When Blogging Isn't Writing

Here's the thing: it is my firm belief that if you want to be a fiction writer (and I've decided that I really, really do) you have to actually write. Not just blog. Not just think about writing. Not just talk to other people about writing.  You must put the words on the page every day.

Getting to this point, where I'm putting words down on the page every day, meant clearing out all the noise, all the clutter.  In short, it meant: stop blogging.  The blogging used to get me into my creative flow, with a blog idea leading to a story idea and a story plotline inspiring a blog post. It worked. I was productive. I liked what I was writing - on the blog(s) and the book.

Then something happened.  It all became too much. It felt like a job. I was blogging blindly - without inspiration - and no fiction writing was getting done. No words were making it onto the page every day. I could have soldiered on, but I had to be honest with myself. If a published story or book is the goal (even if that goal is never achieved or is only to be achieved in the distant, distant future), the blogging must be kept in check.  The blogging cannot take the place of writing and when it stops being an effective way to inspire more writing, something has to give.

I didn't want to stop blogging. It hurt, viscerally, to step away from it all. To not only stop writing blog posts, but to stop my incessant reading of other blogs. But it was oh so necessary to find my voice again. And, to be honest, I've not even found it yet. Or at least not all the way. But I'm closer. Much closer than I was when I stepped away from the blogging.

And so - this is my tentative step back into the blog waters. But there will be new rules (as yet to be defined) put in place to ensure that the blogging never usurps the fiction writing.

Comments

[John Fox]

Glad to see that you're back, even if you're back with rules to be determined. And yes, totally sympathize with the blogging energy taking away from the fiction energy. I'm struggling with the same thing. But I got no advice, or wisdom. I just need more energy and more time in the day to keep it all up. Blogging has taught me so much about the industry, given me a community, started me writing book reviews professionally, helped me with the discipline of writing, and much more. But ultimately, I didn't get into writing to be a blogger, but to be a fiction writer.

[snackywombat]

yes, yes, yes. it is a constant struggle. especially when the time comes around to working on a story or posting, i often only post because it's just easier and takes less brain juice. the main issue is what to make time for when you don't have a lot of it to begin with.

[Patricia]

It's been far too long since I've popped by. And for that very reason that you name! I haven't had the time to check out all the blogs on my blogroll lately. I, too, want to get serious about writing (albeit picture books, but hey – it's tough to do, too!). I'm taking an advanced writing for children course, and am writing as much as I can, as well as reading up on what's getting published right now. The end result? My blog has seriously suffered. But there comes a point when you have to make some serious choices.