How in the Wild World Am I Supposed to Blog?

DanielSTJ

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I've tried blogging, but I did it wrong. I ended up posting poems/short stories when those sorts of endeavors might have been better suited to submitting and so forth.

My question is: how am I supposed to blog as a writer? I figured I would ask here among my betters to try and get some notion of what the heck I'm supposed to do. Do I need to pick a topic? What do I do?

I'm an amateur writer at this point and like the idea of blogging, but I have no idea how and I don't want to embarrass myself and mess it up.

Any help would be appreciated. :)
 

mrsmig

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There's no one way to blog, so there's no way to "do it wrong."

Are you writing your blog for you, or for readers? If it's the former, write what you want. If what you feel driven to write is poems and short stories, then write poems and short stories.

If the latter, what kind of readers do you want to attract? Write about things you think those readers would seek out to read.

(If you're worried about using up your first publishing rights by posting your poems and stories, then make those posts private so no one can read them but you.)
 

lizmonster

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FWIW, I see no "betters" here, Daniel. Just your peers. :)

And I'd say write about what interests you. You can write about writing, or cosplay, or football, or microbiology, or some cool people-watching you did over the weekend, or seagulls or kayaking or some weird piece of architecture you pass every day. Literally anything.

I will say I haven't found blogging to be a gateway to much. I get 20-30 hits on a VERY good day. But I blog because it's writing, and because I sometimes like to ramble about stuff.

I'd say you should only blog if you want to for your own entertainment/writing practice. As for blogging pieces you could've subbed...I don't actually see anything wrong with that either. :) Yeah, you can't sub them once they're up, but if you just wanted to share them without going through the submission process? Why not? What's the harm?
 

jennontheisland

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Write about something that isn't writing. Writer's blogs are generally horribly boring because they write about their process, the backstory, the parts of the characters that don't matter to the story. Or they go on about some minor breakthrough they've made in the plot but refuse to tell us what it is, we're just expected to be excited for them for nothing. Or they write their opinions about boring technical stuff about writing, which is just boring. I'll read a grammar book, thanks.

Anything else. Please.
 
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TheFabulist

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Quite a few writers have blogs, some more frequently updated than others. One I particularly like is by SF writer Charles Stross. Worth a look for ideas.
 

pdichellis

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I asked myself exactly the same question about blogging. And also whether writing blog posts would take away too much time and effort from writing stories.

Solved it by posting links once a week to relevant reviews, news, releases, free stories, etc. so I can promote short mystery & crime fiction in general (i.e., other writers' work) as well as my own. My blog - A short walk down a dark street - is linked in my signature line below. Also, for other examples of this "links" style of blogging (in the mystery/crime genre, but not dedicated to shorts) Google: "nemeth unlawful acts" or "indie crime scene links of the week"

Good luck!
 

porlock

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I assume you're blogging on your personal site; if so, I agree with everyone, write what you want. Do you allow feedback? With that, of course, you need skin the thickness of alligator hide. Good luck.

Edit:I'm a member of another writing site that has it's own blog section - writers put everything from personal problems to social issues to poetry. I've found it a good place to practice blogging, and since it's used by peers, the feedback is usually positive. Not sure how this site would feel about one like that.
 
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Laer Carroll

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If the purpose of your blog is purely personal, anything goes.

If you want it to be the core of your professional web site, where you present your "brand" and your (possibly future) books to the world, there are certain guidelines that we've written about in this forum. Mainly, write about the subjects that most engage you. That might be horse riding, historical eras, some kinds of technology such as steam tech or space travel, fashion - whatever is likely to be in your books. Because you want to connect to possible future fans. Likely every week you'll come across something that you want to share: a book, movie, TV show, an event such as a conference, and so on.

It's a good idea to look at some of the web sites of authors you like and which you want to emulate, then create a site which satisfies you. To do that, START SMALL, STAY SMALL as you can, and TAKE BABY STEPS to expand and improve your site. An elegantly simple site easy to get around in is in the reach of almost everyone.
 

Jason

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So, the initial question here sounds like it's "What should I be doing on my blog?" or "What should I be blogging about?" It's a great question with many possible avenues of exploration. For starters, it helps to understand the origins - and blog originated from combining the words web and log - so if you think about it, a web log is just a log of things. Thus, to answer your question of "what should be in my web log?" It really starts with a series follow-up questions back to you:

What sorts of things would you like to see logged on a website where you are the author?
What is the goal of your web log?

  • Is it to log your own creative ideas of exploration?
  • Is it to log short stories, flash fiction, or poems?
  • Is it to provide teasers or snippets of larger works you've published to provide prospective readers?
  • Is it to log diary type entries?
  • Is it to...?

The list goes on and on, and depending on the answers you give to any one, a whole additional schmear of questions can arise. Once you've identified what the purpose of your web log will be, and what you want published for yourself (and the world possibly) to see, then new questions arise:


  1. What platform should I use? (Yes, there's several options out there..)
  2. What theme should I use?
  3. Should I create social media accounts to associate with the web presence?
  4. How often should I update my web log?
  5. How much does this cost?
  6. Should I get a dedicated domain?
    1. If so, how do I register a domain?
    2. If I register a domain, what is this whole bit about hosting?
    3. Which company should I use for domain registration?
    4. Which company should I use for hosting?
    5. What features should I look for in a registrar or hosting company?
  7. How is a web log different from a web site?

As you can see, it's a hornets nest of topics to discuss. Luckily, there's been a few threads on the topic of blogging here in recent months:

https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?330368-Where-do-you-blog-on
https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?335399-Recommend-a-WordPress-theme
https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?333561-WordPress-tip-widgets
https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?330316-On-blogging
https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?335501-how-to-do-a-webpage
https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?52897-Wordpress-rocks
 

Caledonia Lass

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Ahhh, blogging. It's fun. It's like you're a guest speaker somewhere. When I blog, I pick some topics. I also try to schedule certain blogs for certain days. My Fridays always consisted of Funnies and Favorites. So, I'd pick a few funny memes (mostly about cats) and then I'd offer up some favorites. Like, favorite author, movie, music. All kinds of stuff. Funny thing is, those got the most traffic. I posted ideas on world building. I have an entire fantasy world dedicated to my books, so I talked about that process to help other authors just starting out. I also talked about what I learned the hard way. There were times I brought in personal stuff, life stuff. It's fine. It's like a journal. I also did lots of book reviews, author interviews and just basically had fun. I know I'm kinda late to the commenting party here, but just thought I would throw in my two cents. ;)
 

Aimless Lady

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There's no one way to blog, so there's no way to "do it wrong."

Are you writing your blog for you, or for readers? If it's the former, write what you want. If what you feel driven to write is poems and short stories, then write poems and short stories.

If the latter, what kind of readers do you want to attract? Write about things you think those readers would seek out to read.

(If you're worried about using up your first publishing rights by posting your poems and stories, then make those posts private so no one can read them but you.)

This sums it up!
 

talktidy

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You might look at John Scalzi's blog for ideas about content. He has a pretty hefty on-line presence, and is active on twitter as well, though a lot of the latter relates to postings about his cats. Fine by me. I like cats.
 

Southpaw

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Late to the chat, but chiming in.

There is great stuff here on what to blog about. I'll add to visit other blogs and see what posts draw you in, that may help.

Oh and you can do rants too.

So true! One of my most commented on posts was a rant about lettuce. (See literally anything goes).