Hey Steemit. I'm a writer who wants to test his mettle.

I'll be honest with you... I'm hesitant to start releasing on steemit. And no, it's not because I think my writing is cringe-worthy. The following introduction should hopefully help me explain to you what it is I plan to do here while also explaining my aforementioned nerves.

Hi, I'm @lethargicwriter. I've been typing away on various keyboards for over five years now. The majority of my work is written atop beds or sprawled out across the floor. I've never been able to tie myself down to a work space that demanded I sit upright, hence the name. That means no tidy desks and no quirky coffee shops... All I needed was a big pile of pillows and a blanket.

I only started writing out of frustration. After you've read enough of a certain genre, your mind starts to get impatient. I found myself stopping books and short stories halfway through and not having the willpower to pick them back up.

It wasn't even because I didn't like them. It's because I felt I could offer something different. Something /more/.

A new perspective.

So I wrote. A bit at first. I only started posted my work on various forums and social medias when I finally felt confident. And guess what? People liked what I had to say! That was something I hadn't expected. It's so hard to articulate how gratifying it can be to share your hobbies with others and have them /ask/ for more.

Back then, I swore I'd never call myself a writer. Crafting stories and interesting characters was supposed to just be a hobby... Something to entertain me when nothing else could. It wasn't until others sought me out for my writing that I began to grow comfortable using the title. Hey, it's even how I found my significant other.

Four years passed and I graduated from college (woohoo), and I'm just now celebrating an entire year of unemployment! As it turns out, getting a degree in an incredibly competitive career field doesn't bode well for a sustainable future right out of college.

Enter Steemit. A social media platform that boasts the ability to earn me bit-pennies for my hard work. I had always assumed I'd either find a niche in my career field or settle down into a life funded by patreon and a minimum wage job at Starbucks. My new end goal is to live a life where I am my own employer (a dream most of us probably share).

(Here's the part where you assume that the reason /why/ I'm so skeptical to write on here is due to the fact that I'm afraid I won't strike it rich. That assumption would be incorrect.)

See, I'm worried steemit is far too big; that I won't be able to reach out to like-minded readers (not the same as writers, mind you) who are willing to take interest in my work. The other platforms where I post are much more niche, but they are at least intended to be a place for the consumption of stories. I've yet to explore the search function, but if there isn't a way for my to type 'story fantasy fiction' than I'm afraid I'm at a loss!

So I'll raise these questions.

How will I write on steemit?
Will I have to expand my subject matter out of my comfort zone? Is that a /bad/ thing?
If I've been playing three month's worth of homebrew-dungeons-and-dragons with my significant other, while also slowly working with him to remaster it into a comprehensible fantasy-adventure-novel... How will I let others seek out my work?

The only answers I can offer myself at the moment are also the simplest of ones:

Write for yourself. Post your stories on Steemit with the appropriate tags. Your audience will find you if the tagging system (and audience) is there.

So I'm starting fresh... Testing my mettle... Seeing how far my words can take me alone.

Here's hoping you enjoy the ride.

@lethargicwriter
fiction | short stories | character studies | story pitches