Hey everyone!
I know, I know. Not my usual day for blogging. I'm generally a Sunday only blogger with random posts showing up from time to time when I think someone might be interested in what I have to say. However, after reading my blog list for the day (when did I start follow so many blogs?), it hit me: I'm a failure.
Okay, okay, so maybe not a failure per se. But I'm not using my blog to its fullest potential. At least that's my guess based on everything I've seen and read. I need to come up with something else to post about aside from my weekly 'fess ups.
Now, I'm not a published author. I'm barely in the revision stage of my first reasonably decent novel length manuscript. So I don't have any words of wisdom on the whole query/indie publish/agent side of things. I'm a fan of both paper books and ebooks so I can't really take sides on the e-reader debates. I'm not politically motivated by anything, aside from telling my local officials how bloody STUPID I think they are at random times (e-mails are wonderful tools for that). Besides, politics - to me at least - is a good way to turn people OFF of your blog, unless you do it well enough that they want to come back.
I'm not particularly tech savvy so discussing the latest and greatest in technology is out. I follow blogs and news feeds to keep up with what's going on in the publishing industry but I couldn't possibly do any better when it comes to discussing these things than people like Nathan Bransford and Writer's Beware (their blogs are informative in different ways).
So, my lovely blog readers, what do you suggest? What kind of posts are interesting to you? What do you blog about? I'm also working on my vlogs, and I'm going to focus a bit more on getting them into something a bit more solid. I've considered talking about world building in my blog - hey, I've spent 20 years building Aleran...I think I could talk about that for a while - but then again, I've seen a lot of blog posts done really well regarding world building and don't know that I'd have anything better to say.
I think I'm talking myself out of blogging again...which I'm trying not to do. So, PLEASE leave me your suggestions here. Tweet them to me on Twitter (@annikkawoods, for those of you who may not know me there yet). Drop me a line on my Facebook page if you prefer (same thing...Annikka Woods). But leave me some ideas, and I'll see what I can do.
First of all, DON'T quit blogging. It's a useful outlet, and you don't want to lose that.
ReplyDeleteSecond, as far as what to blog: How about blogging about specific issues related to your writing. Like character development, setting, etc. I know those are standard topics, but you can talk about how you, specifically are addressing them.
You might also write about the conditions you write under -- what works and what doesn't. You've hit on this a bit already, but it's always good to refresh.
Finally, could you write about the ways that your real life creep into your writing?
Just some ideas. While they may not suit you, perhaps they'll help you think of other things that will work better.
Hooo…
ReplyDeleteSo I'm in roughly the same boat. Am revising first major novel-length story, hopefully finishing sometime this year. No short story publications, and basically a no-name. But I'm blogging because I want my name out there and it's fun and … yeah. You'd heard and said all this.
I suggest blogging about things that interest you, and things you do know about. World-building, for instance, since you mentioned that. I bet you'd have some cool advice, or at least stories of how Aleran evolved. Ask yourself what else you're interested in, besides writing. For instance:
What do you read? Would the occasional book review be up your alley? Or more literary criticism type stuff, such as deconstructing a really poorly made (or really well-made) world?
If you read news articles, magazines, blogs, etc., what do you gravitate to? Do you read a lot about fishing or third-world countries or UFOs? One way to "build a brand" is to become known for a specific sort of content. I blog a mix of science/paranormal geekiness and writing/reading.
If you see a blog topic elsewhere that interests you or which you've got a specific opinion on (say … ebooks? Parenthood?), go ahead and write your own post on the subject.
Don't quit blogging. And don't ever think that just because someone else talks about X exceptionally well, that you can't contribute to the conversation. And if you're truly stuck, you can compile lists of articles and/or blog posts on various topics. People would RT and link to that kind of thing, I'd imagine, and give you lots of hits. (Not that that's what we bloggers care about, not at all.)
Annika, I've very much in the same boat as you with regard to my writing so, of course, it was very interesting to read your comments.
ReplyDeleteEchoing the others, please don't quit blogging! We'll all learn together so it's useful from that standpoint. And, for me, watching others develop and succeed (or struggle and overcome, depending on the day lol) is both inspirational and helps me to see my own process more clearly, too.
Reading over your blog, what really captured me was the "About Me" section. I found intriguing little bits of information there--the descriptive words you used, what you intimated about yourself, the info on Aleran--all those things made me curious to know more about you AND your world.
Now, perhaps that's all covered in your older blogs (I only read the current one today) but I thought I'd share my POV that the most interesting stuff about writers 'like me' is to have more personal depth about my colleages in order to share the journey with them and enrich my own.