I've just discovered Blogs!

[karenranney]

I know, I know, where have I been?

I accidentally happened across an author's blog which led me to another and another and another. Of course I'm on a deadline and shouldn't be surfing, but I consider it brain rest. There are times when I just HAVE to get away from my characters.

Blogs are fun to read, especially from published authors. But I can't help but wonder if too much information is simply, well, too much? Does it affect book sales, one way or the other?

[MacAllister]

It's an insidious illness, Karen...Soon, you'll realize you must have one of your own.

Then your little sister starts pestering you with emails, wondering why you haven't updated it lately...

[James D. Macdonald]

If you haven't gone to Making Light (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/) yet ... go.

[Medievalist]

If you haven't gone to Making Light (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/) yet ... go.

I actually get paid to pay attention to blogs, blog tools and bloggers, and Making Light is hands down one of the very best.

If you are a writer, a reader, or a human, go read Making Light.

[MacAllister]

I'll happily third the Making Light (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/) recommendation...

[CACTUSWENDY]

wow.

:Shrug: I wonder what that says about me?
I didn't like it.
(Sigh)

[Medievalist]

wow.

:Shrug: I wonder what that says about me?
I didn't like it.
(Sigh)

It's OK if you don't, but look around in the archives a bit. And do check out the comments too.

[SJB]

Making Light is tremendous - admittedly, the posts on the front page at the moment are probably less than typically interesting.* Please have a dig in the archives, as Lisa suggested.

Glad you made it to blogdom, Karen. I look forward to the addition of a blog on your own (groovy) Web site. :)

SJ

* I think they're interesting, but perhaps the current posts have less general appeal than usual.

[Medievalist]

Although I, of course, think everyone must be fascinated by Anglo-Saxon, here are some writing-related posts from the archive:

On the Getting of Agents (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004772.html)

Slushkiller (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html#40616)

[Julian Black]

I'm another huge fan of Making Light.

The "Slushkiller" thread, strange as it sounds, is one of the most inspiring things I've ever read. After staying up until 3am to read it in its entirety, I staggered off to bed feeling much more confident about both my abilities as a writer and my chances of getting published.

[zornhau]

I'm another huge fan of Making Light.

The "Slushkiller" thread, strange as it sounds, is one of the most inspiring things I've ever read. After staying up until 3am to read it in its entirety, I staggered off to bed feeling much more confident about both my abilities as a writer and my chances of getting published.

Slushkiller rocks!:Cheer:

You might also find some of Charlie Stross's blog illuminating:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi

Then there's the horribly prolific Gena Hale (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=z0s1lKR1KA&isbn=0451409825&itm=1), Jessica Hall (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=z0s1lKR1KA&isbn=0451411587&itm=1), Rebecca Kelly (http://www.guidepostsbooks.com/Display_Element.asp?Dyn_Element_Id=344&archive=true), Lynn Viehl (http://www.darkyn.com/), or was it S.L. Viehl (http://www.sff.net/people/slviehl) - yes, all one woman - who blogs at http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com.

[arainsb123]

Paperback Writer is great!

Silent Bounce (http://www.hollylisle.com/writingdiary) is also superb.

[Julian Black]

Paperback Writer is another of my favorites.

So is Sara Donati/Rosina Lippi's blog, Storytelling: http://www.tiedtothetracks.com/storytelling/

I confess I've never read a book by either of these women, but maybe, one day, I will...

[James D. Macdonald]

Check out John Scalzi's Whatever (http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/) too.

[NotTooLate]

I'm going to go check out Making Light right now.

But if you haven't already, read through the archives of Bookangst. (http://bookangst.blogspot.com/) For those of you who don't know, he's a top editor at a major house blogging annonymously as Mad Max. Some content might anger you a bit, but he brings up topics that might not otherwise be discussed by those people. Of course I'm starstruck. To work for... or step foot (welcomed) inside a big publishing company. :faint:

My very favorite is Fresh Eyes (http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/shire15/), an independent bookseller's journal.

On my way to Making Light...

[NotTooLate]

Oh one more thing. If you're looking to spend hours reading blogs, there's a great, long list of them at Maud Newton (http://maudnewton.com/links.htm).

