Wednesday, May 4, 2016

PUT YOUR BUTT IN THE CHAIR AND YOUR INSECURITIES IN THE AIR



If you came by to vote on my BATTLE OF THE BANDS, please click HERE to go back one post. If you came for the IWSG, please feel welcome to go back and cast a vote, or just read on.

At the beginning of every month I tell myself; ‘this month I’m going to write a stellar post for the Insecure Writer’s support Group’. I tell myself this because I really want to be a writer, not just a typist. I have stories running around in my head. Each night before I fall asleep and again in the morning as I’m waking up, they start to form up in my mind into some really interesting tales. The problem is the DISTRACTIONS, or in other words life.

There is a monthly blog hop going around titled ‘The Question of the Month’. I 
don’t participate because I’m sincerely trying to limit the distractions, but I noticed this month that the questions was something like; ‘what advice would you give to someone considering starting a blog’. My advice to writers would be DON’T DO IT. While a blog can be helpful in marketing and setting your platform (exactly what that means, I’m not sure) it is one big fat distraction. Not only is it a major distraction, but it is one that fools you into thinking you’re writing. You’re not, you’re typing; unless of course, you’re writing your WIP a piece at a time on your blog – but seriously.

Now don’t go all hate on me and get the wrong idea here. I don’t think there is anything wrong with blogging. Actually I think there are a lot of very fine bloggers who just want a presence and a place to present their ideas. Remember I said if you’re an aspiring writer, blogging can be a big distraction and one that allows you to deceive yourself into thinking you’re actually writing. And this doesn’t even cover the time spent reading and commenting on other blogs to keep your presence known in the blogosphere.

I know there are some of you who manage to blog, keep a full time job, manage a personal life, and write meaningful things that actually get published, but not this dumb blonde. I have got that ‘oh, look a chicken syndrome’ going on and can get lost in the blogs for days. When it comes to writing and getting things done there is no substitute for the old ‘butt in the chair, blank screen, no distractions, shut up and write, way of doing things for me.

The very first IWSG post I read this morning was at the home of my good friend Donna Hole. Donna used a quote by Tim McGraw about performing in whatever artistic medium, to suit yourself, and not the masses. That was some terrific advice and this dumb blonde needs to take it. BUT, I view that advice as not only about what you write, but how you write, and for me that has simply got to be more artistic than blogging.

At the end of the day I enjoy a lot of the interaction of blogging, but I am truly more satisfied when I see the words and chapters progress as I tell my stories. Solution, I need to cut back, if not stop blogging altogether and put my butt in the chair to better use.

Please don’t be offended by this post. It is totally for me, but if it should help anyone else see a problem in their connection to what they really want and what they are currently doing, well then, that’s the frosting on the cake.

Go over and thank Alex J Cavanaugh for starting this whole IWSG thing up. While your there check out the linky list and read some of the other posts. You'll probably find some helpful advice. It gives us a forum to think out loud, and help send our insecurities packing.

22 comments:

  1. No, it's true. It's a time suck.
    Limit your posts. Do your two Battle of the Bands and the IWSG post and that's it. Then, butt in chair!

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    1. Excellent idea and it is exactly what I have planned.

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  2. I think you are exactly right. I myself might have taken a different writing path- actually started to, sorta- but blogging gave me a voice, which was more what I really wanted, and socialization. Your characters might speak to you, but they don't speak TO you. Not saying good or bad, Just you are right.

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    1. This is exactly what I want to be careful of...that different path. I've been on it for a little too long already.

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  3. You can't offend me. I blog but not nearly as much as I used to. But it's something I will continue for the rest of my life.

    May 2016 IWSG Co-Host
    May the 4th Be With You
    Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs

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    1. Glad to hear this Stephen, cause I don't intent to offend anyone. It seems the other comments are with you. Nobody is out to give up blogging completely, but almost everyone claims to have curbed their enthusiasm to some extent,

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  4. No offense taken, blogging is a full time job, and it's why I'm taking a break to work on my WIP's. I too will be cutting back. to posts on Mondays, the WEP, oh and the IWSG, but that'll be it for awhile. No more of this daily or three times a day stuff. :)
    Once you publish, or even before your publisher will look to your Brand / platform / etc. For most of us that is the blog. It's a necessary evil, while at the same time being fun and a great way to network - but work, oh yeah!

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    1. Excellent way to put it Yolanda; 'blogging IS a full time job', if you let it be. And, I agree it seems to be a necessary evil.

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  5. Can't offend the cat as it is huge time suck where anyone is at. At least if one puts any effort into it at all, not counting those "look at me" or "I've got nothing to say" types. Effort there is minimal lol my ocd just helps me and being far far ahead.

