Hi @dragonanarchist, I followed you here from a FB post you tagged some mutual acquaintances in. Really appreciate people like you taking the initiative to community build and help others to network.

I would certainly love for you to check out some of my writing, especially this piece here, and for a bit of humor this one that I put out yesterday (created the meme myself using GIMP)

I agree wholeheartedly with Larken's quote that you gave above. Albeit, I write for the joy of writing and as an act of self-expression and for meditation and reflection, and I gladly do it for nothing other than my own satisfaction and to try to bring my gifts into the world. That said it's good to be rewarded for one's efforts, and for me the biggest driver right now is attracting an audience so that I feel like I have a voice and am contributing to the conversation (of all that we voluntaryist-activists care so passionately about) and not just talking into the wind.

I was fortunate enough to have a piece I wrote about the incessant tracking and databasing of every human activity featured just yesterday by @jacor, another Steemian I am grateful to for providing an outlet to new authors such as myself. I gained a handful of new followers, but it was mostly rewarding to see how many people liked (and therefore, I know read) my writing. If others here are looking for additional exposure consider reaching out to him as well. He has a lot of authors in the pipeline though, and you'll have to be patient.

As general advice for anyone looking to get a leg up on SteemIt, even though I'm new myself, I'm not new to the hustle, and I would say like anything else it takes persistence. A good analogy is the amount of energy it requires to get a train moving from a standstill. It's slow going and you have to push hard at first, till you finally build up some steam (pun intended), but once the train is moving it requires less energy to keep the momentum going. Don't give up before you ever get rolling.