Last week, I was on a literary blogging panel for the Washington Independent Writers. Listening to the other bloggers tell stories and the audience members quoting big-name writers who say blogging is nuts made me realize a lot of people out there do not think blogging is worth the time.
Alors!
When I started blogging, I was clueless. One poet (Thanks, Aimee Nez!) kindly welcomed me to the “blogosphere” and I remember thinking, “huh?” I was not hip to the lingo.
Thank goodness the necessary lingo does not go far beyond blogosphere, because I already have enough lingo to handle in my day job — “latent semantic indexing” anyone, anyone?
In this day of shrinking or invisible book marketing budgets, a writer has to take on more of the marketing themselves. A blog is an excellent way to develop a community and a readership. Here’s how else it can be useful:
- Community:I lived in Iowa for a long time and know first hand how lonely it can be not to have a writing community. Leslie Pietryk, who knew me waaaay back then, remembered my extremely long emails during that time of my life. Um, yeah. I had about 28 free hours a day in Iowa. With blogging, I’ve met writers all over this country and even around the world.
- Sharing How to Start a Magazine:This was my original idea behind starting the blog. I know, I know. Booorrrring! So many people asked me how to start a literary magazine that I thought it would be a good idea to write about it. That idea remained a good one for exactly 9.5 seconds. Then, I came to my senses.
- To Try Something New:I love new challenges. While setting up the blog was easy, I then had to come up with content people actually wanted to read, increase visitors, and so on. I have learned a lot and use this blog as my testing grounds for new techniques such as adding plugins (aka nifty gadgets) to backup my blog content or figuring out ways to create categories that easily let readers find what they want.
- To Improve 32 Poems:One time Oliver de la Paz requested comments from his blog readers on proposed covers for his poetry book. The blog format, with its ability to accept comments from readers, can create a conversation around a topic. I asked for, and received, respectful comments with suggestions how to make 32 Poems better. As a result, our design has improved over the years.
- To Get News: I find out news faster through reading blogs than through reading anything else. Blogs are up to the minute in a way that print magazines can’t be.
- To Find Poems: Amanda Auchter posted a poem on her blog that took the top off my head clean off. (It took months to grow back.) I stopped by her blog one day and was blown away by the poem. I immediately asked her if that poem was published and if she would be willing to submit it to 32 Poems. That has, so far, been the one and only poem I’ve solicited from a blog.
- To Share Ideas: As I meet more people, I get more energy and more ideas for projects, for poems, for books to read, for conferences to attend or not attend.
If blogging is not for you, it’s not as though you will shrivel up. You’ll be just fine — and dandy. If you are interested in blogging and not sure, then take the above into consideration. If you want to be extra dandy, like dandy with some sugar, then blog.
In a future post, I’ll share some blogging tips that will sells millions of copies of your poetry books. Ah, I’m just making sure you’re awake. Okay, maybe 100 copies?
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There are a lot of writers who feel keeping a blog distracts from the real writing, which I think is a load of crap. There’s a generation of writers who still don’t “get” the entire Internet revolution/evolution, so they can say it’s nuts all they like, but that just shows incredible shortsightedness.
Hi Collin,
I agree with you. I don’t understand the intense dislike of the internet on the part of some older writers. Also, some of the older writers have many novels, a large following and perhaps even a marketing budget. They don’t have the same concerns as our generation.
Deborah
It surprises me that blogging is still something people shy away from. I admit the name is not pretty but it’s all to do with how you yourself see your blog. Personally I don’t thing of blogs and posts, I think of articles and as soon as I do that I feel compelled to write to a certain standard and not simply waffle on about whatever is bugging me at the minute.
I have been surprised how stimulating blog writing had been and how that has spilled over into my other writing. We writers crave stimulation. Here is a way to self-generate it. Perfect.
I also think one of the things that puts a lot of people off is thinking they have to post daily and that is simply not the case. You need to post regularly – I aim for something every 3 days on average – because it can become a real burden thinking of something meaningful to write every day. No wonder so many blogs die within three months.
