I'm Back With Thoughts of Change
I've actually been back a short while, but too busy catching up with everything that I fell behind on to post here until tonight. Thanks for all your suggestions: this time, oddly enough, the trouble wasn't either Blogger or Windows - it was Firefox! More specifically, one of my Firefox add-ons seems to have become a little too possessive of the contents of each tab - it was literally preventing any tab I opened from being refreshed at all.
This blog will be one year old on the 30th, and I'm still pondering what I'll do by way of celebration. In addition, I'm considering a few changes - nothing is final yet, I do want to keep my friends and loyal readers coming back, so I'll discuss this further before making a decision, but I wanted to at least toss out my thoughts for now. Feel free to express your opinions in the comments here or in any later post on the subject.
In fact, I'd actually appreciate your comments. After all, if I were simply writing for myself, there'd be no need to post it here. I've made some friends I value in the blogging world, and I don't want to do anything to lose you. The first change I'm thinking of is very simple - I may leave this blog up, but open a WordPress blog, copy at least the best of my posts here over there, then continue blogging at a new address.
This will mean a lot of you changing your links, which I know can be a real pain. I haven't finally made up my mind to do it - I also know for bloggers who have a home on Blogger, it is harder and more time consuming to leave comments on WordPress blogs. On the other hand, WordPress does offer stability and some features I think might make my own life that much easier. I may also run two, 'mirrored' blogs for a short time, just to see how each one works out.
The most likely change is this - wherever I continue to blog, I need to update my layout and links soon. Over time, the blog has become a bit messy, and I plan to improve that, while also pruning dead links, adding the members of the Shameless Lions Writing Circle to my blogroll, etc. I may also add a link section for interesting sites I come across or learn about.
Finally, I've been considering my writing career, and joined Forward Motion, the writing community, a short while back. Reading the posts there has left me reconsidering how I plan to proceed. I will still be posting new stories here, (or on my new WordPress blog), but I'm trying to decide on a framework that is fair to you, my readers, and to me as well.
My current thinking, which is far from settled, involves two things - I may post excerpts, clearly labeled for those who wish to avoid becoming caught up in them, plus a more regular schedule of posting stories, say one per month or perhaps, if I feel I can meet the schedule, every two weeks. For the latter stories, I am considering allowing my readers to post ideas, prompts, types of stories they'd like to see - each time, I'll choose one, write the story, and post it.
I'll discuss all this further before making any real changes, but I wanted those of you who visit here to have some idea what was going on, so you can watch out for my later post on the subject, probably within a week or two. What you are reading here is my late night, rough summary of all the thoughts that have been going through my head lately.
This blog will be one year old on the 30th, and I'm still pondering what I'll do by way of celebration. In addition, I'm considering a few changes - nothing is final yet, I do want to keep my friends and loyal readers coming back, so I'll discuss this further before making a decision, but I wanted to at least toss out my thoughts for now. Feel free to express your opinions in the comments here or in any later post on the subject.
In fact, I'd actually appreciate your comments. After all, if I were simply writing for myself, there'd be no need to post it here. I've made some friends I value in the blogging world, and I don't want to do anything to lose you. The first change I'm thinking of is very simple - I may leave this blog up, but open a WordPress blog, copy at least the best of my posts here over there, then continue blogging at a new address.
This will mean a lot of you changing your links, which I know can be a real pain. I haven't finally made up my mind to do it - I also know for bloggers who have a home on Blogger, it is harder and more time consuming to leave comments on WordPress blogs. On the other hand, WordPress does offer stability and some features I think might make my own life that much easier. I may also run two, 'mirrored' blogs for a short time, just to see how each one works out.
The most likely change is this - wherever I continue to blog, I need to update my layout and links soon. Over time, the blog has become a bit messy, and I plan to improve that, while also pruning dead links, adding the members of the Shameless Lions Writing Circle to my blogroll, etc. I may also add a link section for interesting sites I come across or learn about.
Finally, I've been considering my writing career, and joined Forward Motion, the writing community, a short while back. Reading the posts there has left me reconsidering how I plan to proceed. I will still be posting new stories here, (or on my new WordPress blog), but I'm trying to decide on a framework that is fair to you, my readers, and to me as well.
My current thinking, which is far from settled, involves two things - I may post excerpts, clearly labeled for those who wish to avoid becoming caught up in them, plus a more regular schedule of posting stories, say one per month or perhaps, if I feel I can meet the schedule, every two weeks. For the latter stories, I am considering allowing my readers to post ideas, prompts, types of stories they'd like to see - each time, I'll choose one, write the story, and post it.
I'll discuss all this further before making any real changes, but I wanted those of you who visit here to have some idea what was going on, so you can watch out for my later post on the subject, probably within a week or two. What you are reading here is my late night, rough summary of all the thoughts that have been going through my head lately.
Labels: blogging
posted by The Wandering Author | Permalink: 12:34 AM
13 Comments:
It sounds like you are on the brink of something potentially exciting - and I wish you all the very best with it. We need change, it's good, it makes us grow and develop. Good luck with it all.
