Upcoming Events: Where You Can Find Us
Here’s a look at our upcoming online events, plus third-party event where you can find our authors and editors! [You may also view past events by using the month view and scrolling back.]
- This event has passed.
HOW-TO TUESDAY: Thinking About Platform (for Writers): Leveraging Themes & Strengths to Build an Authentic Audience
Building a platform as a writer shouldn’t mean performing a version of yourself that feels foreign. Sustainable and impactful platforms grow organically from the themes that already live at the heart of your work — the questions, obsessions, and processes that drive your writing in the first place.
In this session, we’ll explore how to identify the recurring threads in your writing and use them as the foundation for authentic platform building. Rather than forcing yourself into uncomfortable marketing roles, you’ll learn to align your efforts with your natural strengths and interests, creating a body of work that builds recognition around your unique voice.
This session will ask each writer to consider the following questions:
- What are the recurring themes and obsessions that run through your existing work?
- How can you leverage your personality and natural strengths to support your platform’s growth?
- How do you create coherence across your work without repetition or stagnation?
- How can small, consistent efforts around your themes build toward larger publishing opportunities?
- What does sustainable platform building look like for introverts vs. extroverts?
Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of their own thematic through-lines, a personalized strategy for platform development that feels authentic rather than performative, and practical tools for building a body of work that serves as a foundation for bigger projects.
About the series: How-To Tuesdays are monthly talks on the craft of creative nonfiction, publishing, marketing and the writing life led by Hippocampus Magazine editors & contributors. Your registration helps fund our contributor payments and other costs associated with running our journal.
Elizabeth Austin’s writing has appeared in Time, Harper’s Bazaar, McSweeney’s, Narratively and elsewhere. She is currently working on a memoir about being a bad cancer mom. She lives outside of Philly with her two children and their many pets. Find her at writingelizabeth.com and on Instagram: @writingelizabeth.
