TT Profile #9: Sandra Wickham

Sandra Wickham, physical trainer, writer, Inkpunk, and all around pleasant human being (don't believe the picture) is our next Taos Toolbox profile.

Tamago: When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Sandra: I wrote my first full-length novel when I was nine years old. It was awful, I’m sure and exactly like the books I was reading at the time by George MacDonald. My grandmother typed it up for me and I remember her asking me not to write in yellow pencil crayon because it was hard for her to read. I used to write with and on anything and everything I could find back then. My parents still have a copy of it. I got away from writing for a long time and have just returned to it in 2008.

Tamago: How did you come to join the Inkpunks?

Sandra: We were a group of friends before we were the Inkpunks. We met through conventions and social media, people started to notice us as a group online so I came up with the idea of starting up a blog together. (yes, I’ll take credit for that!) We have since had a couple extra awesome people join us and we continue to be a group of friends that happen to blog together and support each other in writing and in life.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

Me and Elizabeth Gaskell, Hanging Out

Before I sit down to do some exciting afternoon tasks (work on the tutoring schedule, get my back up test schedule designed for next Friday while I'm in Vegas), I think I'll take a few moments to write a piece of writer meta that's been on my mind for a bit. I'm pretty sure that I've written about this before, but sometimes things bear repeating if only to make sure they're still in your head.

I think about the personal writing journey a lot, especially when I discover a semi-famous writer I've never heard of. Like, for example, Graham Greene. Yes, prolific thriller writer Graham Green, who'd never come across my radar until the film, The Quiet American. Or Elizabeth Gaskell, author of Cranford, as popular as Dickens in her day? Yeah, hadn't heard of her until two years ago.

I consider myself fairly well-educated and informed, but you can't know everything. Nope. Not even me. And so...it has long been apparent to me that an individual's writing journey must be an intrinsic one, because there is something you'd like to say, and you hope you get the privilege to share. Fame isn't part of the package. Love what you do. Write for the joy of telling a story.

***

I've been thinking a lot about social media lately. Social media is a great way to put yourself out there, but social media really only works if someone wants to find you for whatever reasons. You can't get a giant cane and pull people to your site. So, you know, you put out a story and someone likes it, and they come looking for you, and there you are! Also, social media can work if you are writing about something in particular that someone wants to know. The number 4 post on my site is still: Why I Read the Classics: Arthur Clennam in Little Dorrit. I strongly suspect I get a lot of term paper traffic. And my number 7 post is called Seams of Reality, about the new Harry Potter theme park when it first opened, and also linked by a friend who has more traffic than me (Hello, Ferret.) People are also known to look for themselves, and an interesting cast of characters and interviewees means that they might find themselves here.

The salient point? If someone is visiting my site, chances are good its to find out about something that I've written for the site (research! reviews!), or something that I've maybe said about them. I strongly suspect this, because my footprint as a writer is minute. There are people who come to find out more about me (my author page is number 6; my home and archive pages are number 1), but I suspect that I pull in people not because of who I am, but because of the topics here.

That's part of the long game too. I should be writing because what I do is something I enjoy. I should be doing social media because I enjoy it too. I like writing about the things I write about, and connecting with the people I know. I'm not a climber. I suspect that this might make me an obscure writer. Yeah, me and Elizabeth Gaskell, hanging out. Because I'm not a squeaky wheel, I won't get the grease.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.