When you’re a writer, I guess you become sort of a public person. It always kind of surprises me when that fact hits me in the face like at a booksigning or conference or when I meet someone who is actually excited to meet me (beyond like my Mom or whatever). And with the internet providing both a strange sense of closeness and a strong ability to be fake, it’s really easy to get all caught up. I do my best to just be me when I’m online or meeting readers (and writers) in person. So if you find yourself getting caught up, here are a few tips for staying real:
1. Set your boundaries — Sometimes we equate real with TMI. As if you talk about every detail of your life online that somehow that makes you more real. But giving too many details about yourself is not only dangerous (I mean, I know all of YOU aren’t crazy stalkers, but someone might be), but it also dilutes your message. On a personal note, I have posted things, had people respond and then wondered why someone was talking about my life. Well, I invited you in, didn’t I?
2. Don’t jump on bandwagons — A big way to get tweets, comments, whatever, is to jump on a bandwagon of what’s popular. I know we zombie fans see that alot, right? But the thing is that unless you’re really passionate or knowledgeable about the subject your talking about… the real fans will see it. Backlash is ugly. Just ask Ashton Kutcher.
3. Do talk about what you really like — I try not to limit myself just to topics like “buy my book” or “Zombies are awesome” because really… how interesting is that (okay, the zombies are awesome). I talk about video games, cats, hiking, my nephews (within reason), the fact that I eat smoked meats and occasionally I bitch about how hard it is to lose weight. If some of what I say is annoying to some people, they probably unfriend or unfollow me. That’s ok. I figure that I am who I am. Smoked meats and all.
4. Respond and respond — Sometimes time contraints keep me from doing this, but I do try to answer my @ replies on twitter or comments on my blog (when I catch them, WordPress and I are battling at present) and I try to tackle my email inbox at least once a month. I don’t like having one-sided conversations, I doubt you do either.
5. Recognize you are lucky — If you’re worrying about being “real”, then that probably means you do something that makes you a public person. Whether you’re a blogger, writer, actor, whatever… keep the humility that you are LUCKY to do something awesome for a living. Gratitude is as real as it gets.
