Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Blogs and writing

This is topic Blogs and writing in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :

Been curious about this for a while, sooo... How many people here have a blog or a livejournal, or have considered it? How do you feel about it? How do you feel it fits into your writing? What do you think the role of a blog in a writer's life is/could be/should never be?

Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :

Ooh - good question! I've been wondering about that - playing with doing a "real" website - worried it would give me more chances to procrastinate.

Maybe EricJamesStone will respond - I've read his off and on.

I would add a technical question - do people just write a regular page, or is there "blog code" or something you add to keep a blog on a website?

Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :

I maintain a website for two companies that I work with and write the html by hand, thank you. I also, recently, started a weblog (blog is such an ugly word) which is taking the place of writing the same email to my friends while I'm in Iceland. I use http://www.blogger.com to generate it, because it's easier than messing with code.

I'm not sure how it interfaces with my writing yet, because I haven't been able to focus on fiction since I got here last week. Maybe that will be a subject for my next weblog entry.

Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :

Thank goodness I'm not the only one who thinks blog sounds silly!

I've never been one to keep a diary or journal. I'm told they are theraputic. I just create a character, base her on me, and then role-play on paper (short story or something).

I think there are a few weblog generators out there for those who are interested.

Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :

I've been blogging regularly for a little over a year now.

It's a good method for easily generating new content for a website. Eventually it may be useful as a promotional tool for my writing (i.e., when I have an actual writing career.) The fact that old blog entries are archived gradually leads to an increase in traffic to the site, because people will find the site by searching for things which are no longer on the main page.

A blog can be a good outlet for writing about things you're interested in, but which aren't directly related to your fiction writing.

However, blogging can also become an excuse not to work on your fiction, so that's something to be aware of.

Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :

Oh, and thanks for reading, punahougirl84.

Posted by KatFeete (Member # 2161) on :

I blog. Originally it started as a way to keep a journal when I was travelling. Now it's just habit, and a way of keeping up with my friends, and vice versa.

On the technical end of things... I've now used three blogging services: Livejournal, Blogger, and Nucleus. The first two have the advantage that you don't need a website to use them. Blogger is nice because you can move it onto your website quite easily should you later aquire one; Livejournal is a community tool. If you know a couple of people on LJ, you probably want to blog on LJ as well. It will rapidly replace your real-world social circle and eat your life. *grin*

If you do have a honest-to-god, full, working website and know what to do with it, Blogger can get awkward. There's a number of prepackaged blog engines you can install instead. Nucleus I particularly recommend because it's insanely flexible - I have three blogs on it at the moment, each with its own specific purpose.

In the philosophical sense... I like to blog. It's a harmless method of getting a little feedback and feeling important, and a great way to warm up to your real writing. I've gotten slack lately, but for a while I would go online and toss off a few paragraphs of this or that before turning to the fiction writing. It was a nice warm-up exercise and every so often one of my friends would make a nice comment about it.

It's definately not for everyone, but it's a useful tool and a fun way of keeping in touch if you're bad about replying to your emails. (Guilty, guilty, guilty....)

[This message has been edited by KatFeete (edited August 26, 2004).]

Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :

Time for full disclosure, now that people have put in their opinions. (For some reason I feel like stating an opinion in a topic start will somehow influence the discussion. Not sure why.)

I do in fact have a blog, over at Livejournal, and it has eaten up my social life in just the way you described, Katfeete. (Although I suspect some RL friends read it from time to time. They don't comment, but they did make fun of me when I mentioned on the blog that I'd been trapped in an elevator.)

But in terms of writing? I feel like it's been, if nothing else, not an active detriment. It's a good place to post about the progress of the writing without actively boring my friends, since I can hide things behind an lj cut, and after all, nobody has to read. And it can serve to discuss me-specific writing things without taking over a forum such as this. For NaNoWriMo, frex, I'm planning on doing progress reports on the blog. (Assuming I survive NaNoWriMo. Anyone else on Hatrack doing that this year? With the rough draft of the current novel done and marinating, I've been forcing myself not to start anything long until it starts, and it's killing me.)

Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :

I'm doing NaNoWriMo too. We can share the pain.

Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :

NaNoWriMo is intriguing me as well. I haven't written anything that long yet. My concern is that it will use up all my writing time, and other stories will be put on hold.

Is NaNoWrimo worth the time it takes, in order to learn to "fly, be free" and really get over the hump of writing a lot (ok, get over the idea of writing something book-length)? Does it help you improve your writing habits by helping your creative side come out (due to speed and the total lack of revising/editing)? Or does it just mean I won't get anything else done?