The one-year mark is a good time to stretch the blog legs, try new avenues. I'll check in regularly to stay in the loop.
Hi Ray,
My comment is a bit controversial but I've been brooding on it for a bit and since your subject is similiar...
I wonder if for me - not for others - blogging didn't make me complacent towards submitting my manuscript for publication in trade. I remember the days when I was younger before the internet ever showed up, and how I was often engulfed with an urgency and enthusiasm to send my work overseas. The whole prospect of waiting for a letter, catching my work in print and a byline as a reward that strangers were reading my work, seemed so exciting. I could have developed a reputation as a poet in the small press then if I kept on but I didn't. But I still remember that heady feeling.
Blogging made me very lazy. It gave me an automatic audience but except for a treasured few, not at all the audience who could have appreciated my work and stayed loyal readers for years. I made friends but friends are different from critics. The publishing was also instant...someone was there to read and that was that.
I appreciated the comments but must now face the fact that many were obligatory and not really interested in my work.
I was wondering if I shouldn't just turn my place into a writing site with my stories posted and no comments - although after a few weeks, I still can't bear to do this or just leaving the internet for awhile, pretending there was no internet at all. Then at least, I would get back to the proper perspective of publishing and send my manuscripts out with the same exhilaration as I did when I was a young girl.
Just thoughts.
It's amazing how one outgrows the self so quickly and unexpectedly.
I look forward to your new venture, WA. I, for one, view the blog and my writing career as distinct branches of the same tree. Both nourish and bear fruit for the tree in the end, but in their own ways. I blog mostly for the community feeling blogging provides me with. It's very rewarding to be a part of this circle of readers and writers, each one of whom adds a new insight to something I post. I don't see it as necessary to my writing career, though. For that, nothing is more important than just writing, getting your work reviewed, and submitting.
So keep at it; whichever way you decide to go, I wish you well. :-)
Any sign of a definitive winner for your Longer Fiction contest?
I live in hope of winning something!
i love word press... my blog isn't there i don't think but that is what i use for format i think im not techno savy and someone else does all the hard work but it is easy to use and well im happy with it..
you gotta do what you gotta do to be happy ya know?
as for the rest.. sounds cool;) i need to write more and have decided to do a new word challenge soon. will be posting about it within the next few days or so;) i have been lax in that haven't i? baddddd wolfie;P
Ultimately you have to do what is right for you, otherwise your heart will never be truly in it. It's good to listen to others but, as I always say, blogging isn't a business for the vast majority of us. It's about us communicating outwards, whilst focusing inwards. Like my photography has taught ne the last 6 months - sometimes your audience has to find you, rather than vice-versa.
Susan - my goodness, I had to do a double take at your comment. Wasn't this exactly what I was saying to you at the start of this year? And you were arguing to the contrary. As I've said on my blog this week, blogging is an excuse for not doing other things. It's fine if all you want to do is blog, but the writers amongst it know it gets in the way. If we are serious as writers than the writing should always come first and the blogging fits in around that. But I wonder how many writer/bloggers around there have this the wrong way around?
I would love to read your writing...excerpts or not. Perhaps, you can have a link to the longer pieces.
I would be perfectly fine with whatever blogging platform you choose. :-)
Wow--indeed, it sounds like a lot of change is coming your way, and for the better. Please be sure to give us all the WordPress link when/if you decide to switch.
I like to keep more than one writing project going at one time (keeps me feeling like I'm getting something accomplished), but I'm not sure I could handle two blogs. You're a more diligent blogger than I am, WA!
I'd like to know more about the writers' community you've joined. This sounds very interesting and like a great opportunity for growth.
Do what you want! I think having posts about your activities and using a writing site to post your writing sound like a good combination but ultimately the decision is yours.
It seems everyone is moving to wordpress these days. It doesn't bother me to change my link to you, just let me know and I will do it.
I think its great you share stories with your readers and what ever schedule works best for you is what you should follow. I would start with the once a month and see how it works out.
Anyway, wishing you, as always, all the best with these changes to your blog and your writing and most especially your anthology.
Just read the comments and wanted to add my thoughts on writing/blogging.
I used blogging to accomplish some goals and it worked, but only to a point. I now find myself in a much better and more stable place as a writer and I am blogging less. I miss all the comments. They are addictive, for sure. But, in the end, I am thrilled to be spending time everyday creating fiction and not just hopping from blog to blog.
I think it is all about using your blog in a productive way. And if it isn't working for you anymore then it is time to change something.
As we grow ar writers what our blog can do for us changes and its important to accept that as a sign of progress.
Sara
WA
Whatever you do, please continue to post your stories in some format. A lot of us would miss them if they weren't there.
I know in my own case I no longer blog as much as I would like to - or used to. Other things arise that take time from the blogging.
But even if you can only manage to post once a month I would still be grateful to read your stories. Quality is always preferable to quantity, in my opinion.
Wordpress is a superb platform for blogging and I'm sure your many friends would not mind changing the link. I certainly wouldn't.
Good luck on the 1 year annivesary!
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