Personally, I find blogging to be a real spur to my writing–and it’s so fun!
Re: poems on blogs–isn’t it true that if you post a poem on a blog it’s considered published?
Thanks for all you do, Deborah–your posts gave me the impetus to start my own blog, and the platform (Word Press) on which to do it!
best,
Marie
I stayed away from computers at home for long time, though not out of any technophobia — I’ve used computers at all the jobs I’ve had (what I’ve done “for a living”) since about 1979. Mainly I just wanted to wait until some of the technology had stabilized a little and some of the early bugs had been worked through — in general I like to wait before jumping into new technologies, and let someone else do the test piloting.
I started blogging in part to talk about poets and poetry I like, and also to leap into the fray occasionally when some debate or other about poetry crops up on the web.
I live in a city (Minneapolis) with a very active poetry life, so isolation hasn’t been so much of an issue for me, actually sometimes the contrary, it can take a conscious effort to find the solitude that is sometimes necessary to get serious and write.
Blogging hasn’t detracted from my finding time or attention to write, if anything it’s become a kind of useful related conversation, like reading (for example) or translating.
In the past couple of years I’ve met, face to face, three or four people I initially came in contact with through the internet or email. Prior to having a computer, I gave much attention to writing letters on paper to a far-flung network of friends and acquaintances around the country and, occasionally, in other countries.
Also, just as a footnote — since you made reference to “the intense dislike of the internet on the part of some older writers” — I’ll just mention here that I’m 53. I had an opportunity to observe one of the first internet networks in use — a network known as “Plato” (or PLATO? not sure if it was an acronym) — on a terminal in the Design department at Southern Illinois University in the fall of 1974. At that time, the Plato internet network had something like 200 users worldwide, and the capacity was so small that the chairman of the Design department was bumped off the network at one point while he was showing it to us, when another user somewhere — who had paid a larger fee for higher-priority usage — logged in.
I like the discussion about this. Thanks for posting this.
Lyle, you make a good point. It’s not so much age I meant as position in the writing world. When I mentioned “generation,” I meant “writing generation.” Those of us with one book might be the “newer” or “younger” generation. Thanks, as always, for your thoughtful post.
Good thoughts, Deborah, and everyone else. You know there was an AWP panel this year on the topic. I hesitated starting a blog for a long time, but I’m very happy I now have one. Instead of detracting from writing time, I find it makes me more observant and I think more about poetry. Consequently, it’s a spur to writing. And I think I fall into the “older writers” category; I don’t want to be left out of the world of technology. Some people who look down their noses at blogging are really just intimidated by it. As for big name poets–there are plenty of them joining in too:
Reginald Shepherd, Joy Harjo, to name a few. I love the ongoing poetry talk, something I just can’t get in my neighborhood or even in my house. Check out http://www.wmfr.blogspot.com. The blogger, Peter, has started a feature, Poets on Blogging.
Diane, You bring up a good point. I was mistaken to say “older writers.” Plenty of “older” (as in age) writers blog. I had in a mind a few of the more famous writers who look down their noses at blogging, and they just happen to be older. What I really meant to say was that generation of writers. In this case, “generation” meant a certain level of accomplishment and fame. However, that is still a generalization on my part and one I should probably edit away.
We’ve been chatting about this post at the polkadotwitch blog. When I saw the title to your post I felt validated in my blogging efforts.
I started my blog a year ago to create a portfolio of my writing, but like your goals, mine have changed over the past year. Now I post too many poems that might be better off simmering on my hard drive for a few more days. I tend to get caught up in the excitement of sharing my work.
I enjoy the process of letting my blog take shape over time- it’s a reflection of me, so it will change as I do.
I’m 47, but I am a beginner in the world of professional writing. I caught your drift when I read the post. But, since 50 is the new 30 (says the woman who’s closer to 50 than 40), many in my age group feel younger than ever.
Thanks for your post. Good reading.