite played around with it yet): JChaisson [I have not yet tinkered with Mastodon although I think I have an account there? It’s just too fiddly for me to bother dealing with right now.]
I shall update this as necessary over the next few days or until I remember I have other sites that I’d forgotten I had!
As you’ve noticed, it’s nearing the end of June and I’m ever so slightly off on my deadline to get In My Blue World finished. And I’ve already decide that I’ll be spending most of July revising said novel and preparing it for self-publication.
Which means that I’ve decided to put myself in Do Not Disturb status on social media. Or as I often call it, detox. I’ll still be posting here at B-Town and over at WiS at my normal schedule, so never fear! You’ll still be getting all the twice-weekly blathering I know you all enjoy from me. I’m just going to be hiding from Twitter and Facebook for a while so I can focus purely on the novel revision and not get distracted. Especially given the news cycles lately, it’s probably for the best that I back away from the fires and keep a cooler head while dealing with this deadline of mine.
This may or may not be what happens when I enter Spare Oom.
I’ve said it before, I suck at sales. Or more to the point, I suck at it if I’m to sell something I don’t have much interest in. Furniture? A new car? Real estate? Monster truck rallies? Yeah, they’re fine and all, but if I’m not truly excited about them, I doubt I could talk you into into them. On the other hand, I will shamlessly foist upon you the latest album I think is absolutely brilliant [This week: Tamaryn’s Cranekiss is pretty high up there], or a book I’d recently read and want everyone else to read as well [Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, which totally did deserve that Hugo].
But what about my own work? Well, I’ll be honest, this is the first time I’m doing this at a professional level. I’ve proudly shown off artwork and photography on my Tumblr and elsewhere, but my writing? Totally new to me. I don’t even have a solid and mapped-out ‘business model’ — in fact, I twitch whenever I hear business-speak like that. Like my writing, I’m definitely a pantser. I go with what works for me.
And lately, that’s taken all kinds of odd and unexpected avenues. I’ll see other writers taking steps in social media and elsewhere, and I’ll think about whether it would work for me. More to the point, I think of it this way: if this particular kind of self-promotion got me to take a look at the product, even if for just a few moments, then maybe it’s a style I could try out myself.
Promoting yourself using social media is tricky, because there’s an extremely thin line between promoting yourself and just spamming your friends’ feeds. You don’t want to oversaturate yourself; the more annoyingly prevalent the advertisement, the more people are just going to skim over it, or worse, muting or unfollowing you.
Yeah, this might be overdoing it a bit.
On Twitter, there are a few ways you can circumvent that. One is to mention it in your profile. Another is to use a Pinned tweet. You can create your own little mini-ad in just 140 characters. Mine says the following:
A Division of Souls, coming 9/3/15!
All formats available at Smashwords!
[Smashwords link, plus embedded cover]
A blipvert of sorts, one you’ll see immediately if you happen to visit my personal Twitter page because it’s pinned up at the top. I’ve only had it up for 3 days, but I’ve already made 156 impressions as of today. That’s not too bad for starters. Nowhere near the thousands of hits some writers get, but hey, it’s pretty good for someone brand spanking new to this gig. And note that I made sure to mention that all formats are available at Smashwords. This will ensure that anyone, regardless of which e-reader they use, can come on over and download it.
You’d probably want to follow suit on other social media channels as well. It’s visible, but it’s not obtrusive, and that’s the balance you want to strive for. I’ve seen others do daily tweet ads, which is fine, because they only do it once a day.
Another Twitter idea, one I just saw someone else use this morning, is kind of a neat twist on the “shop local” idea. There are many brick-and-mortar bookstores out there who work alongside Kobo to sell ebooks at their website, and this writer had come up with a brilliant idea: publicize the book and the local store at the same time! She aimed the tweet at the San Francisco area, mentioned her book was available at this store (complete with link), and made sure to mention the store using their Twitter handle, including the “@”. That last part was genius: you’re not only getting others to check out the store’s twitter feed, you’re getting whoever is manning that store’s feed will see it as well, and may end up retweeting you. I followed suit sometime after, mentioning Books Inc and Green Apple Books, two of my favorite local book shops. I was duly retweeted! Wins all around!
If anything, I’ve heard all kinds of responses to the question of how to self-promote on social media. Some swear by tweetstorms, others by following anyone and everyone who uses the #amwriting hashtag, others still by picking and choosing when and where to insinuate your promotion. Overall, though, the most common response I’ve heard is, go with what works for you. Be creative and have fun with it! But most importantly, remember to keep it balanced!
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