whafford ([info]whafford) wrote,
@ 2009-04-28 12:14:00
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Current mood: contemplative
Entry tags:writing

Blogging
It seems there is a virtual overload of blogging, facebooking, tweeting, and whatever else we call these things today. I see the importance of maintaining a network and even of disussing things with friends, but maybe I don't use these things correctly. Blogging, to me, feels different than talking to friends maybe because it's actually written down. Is that more of an admission of my thoughts, thus making me more culpable for my failures?

Here's my reasoning behind not blogging recently. Yes, I've been busy, but that's mostly a covering excuse. The real thing is that I'm trying something relatively new. Bored with some of the things I've been doing, I want to work more on my fiction writing. It's frivolous, yes, and why do something that is so unlikely to make me any money when I have a good job and even teach writing? It's not exactly creative writing, but we do discuss creative elements in our critical writing. And even if I were to start selling fiction, it would in all likelihood earn me far less than nonfiction writing and certainly less than my Ivy League teaching job.

Nonetheless, I want to write. And maybe I want some validation of the process that I've been doing in reltaive secrecy for 15 years or more. Only recently have I begun to take my fiction seriously, however, and I've begun to create short stories much more quickly and much more directed to a reader market. I have yet to see if any will sell, but I'm taking further steps toward earning that potential 5 cents a word (whereas non-fiction has earned me as much as 1 dollar a word) all because it catches my fancy, holds my interest, and makes me smile to write creative whimsy with an ultimate message.

So what does this have to do with me not blogging? Well, if I say 'I want to get stories published' and then months go by and I don't get any published, isn't that a blatant admission of what a big failure I am? Or is the point of blogging to reach understanding people who will say 'it's OK, keep trying'?


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[info]wishme
2009-04-28 05:24 pm UTC (link)
congrats on taking the plunge. I'm kind of doing the same, though a bit earlier in the academic career than you.

it's scary. I don't even know where I'm going yet.

Congrats on the program! I hope it's exactly what you need and want.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]whafford
2009-04-29 04:41 pm UTC (link)
I've been writing for a long time but I suppose I never thought I'd pursue it in a more serious vein. Then again, I started in physics as an academic thinking I'd never be able to make archaeology work as a career, but I eventually moved into that. Maybe it's a pattern with me.

I think writing fiction can go well with an academic life. What we should probably do is get an online reading group going or something.

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[info]wishme
2009-04-29 05:37 pm UTC (link)
Totally understand and agree. on all points.

though i've never pursued physics...heh.

an online reading group would be interesting for sure. it'd be pretty easy to get a small forum or email list set up

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[info]lutos
2009-04-28 05:42 pm UTC (link)
Then, of course, you could also 'blog' your short stories as a try-out to see reactions from your regular audience and possible future readers (and you could friends-lock the stories).


I've more people on my f-list who write, and one of them is doing the above thing and is in the process of self-publishing, the other one is actually publishing a lot of her blog entries (together with her art) and sees blogging as "an invaluable tool for clarifying my writing voice, and for learning what types of subjects are interesting to more people than just me".

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[info]whafford
2009-04-29 04:44 pm UTC (link)
Blogging can be a help, I think. I just need to use it more effectively. I wonder about blogging the short stories. The publishing industry is a fickle beast and so I've been wary of posting stories. I need readers and maybe the 'friends only' option would keep the first north american publication rights available?

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[info]ladytairngire
2009-04-29 05:29 pm UTC (link)
maybe the 'friends only' option would keep the first north american publication rights available?

yes. if you post creative work without limiting who has access to it, it could potentially be considered "published".

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[info]lutos
2009-04-29 06:38 pm UTC (link)
Hm, I wouldn't know about copyright issues, but you can also decide to friends-lock everything and then, on a later point, delete the post if publishers demand 'virgin' stories.

Not meant as a pressure, but if you'd decide to friends-lock, I would like to be included, if you don't mind. :)

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[info]lawbabeak
2009-04-28 06:59 pm UTC (link)
The latter, silly! Yes, some people blog to brag, but many more blog the process. Blogging the process gets you happy, supportive thoughts. It also helps you find test readers, suggestions of where is good to submit and where is not, and commiseration.

The greater your presence here on LJ, the greater the chances of someone seeing you on someone else's friends page and saying, "hey, I write X, too! Let's talk!" Or make happy suggestions, or add your blog to their friends list which means they'll see when you finally do publish something so they can run out and buy 18 copies.

For a writer - and any artist really - blogging is about community and support and communication, but it is also about marketing. While you are not at that stage yet, getting into the habit of blogging now (if that's what you decide to do) will set you up well for when the time comes to market.

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[info]fivecats
2009-04-28 08:51 pm UTC (link)
the point of blogging is whatever you want it to be. period.

that having been said, reaching a group of understanding, supportive people is a wonderful side benefit.

...

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[info]amysanderson
2009-04-29 10:19 am UTC (link)
You've only failed if you give up. I keep reading that on various writing sites and I've come to realise how true it is. I don't think submitting stories but not getting them published counts as failure, unless it makes you stop writing altogether. After all, a rejection will teach you more than a short story sitting in a desk drawer, never being read by another living soul.

Hah, well this is what I tell myself when the rejections turn up in my inbox anyway!

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[info]whafford
2009-04-29 04:37 pm UTC (link)
I agree. Sometimes it's hard to keep plugging away, but that seems to be the only secret to getting published. I've been reading the Writer's Digest book How I Got Published and the only consistent idea in those success stories is 'perseverence'. I suppose I'm just afraid of failure, but failure is only what you define it to be.

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[info]innana88
2009-05-01 07:04 am UTC (link)
I blog for many different reasons. Those reasons have changed drastically from when I first began. Perhaps it would be better to say that they've expanded, rather than changed. When I first signed up with LJ more than five years ago, I had hit a snag and was specifically looking to connect with people in communities who could relate to what I was experiencing. I made online friends through these communities, but I never added any people I knew in real life. This gradually changed.

Now I find myself looking to connect with people who are on a similar path or who are succeeding in the creative realm in some form. I'm looking for support, inspiration, etc.

Since you seem to actually know him, he may have already shared this with you, but this is what [info]kylecassidy said in a comment to one of my entries on getting published:

The secret to being a published writer, I've discovered, is not a secret. Everything I've read in the Writers Digest books has been true. The formula is: write stories, locate venues, submit stories. Rinse, lather, repeat.

The best advice I ever got on becoming a published writer was from Isaac Asimov (he didn't tell me this personally, he wrote it down somewhere) saying that if you want to get published, wallpaper the room you write in with rejection slips. Long before you cover up the last square inch, you'll be published.

Make yourself a list of ten or twenty magazines you think your work could be in and start submitting. Regularly, relentlessly. And keep writing while you're doing it. That's the secret. It always works.

The message seems to be "keep trying" and "whatever happens, don't take those rejection letters too seriously."

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