[zornhau]

I'm going to go check out Making Light right now.

But if you haven't already, read through the archives of Bookangst. (http://bookangst.blogspot.com/) For those of you who don't know, he's a top editor at a major house blogging annonymously as Mad Max. Some content might anger you a bit, but he brings up topics that might not otherwise be discussed by those people. Of course I'm starstruck. To work for... or step foot (welcomed) inside a big publishing company. :faint:

My very favorite is Fresh Eyes (http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/shire15/), an independent bookseller's journal.

On my way to Making Light...

So, we all surf the same blogs. Strange.

[karenranney]

I had already found Making Light and Slushkiller - wonderful article and very thought provoking.

I added the others to my list - I finished Draft 1, so I'm feeling cocky.

I did find a website called Smart Bitches Trashy Books - they review romance novels in the funniest, snarkiest way. I guess I gravitate to snark.

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php

And, not to miss the musings of an editor of erotic romance:

http://theredpendiaries.blogspot.com/

But one of my favorites is Lee Goldberg's A Writer's Life:

http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/



Why I won't do my own blog:

1. Time.
2. I'm sufficiently odd or of sufficiently odd opinions to accidentally insult readers.
3. The author is never as important as the book - my opinion.

[Medievalist]

Karen

If you're going to start following blogs, you might look into a geek thing called an aggregator. It's a way of subscribing to a bunch of blogs, so that when there's a new post you see it, without having to remember to check a bunch of pages.

There are special programs to do that, on the Mac NetNewsWire is fabulous, but there are also free web based services where you enter a bunch of addresses for blogs you'd like to follow, and then just check that one page.

Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) and My Yahoo (http://www.my.yahoo.com) are two of the better known ones.

Also, keep in mind that you can use a blog as a sort of commonplace book to stash stuff for later use. In otherwords, you can blog information that's not about you, but that you want to be able to find again, no matter where you are or what computer you are using.

[Richard]

Is anyone else having trouble accessing Bloglines today?

[PixelFish]

*raises hand*

I'm yet another Making Light and Whatever reader.

Here's a few more recommendations:

http://bookslut.com/blog/ - Jessa reviews books on the main site as well.

http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/ - Neil Gaiman's online journal. He started it during the promotional run for American Gods, I believe,
but has kept up with it ever since.

http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/ - Kate Nepveu's blog about books. Kate sometimes posts here.




Non-book related but still amusing - http://www.dooce.com

[Anatole Ghio]

I tried checking out the slushkiller page, but before it finishes loading up, it gets directed to a page for a fundementalist christian group. Am I the only one having this problem?

- Anatole

[PixelFish]

Anatole: What page are you getting? Are you perhaps getting confused with the blog ad on the sidebar of Teresa's page? I know there's an ad in there for a church (which was censored by several large media outlets)--is that what you are seeing or is it something else.

The slushkiller thread is a long one and might take a while to load on slower machines but it is well worth the wait.

[James D. Macdonald]

There's a bug in the CSS of Making Light. Let it load for a long time. You'll see a white screen with a bunch of ads on the left side. Then hit the "back" button on your browser. That should bring up the text.

(If you can turn off CSS with your browser (Opera can do this) you won't have to play games like that. Some people claim that hitting the F11 key on their keyboard helps.)

[zornhau]

Here's the direct link:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html

[Anatole Ghio]

Thanks for the direct link... will get to it tomorrow.

- Anatole

[Anatole Ghio]

Hey, while we're discussing Blogs, anyone care to discuss site maintaince and promotion?

I've just been doing mine for a week, so this is a bit new to me. I have been focusing on straight up fiction and not so much journaling... so I have been putting up a new work of fiction every day this week. I've written three new pieces in three days... believe me, that's a phenomenal pace for me.

Once I have a good size archive, I will cut down to posting 2-3 times a week. Once a day is an intense amount of writing. How to keep up with the demand of coming up with a new short short every day?

Also, what's a good way to promote one of these things? I've told friends and family; I've made some form of announcement of the various writing boards I'm on; my blogger site, Xanga, has blogrings for other bloggers to discover a new site.

