A.F.E. Smith
  • Home
  • Books
    • Marked series >
      • Dawn Rising
      • The Dark Knife
    • Darkhaven novels >
      • Darkhaven
      • Goldenfire
      • Windsinger
  • Shorts
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Anonymous

1/4/2012

3 Comments

 
A couple of days ago, through Twitter, I found out about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Now, I already have more to get done in April than I have time for. I have short stories to edit, manuscripts to comment on and a book to prepare for submission. I have a house to overhaul in readiness for my impending parenthood. I have my actual day job to fit in somewhere. And for that reason, I did what any sensible writer would do.

I jumped right in.

The idea is that this month, I write a short blog post every day: one for each letter of the alphabet. Because there aren't 30 letters, the other Sundays in April are free – except that Sunday is when I put up my usual longer articles, and I don't want to disappoint my regular audience (the dog can be quite demanding). So brace yourselves, my friends. I'm going to be with you, to a greater or lesser extent, every single day in April. Yep, that's right: 30 whole days. Please restrain your excitement.

As you've probably noticed, I happen to begin with A, and so I was going to call this first post after myself. (Self-centred, I know, but since I've also called this whole website after myself it's a little late to worry about that now.) But then it struck me that Anonymous would be a far better title. Because that's what no author wants to be these days, yet when I started on my literary path it's exactly what I intended.

It's the same dilemma we all face when confronted with this newfangled interweb malarkey. How much of myself do I reveal? What's private and what's public? I'd already decided that as a writer I'd use a variation of my name that gave away as little as possible, mainly in the belief that some male readers might be put off by an obviously female name, and vice versa. (As it turns out, that doesn't seem to be much of an issue any more, but I thought it was sensible at the time.) In addition, I had a stupid kind of pride that meant I didn't want my writing life to be connected with my personal or work life until I became a 'success'. I imagined dropping in on a group of acquaintances one day and happening to mention, oh so casually, that my first book was due out in the autumn. So when I started online as a writer, I didn't post a photo of myself or anything personal at all. I didn't encourage my family and friends to come and support me; most of them still don't even know I have a blog or a website or a Twitter account. I was determined to go it alone.

Now, I'm beginning to wonder if that was a mistake.

Because the thing is, the writer and their work are bound more tightly together now than they ever have been. Readers find out about new books through what the authors post on Twitter and Facebook. They can feed back instantly on what they liked and didn't like. They want to know who a writer is, not just what s/he does. And in fact, there's no longer really a separation between author and audience: all writers are readers, and many readers are writers. As the politicians are so fond of saying, we're all in this together. By making myself anonymous, I'm detaching myself from a new and collaborative way of doing things, just because I'm afraid to let anyone I know in the 'real world' see me fail. And that's just silly.

Admittedly, I'm not ready to bring all the parts of my life together yet. I don't want to try and sell myself with a glamorised photo, or use my family to boost my Twitter numbers. But I do want to get to know people and let them get to know me. For that reason, my plan for the month is to reveal something new about myself every day. Make myself a little less anonymous by sharing some of my personal fears, dreams and opinions. Stick around, and you might even get to find out what A.F.E. stands for …

But probably not.


Picture
Write Every Day: tip of the week
It's not too late to join in the A to Z Challenge! You have until Monday night to sign up, so if you want some encouragement to write every day then why not give it a try?



3 Comments
Evie
1/4/2012 12:47:28 pm

Preserve the mystery! It's so damn sexy,

Reply
A.F.E. Smith link
1/4/2012 01:15:26 pm

Of course, that's always a major consideration ;-)

Reply
anonymous blog link
12/8/2012 11:14:19 pm

First of all let me tell you, you have got a great blog. I am interested in looking for more of such topics and would like to have further information. Hope to see the next blog soon.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

      Enter your email address and click on Submit to receive notifications of new posts.
      Enter your email address here!
    Submit

    Archives

    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All
    About Me
    Artwork
    A To Z Challenge
    Barren Island Books
    Books
    Character Interviews
    Characterisation
    Darkhaven
    Editing
    Events
    Excerpts
    Fantasy
    Flash Fiction
    Giveaways
    Guest Posts
    Marketing
    Maths
    Pedantry
    Point Of View
    Prophecy
    Publishing
    Reading
    Recommended Reads
    Reviews
    Rules Of Fiction
    Science Fiction
    Serious Stuff
    Sunday Showcase
    Tentacles
    Ugh
    Worldbuilding
    Write Every Day
    Writing

    Or subscribe to my mailing list here!

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Books
    • Marked series >
      • Dawn Rising
      • The Dark Knife
    • Darkhaven novels >
      • Darkhaven
      • Goldenfire
      • Windsinger
  • Shorts
  • Gallery
  • Contact