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    1. You my friend are extraordinary when it comes to blog posts, as I'm sure you are with other things as well, like your writing, of course. OCD...Ha,ha,ha! Yeah I'm afflicted to some extent, but it never really seems to help me out much. More of a distraction really.

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  6. I blog less now. I can't do everything I do and be an active blogger every day.

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  7. Oh yes, Butt in Chair is advice I need to take also. Blogging can be a big distraction, as well as everything else. I let it get in my way for a long time, and am now giving myself permission to "socialize" on the blogs only once in a while. When I first started on my publication route I really needed the advice and experience of lots of bloggers. Now, I need the kick in the ass to get something written - so I can publish again. Someday.

    I'm getting there - with the Butt in Chair thing. Like you, I had plenty of ideas roaming around my head, and interfering with my sleep. I sit in a car for hours at a time, thinking of my unfinished projects and writing on them in my head. Yeah, I really need to get myself a recorder and talk those ideas into it. At least that would be closer to actual writing than I am currently - and the butt is already in the chair. LOL.

    I hope you are settling in somewhat. And getting your writing area set up so you can write something. Have a good weekend FAE.

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    1. You know, your post inspired this one and I think I was so rude as to not even leave a comment at your space. I'll need to remedy that soon. (I read your post on my phone and didn't go back when I opened up the computer).

      A small tape recorder, or maybe your phone, would be a good idea in the car when your doing all that cross-country driving. I need to take my own advice and use my phone to record some of the ideas that are still in my head when I wake up, but seem to leave after the first cup of coffee.

      Talk to you soon. I promise.

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  8. Excellent slogan at the top there! I'll try to follow that advice.

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  9. I'm far from offended; I'm in total agreement. I didn't know what blogging would mean when I started. I didn't even know why my publisher thought it was something I "had" to do. For me blogging has become a way to be in touch with some genuinely good people, but it is a distraction from my main goal, which happens to be to write a decent book. So now I'm in that dilemma: continue to blog and stay connected to a community I enjoy and admire OR hang it up and go to work on finishing that next book.

    I appreciated your post today. Thanks.

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    1. Thanks C Lee. I too feel that dilemma. There are so many good and fun people, that I have a hard time simply slipping away into the darkness, but I really want to publish.

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  10. I agree and disagree, but I tend to be dichotomous like that much of the time. Or maybe I just see both sides of an argument.

    Yes, it can be a huge time suck, but that is to me mostly a matter of trying to read as many posts as I can and leave comments. For the most part I don't think of my posts that way since I make an attempt to write something that I hope will be worth reading as much as I can.

    As far as writing goes, blogging has been the best thing for my writing since college classes where I had to write essays. I've always tried to do my best at anything I write and since I rarely kick myself in the butt to write, feeling some sense of responsibility to meet a schedule, a required writing that must be done according to a deadline, works for me.

    Like others here, I blog less than I used to, but still I guess I blog more than others do. I see keeping the content on my blog as a sort of writing job where I don't get paid in money, but I do derive a fulfillment and that's important to me. My blog is the place where I unleash my thoughts that I want to share with others. It's a heck of a lot better than talking to myself and my ear gets sore when I talk on the phone too long.

    Blogging is my writing until I actually start writing something else if the inspiration and the compulsion ever drives me in that direction. So for now, if I'm blogging, I'm writing, and I don't see that as a bad thing.

    Besides, it's probably better than watching TV which might be what I'd be apt to do if I weren't blogging.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Like so many things in life this is one of personal choices. I agree that blogging is far better than watching TV (I had my cable turned off with this move), now there is a REAL time suck.

      I think we each have to decide what is important to us. For me, I want to get the stores out of my head and down onto paper, with, of course, the hope of sharing them through publication. Your idea about keeping to a schedule and discipline is a good one and something that I need more of, but I need to discipline myself to write the stories, not socialize on the blogs.

      All that said, it's hard to give up the connections I've made with some truly wonderful people. We'll see what happens, eh?

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  11. I agree with what you say. I've been thinking the same thoughts for awhile. I'm a writer, and I want to be a writer not a typist. I like how you put that. But I am getting very distracted by my blogging. I'm not spending enough real time writing. There is never much time for that after I'm done blogging and it should be the other way around. I've made the decision to go blog lite this month and so far I've produced two blog posts this week. And today is only Wednesday. But, I have finally told myself enough is enough. I will not be blogging any more this month. Not even for the BOTB. I have to give that a rest for the second half of the month. I'm wishing you the best in your writing this month.

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