The Mark Dykeman Web Niche

This post is a progress update on my adventures in writing.

I used to dream of being the next Stephen King, at least in terms of commercial and financial success.  I was inspired by the writing exploits of some friends and amazed by the talents of professional authors.  However, for many years I did much more thinking and dreaming about writing than actual writing.

I wrote less than a short-story per year between my high school days and the year 2005, which is just about a twenty-year span.  Ironically, my job as an information technology analyst, then as a manager, proved to be a good training ground for developing some of my writing skills, especially when it came to writing lean, clear prose.

For various reasons, I started to tinker with creative writing again around 2003 through an on-line journal, retired that for a bit, and I’ve moved into fiction and article writing.  I’ve written a lot of words in the past 12 months, especially in the last four months.  I’ve written over 90 articles for Helium, a few assorted articles in other outlets, and several short stories during the past year.  As you can see, I started a blog.  I’ve also decided that some day I’d like to make my living as a professional writer, so I’m in a kind of self-training mode.

One of the awful truths about writing is that being a good writer isn’t good enough to be commercially or financially successful.  I’m getting a better understanding of this reality through my experience of the past few months, plus through reading about the business and craft of writing.  Don’t get me wrong:  commercial and financial success don’t necessarily follow the best writers, but I think it would be hard to successful without having some talent at grouping words together in meaningful ways.

My experience with Helium has taught me that promotion and networking are key skills that a writer needs to be successful.  My working hypothesis is that these kinds of skills, which I’m learning through Helium, will serve a writer in any market.  Several on-line articles that I read led me to conclude that social bookmarking sites and other types of networking were necessary, or at the very least extremely helpful for getting people to read your on-line writing.

So was this nugget of wisdom true?  So far, I’d say that it can be true, but you must be prepared to work at this just as hard as writing.  But maybe that can be a discussion for a different time.

I really, really need to get back to my novel, though.