The most common fear I hear from writers about blogging is that it will take away from their “real” writing. They only have so much time in the day, so much energy, so much creativity, and they can’t blow it on their blog. This perspective, naturally, leads to a blah blog written in a slapdash, sporadic manner that does nothing to promote the writer’s books. Writing a blog that consists of little more than occasional updates about new reviews, bookcovers, release dates, and the random “I’m too busy to blog” post is not only a waste of a potentially good promotional platform, it’s a waste of a potentially great writing tool. Blogging doesn’t have to take away from a writer’s time, energy, and creativity–it can add to it! Here’s how:
5 Ways Blogging Makes Sense (and Cents) for Writers
1. Revelling in the Freedom. Remember when you were a kid with your spiral notebook and a sharp pencil? You could write anything you wanted back then. A poem one day, a short story the next, the beginning of a novel even. A family newspaper, a little play, or a recounting of a summer trip. You could do and be anyone you wanted in your writing, back before you figured out earning a living at it meant delivering a specific product. Well, hello, unfettered youthful freedom–your blog is your inner child! You can be silly, sassy, serious, or sentimental on any given day on your blog and take any given writing format to express it. No rules–just write! You never know, you might even find entire new paths for your writing, pleasures you had forgotten, new forks in the road of your career.
2. Priming the Pump. The freedom of blogging allows a fantastic opportunity to get the creative juices flowing. For many writers, the hardest thing about sitting down to write is…..sitting down to write. Getting started is the biggest hurdle. Instead of sitting down and opening your book file, sit down and open your blog. A blog post isn’t so daunting–it’s short, it’s free, it can be anything you’re in the mood to write, and when you’re done, opening your book file is that much easier. Words breed words–write a post, then write your book. You’ve already gotten started!
3. Experiencing Immediate Feedback. It can be a year after finishing a book before it hits the shelves in bookstores, but a blog post? It’s available world-wide as soon as you click the Publish button in your blogging program. Feedback is motivating. Writers who write to make a living don’t write for themselves–they write to be read and a huge part of the experience is the feedback from readers. Get that satisfaction immediately with your blog.
4. Building Consistent Habits. Blog when you don’t think you have anything to blog about. Blog when you don’t feel like blogging and don’t want to blog. In many ways, blogging is like writing for a newspaper in the daily demand of it. But the thing about newspaper writing? It creates consistency, teaches writers to write through the pain. You don’t have six months to write a newspaper piece, or a blog post. You have to write it now or there won’t be a post today! No pain, no gain, and there is much to be gained for you as a novelist with six months to procrastinate by training yourself to write when you think you can’t.
5. Creating Confidence. You can do it. A book is a long haul, but a blog post is a few minutes, maybe an hour. That zip of excitement that comes with completing something is yours to take–every day!–with your blog. Empower yourself with the thill of “finishing” each morning then open your book file and know you can finish that, too.
Applying a new, enthusiastic attitude to your blog, rolling about in all its freedoms, creative juices, feedback, consistency-building, and confidence boosters will not only do a world of good for your novel writing, it will bring traffic attracted to your excitement….and thus more potential readers for your novels.
What have you got to lose–except your bad attitude toward your blog?
Tags: Creativity, Motivation by Suzanne McMinn
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