This has just been one of those weeks. I lost two writing days and eked out a miserable few hundred words on a third day.
But School Happened (yes, even when the public school kids got two days off, which did not go unnoticed by mine). We read Shakespeare retellings, made a “blubber” glove for science, plowed on through math.
And also! I’m at two other blogs this week, answering questions about writing, life, and Rainbird:
At Forego Reality, I talk about finding time to write as a homeschooling mom, the inspiration behind the sunway, and my commitment to quality as a self-publisher.
And today, I’m at Liv Rancourt’s blog, discussing where I picked up my style, how a girl from Pakistan ended up in Northern Virginia, and the YA elements in Rainbird.
And, thirdly, I’m strongly leaning towards joining the slow blogging movement. I’m a fiction writer with limited time. I enjoy blogging, but I cannot put out three or more high-quality posts every week. I have to drop down to one longish post and (maybe) one shorter, quick-to-put-together post like this one per week. I’m still thinking about this, so if you have any opinions about this change, let me know!
Rabia, another suggestion on the blogging is try for a theme each month and then plan out posts for the theme. There’s a blog planner here: http://www.productiveflourishing.com/the-free-planners-for-november-2012-are-available/ It’s like an editorial calendar, and it gives tremendous power. You can look at the month and decide you want to do a list post (which are really easy) and have a couple posts with videos in them. It also means you can write a bunch of posts all at one time, instead of waiting until the week of and scrambling. If you go with themes, though, stay away from writing themes because they’re pretty limiting and you won’t have enough material for topics.
That’s a great idea, Linda. I like the thought of monthly themes, or series posts.
I have zero desire to blog about the writing process, so no problem there. 😀
Rabia, I wanted to add one more comment. If a publisher picks up your book (like what happened with a recent indie author), he’s probably going to ask about what you’re doing to promote it and insist on things like a blog. It’s probably better to learn how to manage the time now rather rather than in a panic while you’re trying to meet tighter deadlines. The biggest eye opening thing for me was when I was writing with a cowriter. We had a full accepted by an agent, and I started talking to him about us needing to find a way to write the books faster. He pooh-poohed it, saying everything was negotiable. I suddenly had this vision of him blowing off a deadline, and me in a panic trying to meet it. This is one of the reasons my goal for this quarter was to control some of the things outside of the actual writing — like research. I’ve had a terrible time with that and it has eaten away at my writing time — not because I enjoy it (I loathe it), but because I’ve wasted more time getting information I didn’t need and redoing research. The hit and run method I did hasn’t worked, and I’ve had to go back to the research well for my novel four times because I didn’t do it right the first, second, or third times. That’s why I’m taking an online college class for it, so I can learn more efficient methods that will help me manage my time better. Blogging instructions, unfortunately, doesn’t address this at all. It is a huge time saver to know what you’re going to post in advance and not wait until the day of or the week of. It means you can write the posts when you need a break from the fiction writing or at a specific time — not because your deadline is looming.
Thanks for the follow-up. Yes, I do need to manage my time better, and plan ahead! That’s one of the reasons why I was thinking of dropping my blogging to once/twice a week. It’ll help me ease into planning my time. That, and I feel that my posts should stay on top of my blog for a longer time–it really seems to help them get more comments, too.
Hi Rabia,
I enjoyed both interviews! It seems like we have similar homeschool/writing schedules (aka balancing acts). I’m looking forward to reading Rainbird.
As for slow blogging, I’m in favor. I post once a week and find it works well for me in terms of balance. Best of luck finding what works for you.
Thanks, Lisa! It’s nice to have another homeschooling mom chime in. 🙂
I love it!
I’m so glad there’s a name for what I’ve decided to do with my blog. I did blog three, or even four, times a week at Write A Book With Me, and was determined not to blather. I was often surprised and pleased with what came out when I cajoled myself to sit down and write a hundred words or so about my writing day.
I did find that the blog took away from the time I had to work on my novel, so now that I’m on A Scenic Route, I’ve decided to post no more than three or four times a month. If I have nothing to say, I won’t post. Fortunately, I have a lot to say, just not enough time to say it. But I keep my best stuff for the novels. 🙂
I’ve found it to be a much more fun pace to post at. And if it isn’t fun, why do it?
*nod* Yes, and I think it’s good for readers, too. Sometimes, I get almost resentful with bloggers who post too often. Clogs up my RSS feed! (The exceptions are the newsy/aggregator type sites–I expect them to post often and they are easy to skim).
I’m radically changing the way I interact online to make it serve me more than me it, but I haven’t yet started blogging again in earnest, simply because I would really like to have finished setting up my backend first. (this takes a lot of learning curve for a girl like me) But even so, I don’t consider weekly slow. Monthly, maybe, but it’s a fact of life I learned from my reading habits: it’s consistency that is key, not how often, and quality is good, but even that can vary as long as you’re consistent. The blogs I loved best of all fell off my radar if I didn’t know when I needed to go check them out. My RSS gets a once quarterly glance to catch up, the blogs on my bookmarks get more frequent looks, but I stop looking when there’s nothing new after three months, and my absolute favorites, I check in right on time every time I know they post—and sometimes have an extra post for a surprise.
I loved your guest posts, though the link is broken on Liv’s. But I love all these stories behind the stories. It would be nice to have them gathered together into one place and/or tag. (hint, hint)
Well, I haven’t been able to eke out much word count wise, so I’m off to the trenches. :hugs:
*nod* Consistency is definitely key, and that’s what I’m striving for. I think fewer, but longer and well-thought-out posts will be better for my readers. I think of Kris Rusch’s Thursday writing industry posts–I always look forward to them because they are so informative and meaty.
I fixed the link. Thanks for the catch! Hope you get lots of words!