A Creative Journal
A Creative Journal is a blog about writing, especially journal writing. It include ideas for writing, hints, tips, inspiration and writing prompts.
Several recent articles have some interesting writing helps. In one such article called Doodle Journal the author suggests that writers could benefit greatly from “doodle writing” – similar in content to doodle drawing. The suggestion is to write in a stream-of-consciousness style as a writing exercise or a warm-up to one’s major writing project at the time. Sounds like fun and is never meant for publication, only ever for an audience of one.
Another article of intrest to me is called Journal Writing as a Learning Tool.
Teachers are constantly looking for ways to make learning easier for their students. One technique gaining more attention recently is journal writing.
I have to disagree with the author. Journal writing has been a part of good classroom practice here in Australia at least, for well over a decade. It is not a recent idea. I used the techniques to great effect in my own classroom just about every day for the last 15 years.
To access the site click here.
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Activity or Productivity?
Chris on his blog The Qwertyrash Blogs asks the question: Are you Productive or Active? (Sorry – this link no longer works.)
…years ago, I learned that there is a difference between productivity and activity. Productivity either makes you money, or directly has the potential to. Anything else is activity.
In BlogLand, productivity is writing posts and promoting your site. I’ll let you say putting ads on it, but that’s all. All else is activity.
Reading other blogs, while important, will not bring in any money. Making comments and links, also important, may bring in some traffic, but in themselves will not bring income. Productivity is mainly gained through posting and promotion, claims Chris.
While I agree with Chris I would counter his argument to say that, for me, reading other blogs is still quite an important part of my day. I am still very much in a learning curve. Each day I learn more about this thing called blogging. It’s my apprenticeship stage in the craft.
Similarly, just over a decade ago when I started writing seriously I went to seminars, workshops, subscribed to writing magazines and read every book on writing I could get my hands on. That was my apprenticeship in writing. Now I have a fair handle on the craft I am very selective in what I read or the seminars I attend. With my writing I am now in the stage of applying all that learning.
Still, Chris has a good point. Sometimes we are so active doing related tasks we forget the important basic aspect of blogging. Activity is not productivity.
Updated November 2013.
Making money from your blog
Some writers are turning to blogs to not only promote their print publications but they are using advertising on their blogs to bring in extra income. Many bloggers are writing regularly in order to generate traffic so as to develop income from their blogs. Tales of bloggers bringing in huge incomes from blogging abound. What many who jump on the bandwagon don’t realise is the long-term effort required to generate just a modest income, if any.
Tony Lawrence in his posting “Just two posts a day” suggests that the reality for most bloggers is that they will never make any income from the writing. Most bloggers, he suggests, write a few dozen posts over several months and wonder why their income from ads is zilch. He takes a very long term view of blogging. It is not until a blogger has posted many thousands of posts that the traffic generates enough income to be regarded as anything like a reasonable income for the effort and time expended. He has posted over 12,000 posts over several sites. This is a rather daunting statistic for anyone just setting out on the blogging pathway, but it has taken him 9 years to achieve this.
One step at a time.
One post at a time.
His concluding comments are encouraging – and challenging.
My suggestion is that you treat your blogging efforts like you treat your 401K investments. Small, regular investments now can pay out big dividends later. I’ve made this suggestion to dozens of people: start now, write about what you love. Do it well, and do it every day. For the first few years, you probably will generate very little income. Don’t think about it. Your day will come. If you keep plugging, chances are you will get a pay off. Maybe not: you may be dull, uninspiring, and completely uninteresting. If you don’t see the numbers starting to climb after a year or so, maybe you should forget it: this just isn’t your “thing”. But you aren’t going to find out unless you start doing it, are you?
So.. are you ready to write your two posts for today? I’ve done mine..
Well.. not yet.
But then, I have written nearly 30 posts over the last 5 days. That may seem a lot, but then, I do have 3 blogs to feed daily.
Taking time to think
Rick on his blog Shards of Consciousness writes that we should take more time to think about what we read. With the masses of information available at the click of the mouse, there is so much to read that is so interesting. Rick, however, is suggesting that we are reading far more but digesting far less of what we read. We are forgetting to think about what we are reading.
Ouch – guilty as charged.
In fact, since starting blogging seriously in March of this year my reading of printed materials has plummeted to an all time low. I subscribe to about a dozen magazines which largely go unread and have a huge pile of “books I am going to read when I retire.” Well, since “retiring” from teaching 2 years ago the pile has probably doubled. As for thinking about what I read…. mmmm… time for a few changes me thinks.
To read Rick’s article click here. (Sorry – the link to Rick’s site not longer works.)
Updated November 2013.
Procrastination and the Writer/Blogger
Procrastination.
It’s not a four letter word – but it should be.
I actually spell the word procrastination like this: P L A N N I N G.
Sometimes I even spell it like this: R E S E A R C H.
Just Get it Done
Getting things done on time in the corporate world is essential – do it or you don’t have a job. Putting tasks off is a mine field of trouble in any occupation. But for writers and bloggers it can be disastrous. If you keep on putting tasks off you get nowhere. If you don’t post regularly no-one is going to come reading your blog and your income will dribble to nothing (if you are relying on income from your blog). For writers in the print world, if the manuscripts aren’t being finished, or submitted, they are not going to get published. Hence no income. Just get it done.
Bad habits – Good habits
The habit of procrastination is like any other habit: it can be broken. It can be changed and hopefully replaced by good habits. Here are some of my ways of overcoming procrastination:
- I keep a graph of how many hours I spend writing each day – I have set a goal for each month and for the year.
- I keep a chart showing how many words I write each day – again I have set a goal for each month and for the year.
- I keep a schedule of blog postings I make – including ideas for those postings I plan to make in the future
- I keep a list of stories and other manuscripts I have submitted to publishers
- My wife acts like a “dripping tap” reminding me about submitting manuscripts (bless her – she doesn’t call it nagging).
Now – keeping all these lists and graphs and so on could be misconstrued as a very clever cover up for my procrastination. Guilty as charged. However, all this information does keep me on track. I’ve refined the process over the years so that it takes up very little time each day and the most important thing is that it keeps me accountable to myself. I can see instantly how I am going. If I haven’t made a posting on one of my blogs for a week – it shows a big blank. It acts as a motivation to get back on track. If I haven’t submitted a story or poem to a publisher for three weeks, I need to do something about it. Just get it done.
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