The Writer’s Voice Vs. The Writer’s Platform Dynamic: Part 2

This is part two, in a three-part post, in which I will attempt to answer the question:

What is a writer’s platform dynamic?

First of all, I have always said that your platform is what you DO with you abilities.

It’s not your potential, it’s not what you are gonna to do, it’s what you currently offer.

We, readers, often arrive at the conclusion of what you currently do, writer, by analyzing what you have done to get here, with whom, how, etc. and by what you show us to demonstrate what you have done.

But in the final analysis, at least according to your readers, the platform that you build is the evidence that you actually are as good at doing what you say you do as you think you are (or don’t think you are, as the case may be).

Authentic confidence, the kind of confidence that comes from doing something consistently well, is a major factor in your platform development. A lack of confidence characterizes a weak platform. Authentic confidence is clearly evident in a hearty, healthy platform, so long as the writer does not confuse confidence with ego.

I can tell you from working with writers for ten years, most aspiring voices do not initially possess authentic confidence. We each write our way to authentic confidence (I will say this 10,000 times this year, so get used to it). Confidence is hard-won, comes from actual experience, and you can’t fake it.

To draw on some of my work in my forthcoming book, The Writer’s Workout:

Think of your platform dynamic the way that Michelangelo thought of finding a sculpture in a block of marble. Your platform dynamic is in you, underneath a whole bunch of everything else. Your job is to chip away, brush away, and clear away everything else until you discover the most essential expression of what you offer.

~ Season 3: Fall, Chapter 187: Set Your Identity Free

However I also discuss the way your platform dynamic is not static (that’s why it’s called a dynamic, after all).

The dynamic value that you offer can be perceived and sensed by others. Other people may be able to describe it better than you can.

It’s not merely the value you deliver; it’s also how and why you deliver whatever you offer.

~ Season 2, Summer: Chapter 162: Identify Your Dynamic

Finally, besides being essential to who you are and what you do, besides being vital and evolving and growing stronger over time as you nurture it, your dynamic needs to be consciously focused. If you are not conscious of your dynamic or if you are not consciously focusing it, you might take it for granted, dissipate it, and then it won’t be as clear and helpful to others.

Come back Monday for the compare and contrast on…

Are your voice and your platform dynamic the same thing?

One month from today I will kick off the launch of my third book for Writer’s Digest, The Writer’s Workout. Feel free to check it out! And if you pre-order, hang on to your receipt because it’s your backstage pass to my Global Launch Party right here on December 6th. Hope to see you there!

~ Photo by sean dreilinger