Monday, October 09, 2006
Time consuming
It's Monday, and as such, it's a writing day. I'm writing alright, but not my story. Here I am, poking around in my blog and on the net. For those of you considering a blog, know from the outset that this is a time-consuming business. The writing isn't so much the problem. I could probably beat out a paragraph or two within a half-an-hour or less. It's the linking and the surfing that eat the time. One of the Holy Rules of blogging is to credit whoever or whatever you are commenting on. You'll notice from my previous posts that I like to comment on many of the things that swirl around us in this crazy info-ridden culture. That makes my posts quite linky. Finding the appropriate links takes time, but it's also easy to get sidetracked and start looking at other websites along the way. Oooh, look! A shiny toy! Lemme see!
The other part of blogging that is time-consuming is all the thinking that goes into it when I'm not actually posting. "What should I write on my blog?" is a perpetual question. I'll hear something and think, "That'd be good for the blog. I've gotta write that down." Blog-think crowds out story-think.
I'm hoping that the more I blog, the less novel blogging will become, and this blog-think will settle down so that story-think will come back. I'm heartened by the fact that I woke in the middle of last night and was mulling the series of stories I'm working on. The story-think is still there. To help it along, I am also considering taking a break from the blog a couple of days a week. My fear here, of course, is that once I take a break, I won't want to come back. When you're a writer, you have to constantly coax yourself to the page. If you don't, the rest of life presses in and takes over.
The other part of blogging that is time-consuming is all the thinking that goes into it when I'm not actually posting. "What should I write on my blog?" is a perpetual question. I'll hear something and think, "That'd be good for the blog. I've gotta write that down." Blog-think crowds out story-think.
I'm hoping that the more I blog, the less novel blogging will become, and this blog-think will settle down so that story-think will come back. I'm heartened by the fact that I woke in the middle of last night and was mulling the series of stories I'm working on. The story-think is still there. To help it along, I am also considering taking a break from the blog a couple of days a week. My fear here, of course, is that once I take a break, I won't want to come back. When you're a writer, you have to constantly coax yourself to the page. If you don't, the rest of life presses in and takes over.
