Monday, December 7, 2015

That Blog Life: From NaBloPoMo to Regular Posting

I'm trying to work out my "blog life." I mean, I know that I like blogging but I need to add some structure into the task for it to GET DONE. I just looked at the stats for this blog and it looks like I didn't post at all between 2011 and 2014. Of course, I was moving a couple of times, buying a house, starting a practice, increasing my time at my job blah blah blah, but I probably could have posted if I had really wanted to. But things come up, you know? When I was doing NaBloPoMo, it was helpful to think about how I was going to get the task done. That was an intense but short- term goal. Now it's time to think about how to sustain the "blog life." 

I'm actually a fan of structured problem solving and goal setting, because it's what I help people do for my living, probably... but it never hurts to reflect on what the hell you're doing. Right? If you don't know where you're going, you can't really know if you are on the right track. Or if you need to make a change. That reminds me of something:


Here are some questions I have for myself:
1.  Is your blog only going to be about books and bookish things?
a.   Mostly. But I think that there will be some posts that are more current thought/ event based. Primarily, I like doing the reviews but don't like the idea of only having review posts. I think that would be boring. My last few book posts have incorporated thoughts about the book along with some related real- life thing. I'm going to try to keep that up for review posts.

2.   Who are you writing to/for? Is this a Dear Diary sort of a thing or more of an open letter to an unknown reader sort of thing?
a.   I'm still working on that. When I blog, I think about "talking" to someone who knows me pretty well so the posts are pretty casual. It book review posts are partially to provide some information about the book to those who might be interested, but also to me, because I forget stories pretty quickly. 

3.   How often are you going to post? Or are you going to just post when the mood strikes?
a.   Aye. There's the question. I posted a twitter poll for bloggers and it seems like a common goal is to post about once per week/ at least several times per month. I actually have two blogs, one of which is super dead. My goal will be to post to each of them once per week. The other one is here, if you want to see it come back to life.

4.   What do you NEED: Space, materials, time, hardware?
o   I have a lap top but I don't really like my set up at home. For NaBloPoMo, I went to the library pretty often because I like their computers better. This is something to think about. 

Related prompt:
Name the five biggest distractions from your writing. I have posted about the things I do when I'm not posted. It boils down to:
  1. Family
  2. Facebook
  3. Twitter
  4. Work and Paperwork from my actual job
  5. Extracurricular/ Volunteer work 

Links for blog posts ideas: 
http://selfpublishingteam.com/105-author-blog-prompts/
http://www.literaryrambles.com/2009/03/new-blog-topics-for-writers-blog.html

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