Making connections
Writing can be a rather lonely pursuit most of the time. The writer needs to fully concentrate on the task at hand and spend many hours alone getting words down on paper (or at least on the hard-drive). Seminars and conferences are fine for mixing with other writers, publishers and agents. If a writer becomes a conference junkie, or tries to attend every seminar, workshop or festival there is often little time left for the real work of being a writer.
The real work of being a writer – is writing. There is no easy way out. To write a 100,000 word novel, the writer has to write down or type every word. There is no easy path to success. It is a hard slog, and can be very lonely.
Blogging can be different
Writing a blog can be a quite different. One of the delights I have discovered with blogging is the sense of community that develops. On my three blogs I have a very real sense of a community of readers developing as the weeks go by. More and more people are coming to visit, to revisit, to comment and even start up conversations with me via email.
Making Connections
It is the connections we make with one another via our blogs that fascinate and excite me. In recent days I have have the delight of two significant blogs making a link with this blog, and writing some flattering comments about my blog on their blogs.
My special thanks to Rick and Anne. (Sorry – the link to Rick’s site no longer works.)
Related links:
- The Golden Pencil – Anne Wayman – the Freelance Writer’s Resource.
Updated November 2013.
Great writing ideas
Recently I participated in the Group Writing Project conducted by Darren Rowse on ProBlogger. Every participant was asked to post a “How to…” article. 343 people responded. I’m not going to list all of them but I would like to focus on several that are very interesting and useful “How to…” articles about writing.
- How to participate in the blogging community While this post is not strictly about writing, the author Ray has many writing ideas and tips on his blog called Freshblogger.com.
- How to proofread your own writing written by Anne on her blog called The Golden Pencil. Her blog includes many writing hints and links to useful resources.
- The inside scoop on how to get published written by Tasra delivers just what it says – how to get published – from someone who knows from experience. Her blog is called Lessons from the Scrapbook Page.
- How to write a great blog post written by Leroy goes briefly into the basics.
- How to Cure Your Blogging Addiction in 7 Easy Steps – an entertaining and informative post written by Martin on his blog called The Blog Columnist.
- 6 Steps to writing a Fantasy Blockbuster – tongue in cheek article about how to succeed in the fantasy genre. Or is a serious? Written by Eoghann on his blog called Solar Flare.
- Proofread like a Pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses – Some very useful hints written by Lori on her blog called Better at English.
- How to Write Magnetic Blog Title – about the importance of titles when writing in your blog.
- Write a Book? Assemble the one in your Archives! A very challenging and potentially useful post about using the valuable content you have written in your blog to write a book. Much food for though. Thanks to Liz on Successful Blog for this great idea.
- English Punctuation – commas, semicolons and colons – some help with the obvious.
- How to have a Mental Breakdown – if you find yourself doing ANY of these, guess where you are heading! Written by Jason on Escape Adulthood.
What inspires you to write or blog?
Darren Rowse on ProBlogger has written an interesting and thought provoking article called Expertise, Knowledge and Intuition in Blogging. He writes about what inspires him, where he gets his inspiration and how much intuition plays a part in his writing and blogging.
He poses the questions
- How much knowledge do you have on your topics?
- Where does your inspiration and knowledge come from?
- How much do you rely upon intuition?
I happened to be the first to comment on this post and in part my comments are posted below.
Intuition only plays a small part in my blogging, in that I sometimes know intuitively what my readers are interested in reading. Feedback through comments is a good guide here.
On my birding blog (Trevor’s Birding) I mainly rely on my knowledge base gained over thirty plus years of going out into the field and actually watching birds. A lifetime of experience to draw upon is invaluable and can give one’s writing something of a voice of authority.
This vast amount of experience is backed up by the same number of years studying books, referring to field guides, reading magazines and participating in forums and newsgroups on the internet over the last ten years. I also attend the local birders monthly meetings but not as frequently as I’d like due to distance.
My main inspiration comes from what is right in our garden. The constant activity in our garden is a rich lode I mine frequently for inspiration. Wherever I travel I record what I see, drawing constantly on those observations for my blog writing. Most writing books and many articles about writing urge one to Write What You Know.
What I hope emerges in my writing is a passion for my subject, and a deep desire to share that with my rapidly growing number of readers.
Related articles:
Are you a blogging maniac?
Sometimes I struggle to keep up with writing regularly on my three blogs, attending to my non-blogging writing, reading my emails, doing research on the internet and remembering to have a life. Oh – and do the gardening too.
It was in that context that I identified with Tammy on her Jewelry and Beading post called “Become a Blogging Maniac“. She describes her demanding writing schedule, writing four blogs, magazine articles, writing books, working part-time.
Tammy explains some helpful hints in her article on the following topics:
- How to schedule your day/week
- Using warm-up exercises to keep your writing voice in trim
- The importance of immersing yourself in your topic
- Daily maintenance of you blog(s)
She makes some very valuable points.
How to improve your blog
Neil Patel over at his Pronet Advertising blog has posted an interesting article called 5 Ways to Building a Better Blog.
Neil highlights the importance of writing quality content on your blog. He also emphasises the need to look after readers of you blog.
Links: