On one of the boards I visit regularly, we started discussing author/book blogs. It was an interesting topic and had me thinking about things I haven't really spent any time contemplating--like does blogging take away from writing time.
The answer to that is yes and no. Mostly no. During the week, I blog before work and that's kind of a dead time for me. I'm too tired to be creative, and even if I were inclined to write my story, I'd only have time to get a few paragraphs done. The weekends, though, does take writing time--usually. Some weekend mornings, I'm still in the wake up stage when I post here. Which my scattered writing demonstrates quite readily.
Another thread of the conversation was what kind of blogs we liked to visit. It was easier to list the types of blogs I don't like to visit. I don't like to visit blogs that are always talking about the craft of writing. This is no doubt my own failing because if I think about this too much, I become paralyzed. I don't do almost anything that everyone says I should be doing to craft a novel. I'm way on the pantser side of the equation.
I also don't like blogs that talk about the publishing industry, particularly if they spend a great deal of time talking about genres other than romance. I rarely know the author names they mention and I get plenty of romance industry news on the loops I'm on. I really don't want more than what I'm already getting. Again, this is probably another failing of mine, but business bores the hell out of me, and while I know enough to understand what's going on, I'm never going to be an expert.
The other type of blog I don't read is the so-called snarky ones. That's the snide ones, the people who go for humor by making unkind comments about others, or their books. The world is full of mean people, they're all around us, I don't feel any need to deliberately seek them out. And I don't find the comments funny no matter how well written they may be. All I can think of is the poor person involved, and how she'd react reading it. Meanness as entertainment should have been left on the grade school playground.
The blogs I like are the ones where the blogger doesn't take herself too seriously, where every post isn't a brag about how great she is and how everyone in the universe just loves her. I like the blogs that are positive, by and large, and where the blogger is secure enough to poke fun at herself.
Yesterday was another good writing day. I'm going to reread what I wrote and then get going on new stuff. I didn't officially join my chapter's book in a week loop, but I'm doing it kind of on my own. My goal for the week is 38 pages. Fingers crossed.
MN Weather Report: 83 degrees. Humid.
