My official ML badge for 2016

Hopefully some of the things I share here will resonate with you about taking a leadership role, building your community and achieving the goals you set for yourself.

I'm excited

First off, I just want to give my region a major shout-out.
You see, last year I fully embraced the Florida:Elsewhere region because it was my new home state. Sadly, no one was manning the fort! There was no municipal liaison and no community interaction at all.

It was a bit disheartening, but I'm a stubborn bee-otch, wrote over 51K words, which included two days of writing 15K words - and won anyway.

That experience of feeling alone is what prompted me to volunteer as an ML for my region. And here's the part that should resonate with YOU, whether you are participating in WriMo or not.

Be A Leader

Anything community-based needs a strong leader.

Believe it or not,

YOU ARE A LEADER IN THE CYCLE OF COMMUNITY LIFE

image source

IF you are here and participating, THEN you are a content creator and active member of the community.

Perhaps you're new here and don't feel like a leader?

I bet you've shared your experience and excitement
You've probably mentored someone already
You give credit where credit is due
You ask for help when you need it

That is LEADERSHIP!

Build A Community

At WriMo

Embracing my role, I set to work on updating the forum and starting new conversation threads. I developed a Calendar of Events, and reached out to get our very own NaNoChat channel for virtual meet ups, write-ins, and word sprints.

Additionally, I welcomed everyone who posted in the Introduce Yourself thread, letting them know with certainty that they are not alone. With the groundwork done, I am pleased to say that we've got great interaction with a few leaders sprouting up.

They've organized a real meet-up (write-in), have been actively posting, and even come to the new chat room for our region. My role seems to have mutated into admin, cheerleader, and memo board. And you know what? I'm good with that.

On Steemit

Here's where I'll be Frank with you.

image source

If you're doing the Three C's, then you're doing it right!

Content creation
Comments
Curation

Content creation

Content creation is vital. You hear everyone talking about "quality content" and perhaps "quality" is subjective. I would argue both sides of that coin.

For one moment, let's just take content out of the equation. What are we left with?
Well, if you're a content creator who only slaps a picture on your blog and hits the POST button, we are left with NOTHING.

Where is your effort?!?

For goodness sake:

Add a story.
Use headers.
Throw in some complimenting pictures.
Cite your sources.
Back link to an appropriate blog post or your outside social media.
Shout out a friend.

The quality of your post content is subjective
- but the quality in presentation is not.

In essence...

If you don't give a shit about your post
WHY SHOULD WE?

Comments

Good or bad, comments are the life blood of any social platform. That holds true to my WriMo region and it holds true on Steemit.

If you've been working diligently at creating quality posts, then you want affirmation that your work is appreciated.
As a content creator, I yearn for comments that prove you've read my offering.
Leave thoughtful comments and you will be recognized, appreciated (most of the time), and probably investigated to see if you are "worthy to follow".

I know that sounds elitist, but we all do it. Unless, you're the follow for follow type, which I honestly think is horseshit because that just begs to follow and upvote topics, categories and people that you have nothing in common with. But that's just my opinion.

image source

Follow-for-Follows are like empty calories.
They'll fatten you up but add no value to your diet.

Curation

What can I say?

Curate Responsibly

As an organic curator, I endeavor to read the offerings that pique my interest, but I also want to curate responsibly.

Look, it's fine and good to upvote your friends, but I'm going to refer back to what I said about content creation because I think it's a vital point.

IF they don't give a shit about what they're creating, THEN why are you spending your energy supporting them?

It's one thing to come upon a newbie who may not know better, in which case you mentor them, taking that leadership role.

image source

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

You can only do so much. You can mentor, send helpful links, teach them until you're blue in the face, but if they don't follow best practices, are they worth your time?

Being a responsible curator sometimes means you should hold back your upvote and perhaps leave a gentle comment instead...or just click away.

My father always said that if I couldn't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.
As a book reviewer, I've read a ton of garbage. And while I held back my stars, my policy remains to give a gentle critique and some words of encouragement.

And even if I thought it, I've never outright said, "This book is shit." Instead, it was more like, "In my opinion, the plot was soft and I had a hard time knowing whose POV the author spoke in."

See the difference in tenor?

Achieve Your Goals

My WriMo Region goal is to see activity and growth. I don't want to see anyone struggling in their writing journey alone. I am encouraged by the activity that I'm seeing there - but I cannot take all the credit.

I am simply a drop of water
which made a tiny ripple
echoing further than my wildest hopes.

All in all, between WriMo admin stuff, curating and creating on Steemitt, and general household duties, I'm pretty surprised that my writing is going as smooth as it is. In fact, I finished up another 1400 words last night, bringing my total word count to over 6,000 - and there's still a few minutes in the day to get a kick-start on tomorrow's word count.

Thank goodness! Because I am officially sick.