If you are serious about writing, you should be blogging too.
First of all, blogging forces you to WRITE and allows you to publish your own writing instantly, The immediacy of the work and reward system create a virtuous cycle.
Virtuous Cycle: You write a blog post. You publish it. People read it. You feel great because people have read your work. You write another blog post… etc.
Suddenly you change from being a writer into being an author. And that encourages you to write more, and more, and more – and that is exactly what you need to do if you are going to improve as a writer.
And there are a heap of other benefits that come from maintaining a blog:
- It’s a route for finding and communicating with other writers.
- And for connecting with potential readers.
- It’s a place to showcase your own writing.
- And, through blog posts, you can think through and test out ideas for longer pieces.
- It’s also a useful hub for collaborative working.
Through blogging, for example, I have discovered a couple of great artists to work with.
1. Tim Baynes, who paints wonderfully vivid paintings from my photographs, and is my ‘Artist in Residence’ on my Coastal Walk website.
2. Lizzi Wakelin, whose fabulous pen and ink drawings are going to illustrate my about-to-be-published collection of short stories, The Shed.
Collaboration is a great motivator. When other people are relying on you, it is an incentive to finish your work. Something I find difficult to do, as there is always a new project I want to move on to!
Not all writers want to blog. If you are one of those, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts. Let me know in the comments section below.
Ruth Livingstone 