To Blog. Or Not?-CJ Omololu
I started my blog on January 23, 2007. My kids were 9 and 6, - now they're going into high school and middle school and one has a girlfriend (not the one you'd think). In the first post, I talk about this great new vlog called Brotherhood 2.o by a writer named John Green and his brother Hank. I'd just signed with my agent and we were shopping around a middle grade called Armadillo Season (that is now a YA called My Life in Black and White, and may actually be a book one of these days). The idea for my first YA was still about a year away, the second and third book were nowhere on the horizon and we had just gotten this great new thing called TIVO. I wasn't on Facebook yet and nobody had heard of Twitter. Ah, memories.
Fast forward four years and 624 blog entries and I find myself with nothing to say. I've talked about writing, my family, plot vs character, other people's great books and a few amazing posts where I get to announce book sales. Looking back over the posts is like a collage of my life for those four years, although I'm sure it's more interesting to me than it is to anyone else. It's been a great time and I've loved sharing this with whoever is in my audience, but I'm thinking it might be time to pack it in. Over the past few months, my posts have dwindled to one every couple of weeks and I'm sure I've lost whatever regular readers I had through sheer neglect. I'm on Twitter and FB quite a lot and that seems to fill all of my communication needs. Some writers have suggested going on a hiatus and I might do that. I'm sure when my next book comes out I'll have more to say. At least I hope so.
What do you think? Do you think writers need to blog to keep in touch with their readers? Or is keeping your website up to date and Tweeting your news enough?
If you don't enjoy blogging anymore, maybe it's time to take a break. Several of the bloggers I follow will disappear for weeks (or even months) and then pop up again. I like reading writer's blogs because it's interesting to read their perspectives on writing and life in general.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to admit that I haven't been blogging that much either. The stress of my retail job, which makes the part-time employees work a lot more than they're supposed to, has kept me from writing.
"Do you think writers need to blog to keep in touch with their readers?"
ReplyDeleteNo.
"Or is keeping your website up to date and Tweeting your news enough?"
"Enough" is a relative term and differs for everyone. I think, realistically, every writer should have at least one page online, whether it's a website, Facebook page, blog, or whatever. Beyond that, it's all icing on the cake depending on inclinations.
I blog because it's fun, and because I use it to remind myself of the things I need to know about writing. I love interacting with the people who leave comments. As long as those purposes are served and I feel like I have anything to say, I'll keep on. But I'm not a believer in forced blogging (or tweeting, or Facebooking, for that matter).