Any other ideas on promotion?

- Anatole

[James D. Macdonald]

Any other ideas on promotion?


Be interesting.

When you type the name Teresa (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/) into Google, your top hit is Making Light.

Be useful.

When you type science fiction bookstores (http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/bookstor.htm) into Google, the top hit is my webpage bookstore list. When you type learn writing (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710) into Google, "Learn Writing with Uncle Jim" is on the first page.

All this without doing any special promtion, without paying anyone, without any running around. You could make sure your meta tags are in the head, and there are tools (http://vancouver-webpages.com/META/mk-metas.html) to write meta tags.

There are places you can go to automatically add your URL to some huge number of search engines. Since no one uses most of those search engines, this is a waste of time. (It's not only a waste of time but a very bad idea if they ask you to pay money.)

Instead, just go over and add your URL to Google (http://www.google.com/addurl/?hl=en&continue=/addurl) yourself, and call it a day. If you feel like overachieving, add your URL to HotBot, Alta Vista, Web Crawler, Lycos, Excite, and All The Web. You can do all these manually -- look for the Add URL link. Some of those places ask for money for "express" setup. Don't pay it.

[PixelFish]

Hey, while we're discussing Blogs, anyone care to discuss site maintaince and promotion?
- Anatole


Anatole: Here's an email I recently sent to my father who also just ventured out into the bloggie world. It contains advice and general etiquette picked up in my seven years of bloggieness (my first website was started in '98). A little of this advice was meant for him specifically, but by and large, you might find it helpful.

Apologies if you
already know any of this, but since the first impulse is to always
assume that one's parents are dessicated luddites (grin) despite the
presence of many folks their age in said blogosphere, I thought I
would share the wisdom accumulated with my vast experience. (Really,
you've probably already put this together, but I thought I'd throw my
two cents in.)

1 - This is not a case of "if you build it, they will come." Well, it
is, and it isn't. I mean, if you build a high quality,
well-thought-out product, you have a higher chance of people
coming....BUT... It's part of a huge network, and that means you need
to A) hit the other major nodes of the network to lay groundwork for
building a path to your own little spot B) contribute to the other
folks out there so they will feel happier about your mutual creation
and C) give them a reason to want to visit again and again.

2 - In a way, the blogosphere is very democratic. What people like
gets noticed and passed around. What they highly dislike will also get
noticed and passed around.

3 - This (see point 2) is really invaluable in terms of feedback,
but just get used to living on either side of the liked it-hated it
fence. Even if you were to provide something that was totally and
utterly devoid of controversy (and there's no way that politics is
devoid that way), people would still show up out of nowhere and find a
reason to dislike it. These people are usually called trolls.

4 - Don't feed the trolls. They will make personal attacks, commit
egregious acts of sodomy/fallacy and call it logic, and generally make
themselves annoying. Approach them softly at first, and with calm
words, and if they don't calm down or decide that a diet of rational
discourse is not for them, ignore them.

4b - If ignoring them doesn't work, and it usually does, ban their
asses. Inevitably people will be really pissed off about free speech,
but here's how free speech works in Lis-world. Blogs aren't publically
sponsored fora--while the public has access to them, they are run and
owned by private individuals with private views. Reasoned discourse
and rational disagreement are totally fine and cool. I disagree with
you, for example, all the time. I'll probably even go get me a
Blogspot account for the purposes of posting occasionally on your
blog, and it will probably be when I think you've done gone and danced
poor logic off its feet. (Digression: can you get a comment system
later that doesn't involve getting a Blogspot account? It's a bit
rough when I go to comment, and blogspot says, "Do you want a free
account with us?" LiveJournal is like that too, so I understand, but
sometimes people don't want to go through the rigamarole of setting up
yet another account. There are some commenting systems you can
implement which don't involve anything more than name, email, and
comment being involved--and they will still log ips....end of
digression.) Back to free speech. Anyway, I usually allow people to be
initially really pissed off, and then if they continue to do so, I
ignore them, and my friends all ignore them, and they go away.
Sometimes they don't go away, but the mental filter just weeds them
out most of the time, because the trolls are still human and can only
post with human limitations. Occasionally though, some annoying person
will spam the forums or comments, and if you get one of these guys,
you note their ip and ban their butts. (Although, it's usually best to
check and see if they have a static ip or a floater. Banning a floater
means that some poor person in the future, who didn't have anything to
do with the idiot in question, will be banned as well.)
This is basically so everybody else can continute to enjoy the flow of
discourse and not have to deal with somebody who is essentially
invading their personal space and shouting at them at the top of their
lungs.

