April 19th, 2005
From Buzz, Balls, and Hype–Adam Ash asks:
I recommend blogging to all writers. It disciplines you to write on the fly, like a journalist. Only one caveat: I haven’t started my next novel yet. Does blogging replace the novel-writing impulse? There’s some irony here, since I started blogging to promote my novel-writing. If I’m still blogging 6 months from now and I haven’t started a new novel, I will face a big choice. Who am I — a blogger or a novelist?
What do you think about that?
I don’t see blogging as a threat to my fiction writing, personally. It’s a totally different kind of writing. If anything, it helps me keep focused on my fiction by writing about it every day (it’s kind of embarrassing to blog about my baby ten days in a row– eventually I’m inclined to write a few pages just so I can say I did!). Besides, I blog no more than a few paragraphs a day, which doesn’t take much time.
Now READING blogs… that’s an entirely different matter. That definitely cuts into my time!
by Ellen Fisher April 20th, 2005 at 4:03 amAs with everything, balance is the key. I love my blog. I’m not worried about character goals, story conflict or even real grammar. It’s just me and the words. Right now, I really like to update at least once a day, sort of my beginning and ending routine. But if that routine ever cuts into the writing time, then yeah, I’ll have to cut back on the blogging. Right now it’s a positive part of the process for me.
by Joely Sue April 20th, 2005 at 6:32 amYou’re between projects. It’s okay to take a break. You were on the move fast and crazy for a while, and everyone needs to step back at some point and take a breath.
I don’t have my own blog, but I find peeking into others helps me put my writing hat on. When I’ve seen what my favorite authors are up to, I know it’s time to get to work.
Joely is right, balance.
When you find it will you let me know? I’m still searching.
by Renee Luke April 20th, 2005 at 9:04 amFor me, doing my blog is helping me with my latest WIP. I’m experimenting with a different kind of voice, and it’s sort of turning out to be the same one, or one v. similar to the natural voice I use in my blog. I wouldn’t have had the idea, or the confidence to try this, if I hadn’t been blogging regularly for a year.
I knew it would come in useful eventually!
by Wendywoo April 20th, 2005 at 10:15 amI love blogging and reading other blogs, but it does cut into my writing time. It’s easy to waste half the day surfing blog sites and adding stuff to your personal blog. You feel like you’ve written something, when in fact, you haven’t. Can you tell I’m torn about blogging?
I do like the ‘friendships’ I’ve developed, but I cannot allow this pastime to consume any more of my writing time. (Not if I expect to have a career.) That’s why I’ve cut back to reading only a few blogs. I’ll continue to do regular entries on my own site, but that’s about it. I think the question asked above, “Am I a blogger or a writer?” is extremely appropriate and needs to be answered by every writer who chooses to blog.
by Jordan April 20th, 2005 at 12:50 pmI jumped on the blog bandwagon a few months ago, but it took me my third blog attempt to find something that worked for me blog wise. I started my blog because I was having trouble writing my fiction. I had some events come up in my life where writing creatively in that manner wasn’t happening. Things are settling down, and I love writing in my blog. I’ve kept a journal on a locked site for some time now, and my blog is similar in content to that journal. Just open to the public. I’m also slowly getting back into my fiction writing now that things are calmer too. I don’t see blogging as being a block to fiction writing. It is just another form of writing.
by Gina April 20th, 2005 at 5:39 pmOh yes, Gina, that’s another thing that I feel is beneficial about blogging too! There are times when I can’t or don’t write fiction, because I’m either too busy with web work, or something personal has made me too upset to focus… But I always feel that if I continue to blog I’m at least keeping the writing engine ticking over, and in working order, ready for the time when I want to get stuck into a novel again.
by Wendywoo April 21st, 2005 at 12:21 am