I’ve seen a few bloggers lately wonder why they’re blogging, what they have to add to the blogosphere that is worth saying. Everyone’s voice is unique, and while they aren’t all to my taste, that doesn’t mean their words are unworthy.
I was on Blogger for over four years, and had a private blog site before that. I read back some of my early posts In My Little World today, which caused me to remember I once blogged a lot more and was more entertaining. And probably had a bigger following. 😛
One of the reasons I don’t blog as much, I think, is this whole Genesis contest thing. This is the third year I’ve entered, and the judges aren’t supposed to know who the writers are that they’re judging. Yet I hang out with a number of them and who knows, some of them might even come here from time to time. After all, I’m a Genesis judge myself–there are dozens and dozens of us, and we don’t know who we all are. We don’t know who all entered the contest, but we can figure out some if we poke around enough. I don’t want to be blatant.
I used to talk openly about my wip titles, my characters’ names, the research I was doing, plots and subplots and themes. And now I’m not so open (though anyone can click on *For Readers* up above and get the lowdown on my various works-in-progress). I don’t want to stick that info in the face of potential judges or fellow contest enterers (new word, like it?).
The other thing is that I’ve separated out some of my interests and given them their own blogs, such as most of the farm and garden and food stuff being posted at Scratch.
And I guess being on FaceBook and Twitter has affected how I blog, too. Where I might once have written short blog posts on some of the things I now update in those places, now I often just post there.
Curious–anyone else find that FaceBook and Twitter have negatively affected their blogging? Or positively? How have you handled the multiple online reporting options?
Congrats on your writing success. I just found your blog via Alexander Fields.
I haven’t tried Twitter yet because I am afraid it will detract from my blogging which will further detract from my fiction writing.
But I know I’ll prob Twitter at some point. That was a weird sentence.
I’ll probably start doing it right when it begins to decline.
Hi, SD. Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson said on his blog (months ago, now) that he recommended everyone Twitter, then FaceBook, then blog. I did it all backwards, but now can see why he said it. There’s lots going on in TwitterLand, and I love it.
I was surprised to learn via Wired magazine last year that blogging was dead and Twitter was “it.” Then, I started Twittering, and began to understand what Wired meant. I do blog less now, but I believe there is a still an important place for the blog in social networking.
I primarily post updates on Twitter, which simultaneously post to Facebook. If I want to, I can link to a blog post in Twitter to direct attention to a larger audience, which also alerts Facebook friends. I also have the blog URL in my Twitter bio. In my case, I don’t get huge traffic flows from there, but I do get some.
I believe we can develop a solid strategy using the strengths of the three environments — I’m playing with that a little but not seriously. I’m currently scattered and not attempting to focus a strategy on either blog, FB, or Twitter, but I am researching.
You know its funny, I’ve been on Facebook quite awhile, but I only recently started the blog (January) and Twitter around the same time. I like that I can update all these places at once, but the blog offers a more substantial opportunity to say a few things.
Mike Hyatt is like a whole different breed. He’s a dedicated Twitterer and blogs with amazing consistency. Impressive.
There are *some* people I’ve stopped following on either Twitter or FaceBook because the content was always the same both places. Myself, I don’t see the point of that; it just clogs up my feed. I may be alone in that…but I’m an addict and check both regularly.
I did notice I stopped blogging as much when I got more involved with Facebook, and recently, Twitter. I still READ blogs just as much, but my composing time is broken up into bits. Some of it may be my work schedule – taking a minute out of my day to tweet is far more possible than writing a 20-minute post. It’s also nice to be able to interact in near real time with friends and other writers. It’s probably a natural progression – consider how Faith*in*Fiction forum died as more people wrote blogs! Wonder what’ll be next!
Scary thought, Katie, about what could come next. I hadn’t thought about that. How much *less frill* can we get than Twitter? Something under 140 characters? Eep!
i was delighted to find this blog, and to see that another SFF writer has divided their attention between fiction and nonfiction, especially food! (I haven’t posted much in the way of recipes and les cooking adventures, but I do post essays on herbs, cooking, gardening, and homelife in addition to SFF.
I, too, started with a blog, first a practical one at work, then one on the web about writing SFF. After seeing Twitter posts at work, i have no interest in heading that direction. Maybe it’s a generational thing (I’ve been slow to adjust to the new technology and am certainly behind the times) but, while I find some twitters amusing, I rarely find them interesting enough to page through for more than a few minutes. Well-written blogs have substance and meaning and even merely adequate ones leave me feeling as if I have at least been exposed to something worth the bother.
I’ve rarely found a Twitter that does so and have no interest in adding to the clutter, especially as it would definately take time away from blogging. Blogging, exploring the web looking for the allusive “SFF writing community” (finding CSFF was a huge leap forward in that effort!), and looking for agents and publishers already takes too much time away from writing novels. I’ve considered face book and other forums but have not found them user friendly and bounced against a wall of search tools and information that seemed to be focused on nothing but high school reunions and dating, which made me wonder if it, too, was worth the added bother.
ENE
Thanks for stopping back, Emmalyn. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better! I remember being lonely in the Christian SFF world once, too, before finding the gang at CSFF and ACFW. One thing about both Facebook and Twitter for me has been getting to know folks better. I follow a number of agents and publishers on Twitter, for example, and am finding top-of-the-hour information. Quite a few of them follow back, as well, and I’d like to think that my name, when it comes across in a query or book proposal, will be familiar to them in a positive way. Personally, I think the time it takes is worth it, but I can accept not everyone feels that way. At Facebook, I can keep up with my adult kids as well as lots of friends from the long-ago high school days (I went to a Christian boarding school, so we don’t have a hometown to come home to for regular reunions.)