5 - On what to do once you've made a blog. DO:

- Find other blogs related to your blog.
- Link 'em if you like 'em. Technically, you can ask permission if you
want, but this is a formality most people don't go through. (In fact
because most of the blogosphere doesn't care who links them if they
get linked at all, so asking them for permission to link is really
just a sneaky way of going, "Hey, you, I like your blog, and linked
it, and you might like mine if you came over to check out the link."
Vanity is awesome like that.
- Comment meaningfully on the other blogs. Contribution to others is
always fun, and it builds good relationships.
- If you blog an item that you read on somebody else's blog, and
particularly if you quote ANY of their commentary, you should give a
small attribution. It's nice, even if they are only making you aware
of a link you might have run into elsewhere. EXAMPLE: (Via *linked
bloggers name/handle*) with the name linked back to the post. Linking
back to the general website should only be done when the blogger in
question doesn't have specific post links. You can usually find post
links at the top or bottom, next to the comment links.
- Remember to use quote marks around attributed commentary (or
italicise it). Make sure that visitors can tell what is you and what
belongs to others.
- Post a while on somebody else's board/blog/forum before pushing your
own blog. Establish yourself as a regular. Lurk a little, then intro
nicely.

DON'T:
- Expect too much of anything. Don't expect the world to beat a path
to your door. Don't expect to be the next great undiscovered blog.
Don't be one of those people who gets all pissy in their blogs about
Blogger X who they feel is a totally crappy writer, and why he gets
all the posters when he's obviously mentally unbalanced and... (insert
list of uncomplimentary adjectives, and vitriolic name-calling)
...don't be one of those people. (Remember what I said earlier about
the democracy of the blogosphere--sometimes democracy gets messy.)
Don't leave the stain of entitlement smeared all over your blog.

- Don't get publically upset if somebody links you...and then later
unlinks you. People do this all the time. What it usually means is
they've got a finite amount of time and a much larger finite number of
blogs they want to read, but sadly some have got to go. Ranting about
this on your blog will usually only piss other people off.

- Don't get involved in flame wars. This is a corollary of not feeding
the trolls, but in this case, the trolls might have blogs. Some of
them might not be trolls at all, just people who've blogged their
disagreement in their own blogs, rather than cluttering up yours.
Still, occasionally, the little blog tribes get together, skirmish,
and eventually drag their wounded selves off of the battlefield after
an extensive and blooody fray. They lick their wounds privately over
email, and sometimes, very rarely, they will pronounce the other side
jolly good chaps, it's too bad we disagree, but still what would the
world be like if we were all the same. This is rare though, and it's
usually more like, bleeding arsehole, who does he think he is???

- Another quick DO, before we get back to the DON'Ts: Encourage good
behaviour and good manners from your visitors, once you acquire them.
Point out that personal attacks are usually a fallacy of the ad
hominem variety, and it's not really very nice to imply that their
grandmother performed coitus with a goat, no matter how wittily you
slide it into the conversation. (Unless there is documentation
verifying their grandmother's strange propensity--then it's all ok.)
Try to keep the regulars from piling upon the poor, well-meaning soul
who accidently violates the occasional unspoken rule.

- DON'T steal anybody else's graphics if you decide to jazz up your
blog. Nothing will bring down the wrath of certain elements of the
blogosphere quicker than using graphics that weren't expressly made
for you, or which aren't shareware. (Not everybody who says they are
shareware actually is.) Also, don't totally rip off somebody else's
code (unless it's a template specifically designed for that) or
layout.

- Don't publish personal information about visitors or the arseholes
who email you total crap. It's tempting but I wouldn't do it. The
legal waters of the blogosphere are dank and murky. Also, see above:
Don't feed the trolls.

