The Importance of Blogging
October 17, 2011 3 Comments
(Gloria Oliver is a Spec Fic author living in Texas and bowing to the never ending wishes of her feline and canine masters. She’s the author of “In the Service of Samurai”, “Vassal of El”, “Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles”, “Willing Sacrifice”, and her latest “The Price of Mercy.” For sample chapters, free reads and more, visit www.gloriaoliver.com)
Blogging has become a very important part of an author’s career. It’s a way to put a little of ourselves out there so we can connect with readers, other authors and industry peeps.
I don’t think of myself as all that interesting, so coming up with blog posts and figuring out a way to do so consistently made me nuts for a while. After much thought, and reading a lot of blogs, especially the wisdom of Kristen Lamb and others, I’ve finally reached a happy, workable solution that works for ME over at my main blog. I do a Mashups on Mondays (Mind Sieve), photos on Wednesday (Picture Kaleidoscope), movie reviews on Fridays, and throw in the occasional extra post.
One thing I’ve noticed by the doing the mashups (since it means I need to go out there and read a lot of entries) is a pitfall of the social media push for us to blog – mainly posts that rattle out a topic but don’t actually tell you anything. No, I’m not going to point any virtual fingers. I’m sure you’ve probably run across some of these yourself, out there. (I’m also not trying to make everyone paranoid, just aware!)
The worst thing about these posts, in my opinion, is that rather than help the authors build their brand and gain followers, they become off putting and actually get an opposite reaction than intended. If the blog posts don’t have substance, why would any readers then believe that the stories or novels by this same author would have it?
If we’re going to put ourselves out there, let’s do it right. So rather than post every day or just blast the bloggosphere with a half thought, make sure if you bring up a problem, try to throw in a solution or suggestion or two. If you bring up a question, try to give an answer. Like any story, a blog post should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. (Dredge up those memories of having to write short papers for school.) Don’t leave the readers hanging. They need some meat to chew on. They won’t come back if they leave dissatisfied. And what better way to intrigue them than to get their synapses firing.
Let’s put some care into our blogs and stimulate those brains!
What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced what I’m talking about? Do you think I’m full of it? How about sharing any hints and tips you use when creating your own posts?
Let’s get blogging!
I always find it fascinating when people who say they would love to write for a living follow it in the next breath with an admission that they don’t always know what to write about. For some, writing is like breathing: it happens without needing to plan ahead and because we must. At any given moment topics crowd our mind trying to find an exit.
My blog follows no pattern of frequency. I write when something strikes me. It is consistent in subject and theme. I think this is fine. Forcing it doesn’t generally produce what we would like nor quality work. Noticing and observing with a passion for it often leads to connections that tend to write themselves and produces both fulfilled writers and happy readers.
I totally agree about how writing gets to the point where you have too much to write. I find myself writing more than one novel at a time, not because I can’t focus, but because I have too much I want to say.
That, however, is a bit different from keeping momentum on a blog. It’s more like work to keep things fresh and worthwhile. I think Gloria’s idea of working a few angles in on a consistent basis is sound. You think about what kind of focus you want, and don’t put all the eggs in one basket.
This, or course, gets to my ideas for the next post here. I have lots of ideas, all of them lousy, but when I get the nerve up to explore one of those really, really lousy ideas, I hope it turns into gold at the end of the misty rainbow. And, that’s what writers do. We turn the common, everyday junk into folk art.
Yep, everyonehas limited time, so make a post worth the read–time invested.