- and wondering if it will help with the getting-publishing thing? Miss Snark has a piece on what she thinks makes a good writer's' blog. It's the second item down:

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

Emma

I really like doing my blog. It's fun, gives me the chance to go all over the place in my subject matter, and, for me, it does help with the making a few more sales thing, especially through Myspace - and I make so few sales anyway that three or four more is always a plus point!

But, as you're a big seller, Emma, that approach may not work for you - so you might want to do the more focused thing, eg the themes you're writing about, to get readers discussing your stuff and encouraging others to join in?

I'd say go for it, and enjoy!

A
xxx

<Added>

Or maybe you're not thinking for yourself? Hard to say from the title! Anyway, I think my content still holds water, whatever you meant!!

:))

A
xxx

It's something I know is becoming standard practice, but even though I love other people's blogs and keep an eye on some, I still have troubling persuading myself that anyone who doesn't already know me would be interested in anything I might have to say. And I suspect it hoovers up time I ought to be spending on real writing.

Emma

My 'MySpace blog' is pretty mundane, covering topics I would mainly just discuss with my friends, hence it is set to 'friends only'. Occasionally I do dabble in news etc...
I do it for pure satisfaction and to sometimes raise a giggle if something funny happens.

And I suspect it hoovers up time I ought to be spending on real writing.

Yep. With a huge effort and a mustering of self will, I have posted a load of links on mine to old posts...natters about the craft of writing as I see it... and have said I wont be back until I have at least 50000 wds completed.

vanessa

Real writing?? Hey there, all writing is real! My blog writing is just as real - and enjoyable - as my poetry or fiction writing, m'dear!

!!!

A
xxx

Tee hee! I knew you'd get it in the neck for 'real writing', Emma!!

Rosy x

Quite right (write?!), Rosy! And I'd like to make a plea for the unsung values of Unreal Writing - there should be more of it. Definitely!

)

A
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Yes, I realised I would, but scorned to add a crawly back-track.

What I should have said, though, is my real writing - the stuff that's central to my existence, that I'm compelled to do. That's what I know I should be hammering away at. At least I know that'll interest people, whereas I deeply doubt that my blog would.

Emma

I started a blog, but then I got bored. I used to like writing stuff like that, but now I've got another novel on the go, the last thing I want to do in my free time is write.

My blog has been going for about two years. I find it a great way to keeping writing when I'm blocked on the book.

It gets a few hundred hits a week (up to 600 was it's best) so somebody somewhere reads it.

Lola your blog is always fab.

I started a blog, but then I got bored.

That was me too, I got a bit bored as I kept wanting to rant which isn't attractive and doesn't fit with marketing yourself as a writer really!!

Lola - your blog is great. Journalism and blogging seem very natural extensions of each other in a way that novel-writing and blogging are less so, maybe?

I kept wanting to rant which isn't attractive and doesn't fit with marketing yourself as a writer really!!

I suppose that's another thing that holds me back from blogging, just as it does from keeping a diary: that it lives in that uneasy gap between public and private. My website is a marketing tool and a contact form, and that's fine. I'm not sure I've got enough to say on a blog which is personal enough not to be bland, but not so personal I wouldn't want to tell the world. I suspect I'd keep wanting to write instead, 'Oh, who cares! If you want to know what I think, go and read my novels. That's why I write them and why I'm not writing any more here. Bye.'


Emma

<Added>

that approach may not work for you - so you might want to do the more focused thing, eg the themes you're writing about, to get readers discussing your stuff and encouraging others to join in?

Just read this properly. Interesting. But I would be very, very wary of discussing anything I was writing about in any detail. There's always the danger of dissipating the pressure to communicate that you need to keep at full steam to power you through the novel. And just as I don't do my main research while I'm writing, to avoid the risk of putting stuff in un-digested, I think discussing it with others might skew my sense of what was right for the book (as opposed to right for the discussion) and what should be left out.

True! But on the other hand, Emma, I never have any pressure to communicate with the outside world - at all times and in all places, I'm really only ever communicating with myself!

And if I don't write it down, then I'm highly unlikely to know what I think at all!

)

A
xxx

I think it's a great idea, there is always an eager audience for the kind of blog you're talking about Emma. Look forward to seeing it!

Love

Jools