- You don't have the sort of job from which you can be fired, but
posting about work is a risky proposition sometimes. If in doubt,
don't. They have a word for getting fired from your job: dooced, named
after one of the first bloggers to get fired for complaining about her
co-workers (nonspecifically) on her blog.

- Don't run around comment-spamming your own site if you have nothing
to add to ongoing discussions elsewhere.

- Don't ignore advice which might actually be useful. In the course of
blogging, you may actually hear criticism which might help you become
a better writer, observer, artist, whatever. You may have something
pointed out that you hadn't noticed. (Hopefully, in a tactful manner.)
Don't piss on the truly helpful. (I mention this because there are a
lot of art and writing critique sites where people get downright
volcanic if you actually post a decent, but honest critique. "How dare
you....!!!!!" These people should generally never get much better,
because they don't want to improve. They just want to sit there and
get lots of masturbatory emails about how great their art is.)

- Don't post infrequently and wonder "aloud" where all the traffic has gone to.

- Don't post six major posts a day, five of which are devoted to the
minutiae of life, and then wonder where all the traffic has gone to.
(Note: This works in journals, because journals are after all,
journals. But not so well for blogs, unless you are a specific type of
blogger, or a truly excellent writer.) Overposting (not to be confused
with responding to comments, mind you) can be like watering a plant to
death. Quality, not quantity. (I break this rule a lot.)

- Don't expect that people will automatically get your personal
vocabulary. They might pick it up out of context, but then again, they
might not. Really don't expect that they will get your inside jokes.
Half the time, all the people that really were there, when you say,
"Well, I guess you would have to be there,"---by now, EVEN THEY have
forgotten what was so funny.

Bits and pieces:

- Godwin's Law - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

If you have to resort to comparing people/things to Hitler, you've
probably lost the argument.

Supposedly there is a codicil to Godwin's Law that states that
pointing out Godwin's Law to the unknowing is also a way of losing the
argument. Except that how else are people who don't know any better
supposed to realise that 98.6% of all comparisons to Hitler are
rhetorically useless and socially tacky.

There should be another law about bringing up 9-11.

- 98.6% of all facts on the internet are made up.

- 98.6% of all the evil in the world emanates from a Hellhole called
Tyler, Texas. There are no special rhetorical laws that apply to
Tyler, Texas. It just IS.

[Kate Nepveu]

http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/ - Kate Nepveu's blog about books. Kate sometimes posts here.Hey, thanks! I knew there must be a reason that I suddenly felt inspired to shovel out some of the backlog. =>

[Jamesaritchie]

- You don't have the sort of job from which you can be fired, but
posting about work is a risky proposition sometimes. If in doubt,
don't. They have a word for getting fired from your job: dooced, named
after one of the first bloggers to get fired for complaining about her
co-workers (nonspecifically) on her blog.




I'm been reading blogs for several years, but it seems to me that being dooced is a growing problem. I've known three people in the last few months alone who were dooced, and one of them never mentioned anything at all about his job or co-workers in his blog. Is this really a growing problem, or do I just happen to know more people it's happening to?

[maestrowork]

There was an article in USA Today that people are getting fired for whining about their work problems in their blogs. A thing the article started by saying a couple of guys at Google (of all places) were fired because of their blogs.

So be careful. It could happen. And your employers do have the right to do so.

[Julian Black]

4 - Don't feed the trolls...


4b - If ignoring them doesn't work, and it usually does, ban their
asses...



I like what Teresa Nielsen Hayden does to the occasional trolls that show up on Making Light--she disemvowels them:

S nstd f sng pst flld wth vl prfnt nd stpd d hmnm ttcks, w gt bnch f gbbrsh tht lks jst lk ths. f nn wnts t tr fllng n th blnks, pttng th vwls bck whr th r sppsd t b, th r wlcm t d s. Mst ppl cn't b bthrd, hwvr.

In other words:

So instead of seeing a post filled with vile profanity and stupid ad hominem attacks, we get a bunch of gibberish that looks just like [the sample above]. If anyone wants to try filling in the blanks, putting the vowels back where they are supposed to be, they are welcome to do so. Most people can't be bothered, however.