I now get the difference between a paper journal and a blog - I don't keep a diary, but a writing exercise journal that sometimes gets sidetracked into my own thoughts. I've played a bit with GeoCities recently, and do have real webspace and a site that really needs to be set up. Can the blog thing (like the couple KatFeete suggested) work on GC? Or would it need to go on my other site?

Welcome KatFeete!

Posted by KatFeete (Member # 2161) on :

Welcome KatFeete!

Thanks!

Can the blog thing (like the couple KatFeete suggested) work on GC? Or would it need to go on my other site?

Blogger will work on anything, including GeoCities.

Nucleus and most of the other blog engines I know of require a MySQL database, which I doubt Geocities provides. Greymatter is one blog that doesn't need a database and is supposed to be pretty good, but it does require that you run cgi scripts, which I think some servers won't let you do. You'll have to look at the GeoCities site for that one.

Posted by bladeofwords (Member # 2132) on :

what's NaNoWriMo? I have a bunch of friends that all have Live journals they started so they could keep up with each other at college.

I like journaling, a lot actually but sometimes I wish I could just sit down and pound out a real quick entry on the computer. However, I also like the feeling of writing down the words by hand(I write two or three pages every other day or so). I don't personally have a blog though, I always thought they were kinda sad but I might start writing one.

There are a bunch of people who blog that act like they're great friends when really they've met once or twice, it's actually kinda creepy.

Jon

Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. In short, from Nov 1 to Nov 30, you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. There are lots of reasons, but I recommend you go to the site - they explain it in a very entertaining way!

www.nanowrimo.org

I've been thinking about it, and blogs, and added it here. Sign up starts Oct 1.

Posted by bladeofwords (Member # 2132) on :

that's intense...that's all I have to say about that.

Maybe I'll try it.

Jon

Posted by cvgurau (Member # 1345) on :

I like journaling (in fact, I was in the middle of an entry when my brother called me up and asked me to look up something on the internet. Afterwards, I figured I'd see what was going on in Hatrack), but I've tried blogging twice and couldn't keep up with it. It wasn't time consuming, or especially difficult (I was using xanga.com and Geocities.com, if memory serves), I just couldn't get over having something so private in so public a forum. I mean, no one read it, but they could have, and that made me twitchy, at times.

I sometimes write extensively in my journal, and because it's on the computer, no one can get to it (no one around is computer-savvy enough to get past a Word password). I write about whatever problems I'm having on WIPs, but also about whatever's troubling me at the time. I don't often go back and read it. Just writing is enough. And Robyn_Hood was right. They're therapeutic.

On NaNoWriMo. I've tried this twice and failed, too. It was very stressful, and nerve-wracking, and I liked it. I'm not sure I'll do it this year, unless I have some debilitating problem with my WIP I can't get over without time off, but I'd advise it for those of you who're interested.

Gen--You sound like you're going to re-write a novel you've already finished. I think that's against the rules. You're supposed to start fresh. If I'm wrong (and it's been known to happen), about either the rules or your intentions, ignore me.

Just my 2.

CVG

Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :

cvgurau: Yep, I know it's against the rules, which is why I'm not doing it. I can see how you could get that idea, but no... the novel I just finished is getting edited in October, once I've gotten some distance. The new novel starts November 1, and I haven't written down any prose. (Actually, I haven't written anything, although I have most of the characters and at least sketchy plot details worked out. I don't like writing things down too soon-- makes them feel like they ought to stay that way, when perhaps they oughtn't.)

Re: blogging versus journaling. I think I'm the opposite of a lot of people here-- I can keep up with a blog, but not a journal. I think it has something to do with the subject matter, perhaps, since I never put personal stuff into the blog. Also, I like the community aspects of livejournal, even if they do start snacking on my time.

Posted by JP Carney (Member # 894) on :

xanga is another community-based weblog option. I've had ideas for creating a journal for one of my fictional characters, just haven't gotten around to doing it yet (the idea being that the journal will be idea generators for various short stories).

Posted by dramaartwriting (Member # 2134) on :

I started my first blog just a month ago, and my first online journal two months ago. I've dived into the internet and am finally becoming more computer literate. Previously all I did was email and one messageboard attending. Hey writers, you might check out my site... http://www.geocities.com/drama_art_writing_maliger and in a little bit I'll have the coveted http://www.write.com as a transfer to that site. I'll have to learn html fast if I'm to keep up with the demands, but geocities pagebuilder is fine until I do. I don't think it detracts from the writing (I do mostly poetry and sometimes do that as my entry), it is an outlet for the variety of stuff that fills the mind and needs to get out sooner rather than later. I'm trying to look inward to find myself more now. That means knowing what I want, and that can't be bad in reaching true expression.