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Monday, September 26, 2011

What's in it for you?

 
I saw this post over at Janet Reid’s blog the other day.  In it she lists ten things we should be doing.  The first one is what captured my attention.  She said we should have a website with contact info, a professional picture if we are published, and a sample of our writing.  All good.  But then she said if you have a blog don’t blog about writing.

I wonder if this is because, like starting a novel with someone waking up, it’s overdone.  Maybe agents are tired of checking blogs to find that as newbies we’re trying to teach ourselves to write by blogging about it.  It reminded me of this post over on Been Writing.  She says this 

Every time I put something totally random and scattered that spewed from my brain onto my computer screen, I get WAY more comments than when I do something that's actually writing related.

Then she said this

it's because we want to know there are people as neurotic as we are. And it's even better when they're worse

We blog because we want to connect to other writers.  Writing is solitary and it’s nice to have people who understand what’s going on.  You know, people who won’t pull out the strait jacket when you say things like “My MC and I were having a conversation and we decided….”  It’s nice to see how others write, and react to writing, and how it connects to their real life.  It’s nice to just see their random thoughts and musings.

 I know blogs are good for networking and I know a lot of people who have found long term crit partners and friends.  I’ve found some friends that have offered to be beta readers.  Which still surprises me.  I love my novel but it’s a little different for others to show so much excitement.  I mean, these are real people.  And they aren’t even related to me! 

So, what do you like to read about on a blog?  I’m very interested since I have one.  Although I’ll warn you up front, my home life is pretty boring.  Some days all I do is prepare food, serve food, and clean up food.  Those are weekdays. 

9 comments:

  1. I love this, and it's so true. Jolene Perry wrote something similar on her blog not long ago. I find that it's true. While I like writing related posts, I really love to learn more about the people I am following. :)

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  2. Yep, I agree. Blogs are about life. The life of a writer. No, I believe there should be something about writing on the blog. Everything affects my writing since I started doing it full time...like today's blog was me doing the chicken dance with Monday.

    Do I focus on writing? Sometimes. I have little tabs at the top of my page where if someone wants to see something specific about the art of writing it's there, but mostly my blog is about me. My trials, my mistakes, my victories.

    Next month I'm changing that up a bit with a blog hop where there are 7 other authors. Should be interesting since we are all horror/suspense authors.

    I read blogs about everything. Who knows where the next kernel will come from.

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  3. Abby, Been Writing is Jolene's blog so that's where the link goes. I like to get to know the people too.

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  4. Jo, very true you may find a kernel anywhere so it's good to have a variety of blogs.

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  5. I'm totally flattered to be quoted on your blog :D

    I like people who aren't afraid to put up a little bit of everything.

    I very rarely look forward to blogs with scheduled posts, EXCEPT Chantele at My Writing Bug does her random things Friday, and I never miss that. I also rarely a boyfriend of the week at Roni Loren's blog, lol.

    be YOURSELF. That's what I want when I go to a blog, and don't write monster long posts like I sometimes do ;O

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  6. Blogs are all about all the hats we wear, only one of which is a writer ... that's where the fun comes in.

    If I only read blogs by lesbians who write Science Fiction and Fantasy, and if I only read blogs by lesbians who write Science Fiction and Fantasy, I wouldn't be here, and my life would be the poorer for it.

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  7. Jolene, "Be yourself", so true. Sometimes I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for being interesting.

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  8. Widdershins, It is fun to hear about the other hats people wear. One author blog I like to read talks all the time about her spinning and knitting. Since sewing is something I enjoy I have a lot of fun with that blog.

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  9. Hmm, interesting list. I still don't Twitter, though...

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