It's an elegant solution, really. Because the offending posts are allowed to remain, TNH doesn't have to assume the ugly role of censor. Anyone who wants to decipher and read the troll posts is free to do so, but disemvowelling is a sign to everyone else that the post can be safely ignored.

I thought it was brilliant, anyway.

[Anatole Ghio]

Thanks James and Pix. -- some really helpful stuff there. I registered my url with google as soon as I read that.

About Doocing: I am suprised to read from James that he knows someone who got fired even though they never mentioned their work. When I started my blog, I made the conscious decision not to blog about my personal life, only to put up fiction and maybe essays about writing. I figured if I included nothing personal, no one in my family or social circle could be offended, and no one at my job could get me fired. It is distressing to read I can be fired for expressing ideas which have nothing to do with my work. Without going into politics, I will say it does produce a chilling effect on ones creativity.

- Anatole

[Richard]

Yeah, I have the Disemvowel thing on my site too. I just put the word TROLL at the start of any offending comment and it zaps them.

[PixelFish]

Richard, is there a script that will do that??? I would like to know, for later. (I'm going to be resurrecting my blog instead of putting everything in LiveJournal--which was useful admittedly during the years where I wasn't staying put for longer than six months at a time....and often didn't have a consistent internet connection, but those days are well over, I hope.)

[JanaLanier]

Pixel, thanks for the great info.

I love it when TNH disemvowels trolls at Making Light. I'd love to be able to do the same on my blog (should the day arrive that someone actually reads it), but on blogspot are you able to edit or delete comments?

Edited to add: Aw, never mind. I went to blogger help and figgured it out. Who woudda thought I had to read the directions?

[Medievalist]

I know of a MT plug in for disemvoweling MT comments and there's a script for WordPress. In other words, it depends on what blogging tool you use.

[Jamesaritchie]

Thanks James and Pix. -- some really helpful stuff there. I registered my url with google as soon as I read that.

About Doocing: I am suprised to read from James that he knows someone who got fired even though they never mentioned their work. When I started my blog, I made the conscious decision not to blog about my personal life, only to put up fiction and maybe essays about writing. I figured if I included nothing personal, no one in my family or social circle could be offended, and no one at my job could get me fired. It is distressing to read I can be fired for expressing ideas which have nothing to do with my work. Without going into politics, I will say it does produce a chilling effect on ones creativity.

- Anatole


While I only know one person who was fired for blogging while never mentioning his job, I've read about several other cases where this has happened. All it takes is putting up anything your employee finds may have a negative affect on customers. If the custormers would find it offensive, or if the customers might chose another business because of it, that's enough.

In the case of the man I know, he was fired for making too many political posts that were, in the opinion of his employer, extreme enough to take him out of the mainstream. I'm not really sure what that means, but it was enough.

I suspect that quite often the blog is only an excuse for firing an employee you want to get rid of anyway.

The simple truth is that you can be fired for pretty much any reason, or for no reason at all, as long as you aren't fired because of gender, race, or (sometimes) age. And try proving any one of these!

[Medievalist]

I've been following fired-for-blogging stories (http://del.icio.us/medievalist/FiredForBlogging).

This advice (http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/05/02/Policy) from Tim Bray of Sun strikes me as useful.

[Mya Bell]

Yes, it's true. People have been getting fired for things they've said on their blogs--and not just nasty things--even nice things can get you fired if the person who was mentioned (even if not mentioned directly by name) makes a big fuss and tells a supervisor.

If you have a day job (other than writing), it's best to learn the issues associated with talking about your coworkers, your work, or even your personal life on the Web. Sometimes the reasons for terminating you from a company are mysterious and seemingly unfair.

As for writing and maintaining a blog (at least one that's interesting enough to attract an audience), it's hard work and can be very time consuming. Don't forget, for most people it's unpaid work--writing without remuneration. So if you're writing for publication, as well, make sure you balance your blog time with your regular writing time or a blog can take over your life. On the upside, it's good writing practice, it can be an interesting way to communicate and it allows you to demonstrate your style of writing.

