Why all writers should be bloggers.

I am going to propose five excellent reasons why every writer should be a blogger. But first, I have some questions for you.

Are you a new writer?

And are you still wondering whether you should start blogging? Perhaps everybody is telling you that every writer must have a blog, but you remain unconvinced.

Let me ask you one really important question.

Do you want to be a published writer?
If the answer to that is ‘yes’, great – you should read on. If you don’t want to be published writer, I suggest you get back to your private scribblings. That’s fine too. You are still a writer, I suppose, just not a writer who wants to have readers.

Are you an established writer?

And are you wondering why you should start a blog? Maybe you have had some moderate success and you believe you’re doing very nicely without blogging, thank you. Or perhaps you already have a blog, but you don’t bother keeping it up to date.

If you are an established writer, let me ask you one really important question.

Do you want to be a better writer?
If the answer to that is ‘yes’ – you should read on. If you’re happy with where you are now, you should also read on. The world has changed and writers are expected to have an online presence, both to promote yourself and your work and to engage with your readers. If that sounds daunting, don’t worry. The easiest way to do this is with a blog.

So, I am assuming:

• you are a writer
• you want readers for your writing
• and you are striving to be an even better writer.

Five excellent reasons why all writers should be bloggers

1. The Internet needs people who can write.

   The world is full of terrible blogs – written by people who can’t write and can barely read. Have you seen all the bad grammar and awful spelling out there? The Web needs proper writers. The Web needs YOU!

2. You have something to say.

   That’s why you are a writer, isn’t it? It may be an opinion. It may be a story. Aren’t you tired of scrawling unread words in your notebooks? Do your friends leave the room every time you begin with ‘once upon a time’? Be kind to your family and other animals. Get blogging.

3. You have time to do this.

   I know you have an unfinished novel somewhere. It’s probably lying in some forgotten folder on your hard drive. The best blog posts are short and punchy. Why spend years writing something that nobody is going to read when you can invest a few hours in writing something that everybody can read? Get it out and onto the Web.

4. You need the writing practice.

   They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. That is an awful lot of writing time. If you are a new writer, why not spend some of your 10,000 hours practising in the blogosphere?

5. The delete button is easy to find.

   If what you write is truly terrible, you can always delete it and consign it to oblivion in the recycle bin. With a clean sheet, you can start again. Is your waste paper bin full of screwed up pages? Save trees, get a blog.

Those are five excellent reasons why all writers should be bloggers.

Are you still here? What are you hanging around for? Get on with it.

Author: Ruth Livingstone

Walker, writer, photographer, blogger, doctor, woman, etc. View all posts by Ruth Livingstone