Lazy or Filled with the Integrity of the Gods? Hmm . . .

So I like some parts of this ‘writer’ business.  And some parts I LOVE (CAPITALIZED, in bold, and underlined forever).  And some parts, like creating an online presence, I just don’t know how I feel about.  Correction: I do.  I felt the bile rising in my throat just writing that sentence.

Don’t get me wrong — this site, and talking to you is one of the things I love.  As of course is writing the novels themselves, sharing info and helping others with their journeys, and making new friends.

But the idea of, I don’t know, forcing yourself down people’s throats and in front of their eyeballs until they can’t help but surf over to your Amazon page and buy your book if only to stop the pain!  It rubs me the wrong way.  I want friends, fans, followers, but I want them to come to me the way I’ve come to everything I’ve loved.  Yes, I had to ‘discover’ them somehow, but then I was hooked, and in love, because of the creations themselves.  No tweets required.

And yet, I also admire people who can talk to anyone, anywhere, about themselves and their art, who can reach the masses, who can sell without selling out.  People like Catherine Ryan Howard.  I know I have the common creator’s desire to find the most remote house, down the longest dirt road, and play all day with my creations, and wait for the hoard of fans, the agent, and the movie producer to beat a path to my door.  I wouldn’t call it lazy, exactly, but it’s definitely an easy road.  And it’s not scary, or possibly a waste of time, or too aggressive.

And so I think why not get out there?  What do you have to lose?

But where?  How?  What is a waste of my precious time upon this Earth and what stretches me and lets me grow into a greater person?  If I don’t love Twitter, should I learn to?  How can I seek the people who would love to discover my stories without jabbering at all the people who wouldn’t?

In the end, simple answers elude.  But I do know I owe it to my future fans (grandiose perhaps, but true) and to my writing dreams to try.  To work hard, to be bold, to share honestly and to find new and unknown places where I can love and be loved.

And I’ll trust my integrity to tell me when I’m being an ass.