--- Mya Bell

[Dawno]

*raises hand*

I'm yet another Making Light and Whatever reader.

Here's a few more recommendations:

http://bookslut.com/blog/ - Jessa reviews books on the main site as well.

http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/ - Neil Gaiman's online journal. He started it during the promotional run for American Gods, I believe,
but has kept up with it ever since.

http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/ - Kate Nepveu's blog about books. Kate sometimes posts here.




Non-book related but still amusing - http://www.dooce.com

Ah, you grabbed two of my three! I also read http://www.wilwheaton.net
and because he used to also host a message board I began posting online for the first time a year and a half ago. I find Wil's blog very touching at times. He's written two books and was picked up by O'Reilly for his second one.

[Anatole Ghio]

I just wanted to post a quick word or two with my current progress with blogging.

As far as the actual writing is going, I am writing as much now as I ever have. I'm getting a new short-short written every day, a pace I've never even dreamt of before.

Now for some technical questions:

1) I used the link James provided for meta-links, but my xanga system didn't take to the html code provided and I lost my profile picture on my page... I'm waiting for their advice on how to fix this. Anyone have an alternative way to type in a meta-tag.

2) Are meta-tags worthwhile? I read this elsewhere:

The meta keywords tag is sometimes useful as a way to reinforce the terms you think a page is important for ON THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT. For instance, if you had a page about stamp collecting -- AND you say the words stamp collecting at various places in your body copy -- then mentioning the words "stamp collecting" in the meta keywords tag MIGHT help boost your page a bit higher for those words.

It went on to say Google didn't use these, and a couple of other systems kind of sort of did. Are they worth the time?

3) I have a gif. background on my page which I put on there a couple of days ago, without thinking it might slow computers down who aren't on DSL. I have no way of knowing this, since I have DSL. Would a gif. for the background significantly slow down someone trying to load the page if they didn't have a high speed connection?

4) I've been surfing around different writing blogs, doesn't seem like too many have sites with all that many bells and whistles... I might be going overboard with all the little goodies! lol! Xanga kind of is bent towards that aspect, and I like it. Any one know of a writers blog with a strong design element?

- Anatole

[James D. Macdonald]

Meta Keywords are used by only a couple of crawlers. Meta description is used by more. Can't hurt, might help, why not? I'd do it.

For download speeds -- try checking the page with Doctor HTML (http://www.doctor-html.com/RxHTML/cgi-bin/single.cgi) or one of the other (http://www.netmechanic.com/) on-line page-tweaking tools (http://validator.w3.org/).

[Jamesaritchie]

I know, I know, where have I been?

I accidentally happened across an author's blog which led me to another and another and another. Of course I'm on a deadline and shouldn't be surfing, but I consider it brain rest. There are times when I just HAVE to get away from my characters.

Blogs are fun to read, especially from published authors. But I can't help but wonder if too much information is simply, well, too much? Does it affect book sales, one way or the other?

I'll say this about blogs; they can be very time consuming to read when someone else writes them, and pretty darned time consuming when you keep one of you own, but they don't have to slow down your writing.

I started keeping a blog a couple of months back, and my writing output has increased.

I doubt, however, that I started keeping a blog for the usual reasons. Over the last three years, I've suffered some serious health issues. It's grown much worse over the last year, and the health problems pretty much brought my writing to a halt.

On the advice of a couple of writer friends who also went through major health issues, and on the advice of both a physician and a physical therapist, I started a blog in an effort to get back to writing full-time. All said a blog where I openly discussed both my health issues and my writing could be a big step in getting back on my feet. They were more right than I would have believed. I've written something each and every day since starting the blog, no matter how I felt, no matter what else has happened in my life, including the death of two family members and a long time friend in the space of two weeks. Even on days where it takes three or four hours just to get out of bed, I've manged to write at least a couple of pages since starting this blog.

So I didn't start my blog with the intention of bringing in readers, and I haven't even tried to to increase readership in any way.

I'm not at all sure why keeping an online blog that may or may not be read helps more than keeping a paper journal you know won't be read by anyone else, but I was told it would, and in my case it absolutely has. Maybe it just boils down to accountability. When I say something on a public blog, I feel obligated to live up to what I say. If I say I'm going to write something every day, or say I'm going to get a piece finished and submitted by a certain date, I work much harder to do so than if I didn't make this public statement.

