Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Buckets and Blogging

Today, my awesome fellow writer and NAF member Tymothy Longoria let me guest post on his blog Aspire No More. Prepare to get messy with me and "Put Away the Bucket" as I talk about getting emotion into our writing.

Ironically, that guest post went live the same day that Mike Duran posted on his blog about How the Writing Community Insulates Writers. It has to do with writers focusing their blogs on topics only of interest to other writers, and how that defeats the purpose of reaching readers.

This really has me thinking. Actually, I've BEEN thinking about this a lot. Writers writing about writing is not always the ideal way to reach readers. Which is, of course, what we really want to do if we expect to actually have people read our books.

But writers write. It's what we spend a huge part of our day doing, thinking about doing, and often wishing we were doing more of. So naturally, we write about it. (Yes, we writers do tend to be obsessive types.)

If we're to NOT write about writing, though...what then?

I recently listed on here many of the things I don't post about, including things that are too touchy/preachy/controversial/wasted arguments, things that are too trivial, things I suck at, and things that are frankly none of your ding-dang business.

That leaves me with....

Right. You see now?

I'm going to have to give this more thought. In the mean time, I have already given you plenty of links to keep you busy.

3 comments:

Kessie said...

Well, what do you care passionately about? I have two blogs--my real life blog and my art blog. I get far more hits on my real life blog, because I write about my kids and my cooking and the things God is doing in my life, and do memes and blog hops, and all those bloggity social things. I also (occasionally) comment on other blogs, which draws people to repay me in kind.

I ran a somewhat major Sonic the Hedgehog fansite for eight or nine years. In the end, attracting visitors comes down to running around and leaving comments in other peoples' spaces. That's all.

Kat Heckenbach said...

Kessie, you're the second person who has asked me that question recently: "What do you care passionately about?" The other was as woman I was talking to about speaking at their writers group. I asked what topic she wanted me to speak about, and she turned it on me with the "passionately" question.

I guess my issue is working out how someone is going to become interested in my *fantasy writing* based on my interest in organic food, natural medicine, attachment parenting, or other such. How, "I love Doctor Who!" can lead to someone reading my writing makes no sense to me :P.

BUT--this is all giving me some ideas. Ways to tie it all together...

Kessie said...

So write about organic food, attachment parenting, natural medicine, and the like! I know a lot of girls in blogland who care about the same things, and we're always trading tips and ideas and books to read.

*whispering* Lard. It's awesome.