So, you know how I said I was back in the last blog? Apparently I wasn’t. I had a lot going on and then abruptly got COVID. Thanks to being vaccinated and boosted, it was mild, but it was still misery. After that, I’ve been recovering well but dealing with fatigue. That and physical therapy for my shoulder kicking my butt has added up to me spending all my free time (of which I’ve had very little) staring at the wall.
I’ve been making TikTok videos pretty regularly, so if you don’t follow me over there yet, you might want to. That’s honestly become my primary social media platform for my author stuff. I tried out a few different platforms, starting on Facebook. I then tried Twitter and Instagram and couldn’t quite find my spot. Then I discovered BookTok, and I’ve connected best there. I think my favorite part of it is the authenticity.
Facebook is okay, but it’s kind of stodgy. I use it for connecting with friends and family, but for author stuff, it just never quite fit. I have an author page, of course, but I rarely ever remember to update it. Twitter is just like trying to drink from a firehose, and it was an ADHD nightmare. I couldn’t figure out how to use the platform and felt like it didn’t promote good communication. Instagram is nice, but everything looks so perfect and polished on there. And I’m… not.
Then we get to TikTok. Sure, there are perfectly polished folks in gorgeous makeup or cosplay doing amazing things. Or authors with perfect backgrounds. But there are a lot of us who blur out our backgrounds because life isn’t picture perfect. Or who just don’t care and show the disaster that is our life. The conversations had on there, the videos, they all feel raw and honest. As much as I like other platforms, TikTok feels like it fits me like a good pair of jeans. (And it has pockets!)
I have a lot of things I need to get doing as far as content creation from a backlog of uploads to YouTube and batch-writing some emails and preparing some TikTok videos. While I feel like I’m playing catch up, I’m actually doing pretty well overall. Book sales are going all right. Book two is done with its first full round of edits. Book three is halfway written, and I leave shortly to spend a week on writing retreat. I think I’ll finish it then. If not finishing it, I’ll make some really good progress. I also have a short story to write as part of the Minithology series I’ve been participating in. Those have been so much fun.
I know this post doesn’t have much by way of advice in it, but I was gone for a long while and felt like an update was warranted. Thank you all for continuing with me through this writing journey!
