Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done
Today’s post from Live Write Thrive reminds me of the old question “How do you eat an elephant?” The is answer is, of course, one bite at a time. C. S. Lakin explains on how to use this strategy to move forward on your writing career one word at a time.
~ * ~
Adopting the Micromovements Strategy to Build Your Author Brand
June 24, 2016
Today’s guest post is by Kait Fowlie:
Personal brand-building activities usually take the backseat for writers who work full-time jobs or want to spend as much time as possible actually writing. Many of the writers I know “should” themselves into being active on social media, writing blog posts, and the like, and this makes the job an energy sucker.
One solution I’ve found helpful here is the micromovements strategy, a tiny-step by tiny-step approach that’s helped me create momentum (and stave off overwhelm) in my own efforts, while also making sure I’m spending the majority of my time and focus on writing.
What Micromovements Are
The concept was introduced by SARK in her book Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories, and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It. According to the author, micromovements are small actions that take as little as five seconds or up to five minutes that accomplish part of a big project.
For tracking movements, the author recommends creating a “micromovements wheel” that shows the ultimate goal in the middle, and surrounding it, the small, simple micromovements that (ideally) require daily action over time to “amount to” the goal.
Doing and tracking daily micromovements can help to gradually complete any creative project, but I’ve found this strategy especially ideal for the goal of growing an online presence, which requires a lot of time to be spent on social media and other writers’ blogs, and can be a slippery slope where productivity quickly becomes pure distraction and self-comparison.