So while blogs can be time consuming (I spend far too much time reading the blogs of other writers), they can also be an impetus to more writing, to discipline, to giving yourself one more reason to sit down, or lie down, and get the work done.

[RaptorBpW]

Here's one:

www.theoracleproject.blogspot.com

Mine, actually. ;)

[Anatole Ghio]

Hey all -

JDM - another great site! Thanks for all the referalls. They are making my life easier! :)

JAR - You're point about public accountability is very interesting, and very credible. If you feel like you have something to be publicly accountable for, you will work harder to make it happen in order to be congruent with how other people see you. If anyone is further interested in the ins and outs of this kind of stuff, pick up a copy of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini... lots of great mind blowing psychological tid bits in there, and much of it is counter intuitive.

To the author of the 11th Hour, thank you for posting the link to your site. Good stuff there. I wonder about story lengths. I read the story fragment you have posted, and I have to wonder about posting longer pieces. My hunch is attention spans are shorter for someone browsing the web, and longer pieces are a tougher sell for the new viewer. I have been posting only short-shorts on my blog, with the idea it is the ideal length for a casual web reader. It also makes it easier for me to post a new piece every day, as a short short is manageable in terms of writing and posting a new one in a consistent manner.

Any one have a take on the optimal reading length for a web piece, and how and when it's possible to do a longer one?

- Anatole

[HConn]

There's no optimal length. People will stop reading when they aren't interested any more. That can be after one sentence or it can be after three or four long-*** posts.

If you're interesting, you can be as long as you want.

[jdkiggins]

I took my blog down and fired my butt today! :Hammer:

Joanne

[MacAllister]

Joanne? Care to elaborate? What's up?

[jdkiggins]

Mac,

I don’t know if Jenna has quite that much room on her server. LOL

It’s just been one of those months from h***. You know the kind that fit into Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong will. I’m still posting corny remarks, so it can’t be all that bad yet.

After telling a friend this morning what my past two weeks has been like, she said, “sounds like a sequel to one of your horror books.” I think she’s right.

Joanne

[scullars]

Here's another writer's blog I found through another board:

http://www.nichelletramble.com/journal.htm

[jdkiggins]

Thanks, schullar. I'm reading others blogs to learn how this works. Blogs have been around for awhile and somewhere in all my distractions, I've only learned about them recently. I'm still trying to figure out the whole get it out there for other people to read thing. :) I was out of commission for a bit, and still trying to catch up on all this new technology.

So, anyone want to give a blow by blow quicky course how how this works?

Joanne

[Darkhaven80]

Paperback Writer is great!

Silent Bounce (http://www.hollylisle.com/writingdiary) is also superb.

Holly's is wonderful. Heard she's had some rough times lately though, and that this next book could signal some big changes if things don't go VERY well with its sales. :Hammer:

Another recommendation is Laurell K Hamiltons blog from her official site. Recently it was mentioned that someone did something with saying her grandmother was dead, something pretty cruel, and thats on the first few pages. Her grandmother now DID die very recently, which is unfortunate, and they had to hide the news so no 'fans' would show up at the funeral.

Some of this behind the scenes stuff is interesting, if not frightening and depressing at times. Not that I ever would get that big, but still lol

[Richard White]

I use my blog as a writer's diary, keeping track of what I've done that day (writing, editing, whatever) as well as promoting Uncle Jim's BIC theory.

I'm also linking to the other writers I find/know on Livejournal (which is where my blog rests). Those of us who're writing in the Star Trek program are all pretty interlinked.

[gina]

I've kept a blog for a couple of months now. It started as a blog for me to keep track of my writing. It still is, but I've also moved onto discussing other topics since I have a few people that have started to read my blog. I write in my blog pretty much daily, and I write about whatever is interesting me at the time. That includes my life, my writing and writing in general. I sometimes also post reviews of movies, music or television shows in my blog too.

[LightShadow]

Blogs? Used to surf 'em, used to have one. They're cool, but can be time consuming.