5 Reasons To Start A Blog
August 17th 2009 06:32
In light of my recent blogaversary I've written some posts about blogging, which is not usually my focus here, as I like to focus more on fiction writing. (I do a lot more of that.) Over the last two years I've really come to love blogging. If you're a writer, and you don't have a blog, I think it's high time you started one.
Here are five reasons to start a blog:
1. To Practice Writing Regularly When I first started this blog I had a problem that a lot of writers share. That is the struggle to write every day. As time passed, I would be able to do this for a month or two by blogging about something every day, but then I would have periods of time where I didn't blog or write at all.
Since I returned to Fictional Worlds in June, I've gotten a lot better at this. It's been a lot about the blogging. The Dear Diary exercise really helped, because I forced myself to wake up and write a thousand words every day. I would check my email, check my facecrack and then write my thousand words. It worked.
Even while I was at the cottage I wrote every day. I wrote the sunrise exercise which is already up, the sunset exercise which is a lot longer and is coming soon, and a bit of information on that new race that appeared during my Dear Diary work. It wasn't necessarily a lot of writing, but it was writing nonetheless.
Writing on a blog regularly, even if it's a very short post, helps get you into a routine of writing regularly and makes it easier with every other project.
2. To Reach Out To Readers Blogging is a great way for an unpublished fiction writer to find readers. There are a number of reasons for this. One of them is that everyone has at least one passion, but most people have more than one. You can start a blog about something else you're passionate about, and then build a readership who, if they like your work enough, will check out bits and pieces of your fiction.
You can start a blog where you regularly post excerpts, which can get people interested in your fiction.
Blogs can attract readers without you having to get any official publication credits and without you having to put your entire novel up online.
For a published fiction writer, it's a great way to build community with readers. You draw new readers to your blog who then check out your published fiction. You draw readers of your fiction to your blog where you can have conversation with them and maybe teach them some stuff. It's a great way to find out what your readers like about your work and what they don't like.
3. To Reach Out To Other Writers Blogging and reading other blogs, commenting on those blogs, maybe with links back to your own, is a great way to communicate with other writers. There are a lot of bloggers who are fiction writers or poetry writers, and who might be willing to critique your work if you develop a strong relationship with them. There are a lot of bloggers who can give you ideas, and who might be willing to guest post on your blog in their area of expertise.
Lots of bloggers will give you link love if you give them link love and your blog is relevant to their blog. This draws more readers to you, who then might find themseelves interested in other work that you do outside of your blog.
4. To Learn About Writing The more you practice writing, the better you get. The more you learn about what works and what doesn't. The more you develop your own style, your own voice. Blogging can be your way of getting into a writing routine, teaching you to write every day or every other day. When you start getting into a writing routine, you'll find you learn a lot about writing.
I've certainly come a long way in terms of my own personal voice thanks to blogging. My personal voice has been strong since before I started blogging, but it's gotten stronger. Part of the reason for this is that I see my stats-I realize that I have readers. That somebody, somewhere in the world with internet access likes my blog. Likes my voice. It really encourages me to see those growing stats.
I've learned a lot about blogging, and a list of things I've learned can be found in this post, so I won't go into details here.
5. Writing Samples Lately I've been applying to various writing jobs. When they ask for writing samples, I can just send them links to various posts here at Fictional Worlds, and to the homepage itself so they can see what I'm currently working on.
By writing a blog you will never be in short supply of writing samples. There will always be something you can point out, something that you can easily link to. You won't have to make up different writing samples for each job, and you certainly won't have to worry about typing things up, attachign them if the job accepts attachments, or having huge chunks of text in the body of your emailed application. This is a little bit different if you're actually mailing in an application, in which case you need to print stuff out and such.
Those are the five biggest reasons why every writer should start a blog.
Here are five reasons to start a blog:
1. To Practice Writing Regularly When I first started this blog I had a problem that a lot of writers share. That is the struggle to write every day. As time passed, I would be able to do this for a month or two by blogging about something every day, but then I would have periods of time where I didn't blog or write at all.
Since I returned to Fictional Worlds in June, I've gotten a lot better at this. It's been a lot about the blogging. The Dear Diary exercise really helped, because I forced myself to wake up and write a thousand words every day. I would check my email, check my facecrack and then write my thousand words. It worked.
Even while I was at the cottage I wrote every day. I wrote the sunrise exercise which is already up, the sunset exercise which is a lot longer and is coming soon, and a bit of information on that new race that appeared during my Dear Diary work. It wasn't necessarily a lot of writing, but it was writing nonetheless.
Writing on a blog regularly, even if it's a very short post, helps get you into a routine of writing regularly and makes it easier with every other project.
2. To Reach Out To Readers Blogging is a great way for an unpublished fiction writer to find readers. There are a number of reasons for this. One of them is that everyone has at least one passion, but most people have more than one. You can start a blog about something else you're passionate about, and then build a readership who, if they like your work enough, will check out bits and pieces of your fiction.
You can start a blog where you regularly post excerpts, which can get people interested in your fiction.
Blogs can attract readers without you having to get any official publication credits and without you having to put your entire novel up online.
For a published fiction writer, it's a great way to build community with readers. You draw new readers to your blog who then check out your published fiction. You draw readers of your fiction to your blog where you can have conversation with them and maybe teach them some stuff. It's a great way to find out what your readers like about your work and what they don't like.
3. To Reach Out To Other Writers Blogging and reading other blogs, commenting on those blogs, maybe with links back to your own, is a great way to communicate with other writers. There are a lot of bloggers who are fiction writers or poetry writers, and who might be willing to critique your work if you develop a strong relationship with them. There are a lot of bloggers who can give you ideas, and who might be willing to guest post on your blog in their area of expertise.
Lots of bloggers will give you link love if you give them link love and your blog is relevant to their blog. This draws more readers to you, who then might find themseelves interested in other work that you do outside of your blog.
4. To Learn About Writing The more you practice writing, the better you get. The more you learn about what works and what doesn't. The more you develop your own style, your own voice. Blogging can be your way of getting into a writing routine, teaching you to write every day or every other day. When you start getting into a writing routine, you'll find you learn a lot about writing.
I've certainly come a long way in terms of my own personal voice thanks to blogging. My personal voice has been strong since before I started blogging, but it's gotten stronger. Part of the reason for this is that I see my stats-I realize that I have readers. That somebody, somewhere in the world with internet access likes my blog. Likes my voice. It really encourages me to see those growing stats.
I've learned a lot about blogging, and a list of things I've learned can be found in this post, so I won't go into details here.
5. Writing Samples Lately I've been applying to various writing jobs. When they ask for writing samples, I can just send them links to various posts here at Fictional Worlds, and to the homepage itself so they can see what I'm currently working on.
By writing a blog you will never be in short supply of writing samples. There will always be something you can point out, something that you can easily link to. You won't have to make up different writing samples for each job, and you certainly won't have to worry about typing things up, attachign them if the job accepts attachments, or having huge chunks of text in the body of your emailed application. This is a little bit different if you're actually mailing in an application, in which case you need to print stuff out and such.
Those are the five biggest reasons why every writer should start a blog.
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