Sometimes I Feel Like a Martian

For the past year or two, I have read a lot about how important it is to build an author’s platform.  It seemed that everyone was doing it.  Once again, I was out of step. But what was a platform? What was a blog? I felt like a Martian and needed an interpreter.

So I decided to sign up for an online class by social media expert, Kristen Lamb called, “Blogging for Author Brand.”  Kristen told my classmates and I that “We Are Not Alone.”  She instructed us, encouraged us, and guided us in helping each other.

Despite all that help, trying to figure out how to set up this blog, what to blog about, what Twitter was, how to use Twitter and what TweetDeck and HootSuite were, I quickly became overwhelmed.  In fact, I felt like these two.

With the advice and moral support of my classmates, I finally got my website and my blog online.

I wrote my first blog post. “Whew! This isn’t so bad,”  I thought. But I still felt like no one would get me, the Martian. So I didn’t follow Kristen’s advice. I didn’t tell any of my friends or classmates about what I had done.

My first blog was about as successful as this poor Martian’s singing debut:

 

Slowly, I’ve learned not to hide, to share what I’ve done, what I’ve found, what I think and feel. My classmates rallied round and gave me information, examples, and moral support. Kristen gave me the inspiration that led to my blog line: she said to be myself.

And you know what? I’m finding out that there are other Martians people out there who share my interest in things like:

Science fiction tropes that are not fiction anymore:
Facial Recognition coming to your phone!

and

The tractor beam that pulled Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon into the Death Star soon a reality! NASA scientist invents a tractor beam. Okay, it’s really tiny now. We won’t be towing the Millenium Falcon soon. But someday!

Blogging isn’t easy for me. Sometimes I still feel like a two-headed Martian. But I sure feel better knowing I can be me! Thanks, Kristen and WANA1011!

Sometimes I feel like a Martian. lynettemburrows.com, Milkyway and Galaxy the two-headed martian
from http://www.funmartians.com

How about you? Do you feel like a Martian sometimes? Does it make you want to hide? Or did you find like-minded Martians people to hang out with?

10 comments

  1. Martian here! I think a lot of it is because promoting ourselves doesn’t come naturlally to us mostly-introverted writers; and also, many of us were taught as young children that it’s not nice to clamor for attention. But done in the proper venue, there’s nothing wrong with it; and it’s something we have to do if we want people to be aware of (and hopefully buy) our books. I’m totally with you on being overwhelmed, too. And I’m a technical person! I already had a blog, and Twitter and Facebook accounts (that I hardly ever used) and it’s still a challenge. People assure me it will get better. 🙂

  2. I turned a little green when I found out that Twitter was going to become a major part of my life, so I guess I qualify as an alien, too. 🙂

    It is tough to do, Lynette, so it’s a good thing we’re all in the workshop together. Jennette hit the nail on the head about it being hard to promote our sites and our work. Most people aren’t wired that way so it’s something we all have to learn. I know it’s one of the hardest things for me to do. But we are all here to support and help one another, and as long as we remember that, we’ll get there.

    But Twitter??? Couldn’t it have been something easier, like hang gliding or bungee jumping? 🙂

  3. Okay, Lynette, I love facial recognition, tractor beams, and beam-me-up-scotty, so I guess that makes me a total Martian, too. For me, the greatest part to the we-are-not-alone concept is that I’ve met so many wonderful people and made so many new friends. We’ll be Martians together today and then tomorrow, maybe we’ll decide to be something else but we’ll still have our group.

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