Using Twitch to Fuel my Career as a Writer

Hey everyone! Today I’ve been thinking about how I use live streaming to my advantage as a writer. I’ve been live streaming on twitch for a while, and it isn’t easy to grow a writing platform on a site that’s mostly meant for gamers. I knew going into it that getting a following on Twitch wasn’t going to be easy. Even now, my audience isn’t that large, and it grows very slowly. There just aren’t that many writers using the platform, and most people who go there typically want to watch people play games. So then, why did I decide to stream on Twitch?

The answer is, surprisingly, the same as the problem: there aren’t many writers on Twitch. I chose to use the platform because I won’t have too much competition. On other live-streaming services, like YouTube, there are already a lot of well-established writers who know what they’re doing. Those well-known faces can overshadow newer channels, like mine. But on Twitch, more and more categories are being created over time for niche audiences like mine. It’s still in a growth period, and I thought I could use that to my advantage.

There’s another reason that I like to use live-streaming to build my audience: live-streams make great exclusive content for my audience. I post edited versions of my Twitch streams on YouTube, but there are some things that happen in my streams that my YouTube audience will never get to see. It makes a great incentive to push some of my audience to catch me during a stream, because I may not post all the fun stuff that happens live and sometimes I don’t post entire streams. If people want more from me, it gives them incentive to pay attention to what I’m doing on a more regular basis.

Using my streams from Twitch to create my YouTube content also provides me with a great deal of synergy. I don’t have to worry as much about creating specific videos for YouTube and also making time to do my live streams. I get twice the content for half the work, which makes my life a whole lot easier and gives me more time to focus on my writing. My streams even have the added benefit of allowing me to freely work on my most recent writing or editing project while still making content that people watch. You should never snub your nose at a good series of writing sprints on you live-stream. Sometimes people show up to write or edit with you, and other times they watch just to have something relaxing play in the background. My audience might be small and niche, but the ones who show up for me are encouraging, helpful, and a joy to spend time with in the writing dungeon.

Starting channels on Twitch and YouTube was the best decision I made as a writer. Having to put out regular content helps compel me to treat my writing more like a 9 to 5 job rather than a hobby. Treating writing like a hobby is where a lot of authors fail. If you don’t take your own writing seriously, how can you expect anyone else to take it seriously? That, my friends, is a lesson that I’ve had to learn the hard way.

If you get a chance, you should come hang out with me on Twitch, sometime. I always welcome the company. Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you later!