Blogging

Blogging

As I've contemplated the New Year, these neglected blogs have nibbled at the edges of my brain, compelling me to keep up with them better.

Why?

I don't know.

I'm relatively certain that no one is reading them anymore, if anyone ever was.

And that's not an issue I ever gave much thought to, anyway. I do a lot of writing with the search engines in mind by day--I know how to attract them when that's the goal, but I can't think of any real motivation for wanting to draw strangers to my blog. I don't have anything to sell, and since I've been making my living as a writer for several years, I don't usually have trouble finding a forum for what I want to say.

For me, it's always been more about writing than being read. For the first couple of decades that I wrote, I happily tossed finished products in my desk drawer and went on to the next. The magic is all in the writing for me, and once it's done, it's done. That's not the quickest path to financial success, though.

For instance, I wrote a romance novel on the train in November. I did it because it was National Novel Writing Month, though I didn't officially participate in NaNo, and because hearing about NaNo from friends who were participating made me realize how little creative writing I'd done since I started working full time. So I wrote a novel. I sent it to two friends, who came back with the same criticism--I needed a final chapter to "tie up loose ends". I wrote that, did some additional editing, sent it off to the man who inspired it to make sure he wasn't going to freak out, and..

Well, actually, nothing comes after the "and". What I didn't do was submit it anywhere. Or query agents. Or join the Romance Writers of America in hoeps that their resources might help me do one of those things. Or, to be completely honest, even print it out. It inspired me to finish another novel I'd had sitting around for a long time, so when the first one was done, I pulled the second one out, re-read what I'd written, and got back to work. So I have a novel and a half now, and no plans.

Of course, the world is full of people who have written novels and don't or can't or won't or don't know how to do anything with them, but I don't have any of those excuses. I've made my living writing for several years. I know what to do next. I even think vaguely about doing it. But I'm a mom with a full time job, a nearly 3-hour round-trip commute, and stacks of boxes still to be unpacked from my move over the summer. I have a VERY limited amount of time in which to do something with my writing, and when I do, I want that something to be...writing.