--You feel guilty for writing because you haven’t updated your blog in two weeks
--You feel guilty prioritizing one over the other because with some creative management or self-discipline, you should be able to do both
--You feel guilty about feeling guilty because you expected this writer’s gig would be a lot more fun.
After reading that list (all of which I've experienced), and then the following description of the blog schedule Mike keeps and his massive database of blog topic ideas, I felt...you guessed it...guilty.
Of course my brain had to twist the issue even further.
Hang on--let me back up.
Way back when I started blogging, I thought it was putting the cart before the horse. I mean, why have a blog in place for readers when I had no readers? But I figured the practice would be good for me. Get me out of my shell. And it gave me a place to chronicle my journey to publication, vent the frustrations related to said journey, and just kinda share about little ole me.
So blogging became a thing in and of itself. Until now. Because now I've got that book published, and the horse is in front of the cart.
And it still feels backwards.
Now I feel pressure to use the blog to gather minions...er, I mean, readers. Like a marketing tool. You know--make the blog so cool and interesting that people will flock to it and ultimately want to read my book. Completely opposite of my original thinking in which readers would read my blog because they found and loved my book first.
Which brings us back to the guilt I felt after reading Mike's blog. That twisted feeling of worrying that I'm not making my blog cool and interesting enough to attract minions--I mean readers--yet feeling guilty that I'm worrying about such a thing when deep inside I believe the blog should be here for an expressly different purpose.
Now, I'm sure Mike's intention was not to guilt his readers. And he in turn should not feel guilty about making me feel guilty--I promise I could have taken any post down that road on my own. But from now on, I think I'll ignore any posts on proper blogging. And hope my minions (oh, forget it) will join me here because they want to, and because they know that what they see here is what they get. Guilt and all.
Of course my brain had to twist the issue even further.
Hang on--let me back up.
Way back when I started blogging, I thought it was putting the cart before the horse. I mean, why have a blog in place for readers when I had no readers? But I figured the practice would be good for me. Get me out of my shell. And it gave me a place to chronicle my journey to publication, vent the frustrations related to said journey, and just kinda share about little ole me.
So blogging became a thing in and of itself. Until now. Because now I've got that book published, and the horse is in front of the cart.
And it still feels backwards.
Which brings us back to the guilt I felt after reading Mike's blog. That twisted feeling of worrying that I'm not making my blog cool and interesting enough to attract minions--I mean readers--yet feeling guilty that I'm worrying about such a thing when deep inside I believe the blog should be here for an expressly different purpose.
Now, I'm sure Mike's intention was not to guilt his readers. And he in turn should not feel guilty about making me feel guilty--I promise I could have taken any post down that road on my own. But from now on, I think I'll ignore any posts on proper blogging. And hope my minions (oh, forget it) will join me here because they want to, and because they know that what they see here is what they get. Guilt and all.
