Coming Up: the 4th Birthday of The Blog — & Time for Reflection
Yes indeed, on 31 May 2014 I will have been blogging for four years. It feels like no time at all, but during that time I have blogged every day, missing only one — the day immediately following the February 22nd earthquake of 2011 when the absence of power meant no internet and therefore no post.
So coming up on the fourth anniversary seems like a very good time for reflection and “where to from here.” So far, this is where my ponderings have taken me:
I really enjoy the blog, not least the opportunity to focus it around my love of story, poetry, writing and people. But it does make its demands in terms of time and energy. Keeping it going every day—largely on my own although I nod respectfully to Rebecca Fisher with Big Worlds on Small Screens and the ad hoc book reviewers—when there are also contracted books to be written, has proven a considerable challenge at times.
With regards to the book writing, I also posted on Monday that:
“My experience has been that in order to bring the colour and depth of the story in your mind — which one hopes comprises the richness of the world, the nuances of the characters, and diversity and complexity of the plot — to the page you need to minimise interference with the ‘signal.’ Solitude, and/or long periods of uninterrupted time, are both an important way of achieving that outcome. Why long periods? Because the uninterrupted signal also needs to be sustained.”
I also observed that:
“Online interaction, to me, is very much in the nature of hanging out in the midst of the coffee house or the market square, and although that can be stimulating, it is also by its very nature immediate, interactive, and short term in focus. The complete opposite, in fact, of the novel-writing process as described above.
So it stands to reason, or so it seems to me, that immersion in the one will actively work against one’s ability to deliver in the other.”
The primary reason I became a writer was to write novels. I love writing novels. I would like, if at all possible, to write great novels. I would also like to write them just a little bit faster than has currently proven the case. To have a hope of achieving any or all of these goals, logic suggests that I need to prioritise writing novels over other activities, no matter how much they may (or may not) complement my writing.
An obvious re-prioritisation is to redirect some of the time and energy currently being given to social media activities back into writing. I do not propose giving up the blogging, because I do enjoy it and interacting with readers. I definitely want to maintain the blog as a platform to continue posting news and discussing my love of books and writing. I also want to keep regular features such as The Tuesday Poem, Rebecca Fisher’s Big Worlds On Small Screens, and the A Geography Of Haarth series going.
So I propose cutting back from posting seven days a week to four, in the first instance. This will see posts on Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at least until the A Geography Of Haarth series concludes. After that I will look at whether three days a week, i.e. Monday, Tuesday (the Tuesday Poem rules out Wednesday, which would otherwise be more logical) and Thursday might work, or whether I want to stick with the four days. And I may, dear followers, also observe the occasional holiday on the blog. We will see.
I know I may lose some of you and I shall be very sorry to see you go, but I think/hope this may result in more Helen Lowe books reaching the world more quickly — and I do hope you agree with me that that is what all this is really all about.
I am, however, still open to your feedback and hearing what you think. I am also willing to change in response to what you have to say, i.e. this proposal is not yet fully decided upon. So as always, I welcome your comments.
Your blog posts are a privilege, not a right.
If you need to cut back to write, to have time for family, or just to take longer baths, that’s your right, Helen. No one is going to begrudge it to you. No one. 🙂
Thanks, Paul — I will confess to having felt pretty close to complete exhaustion over the past few years, and although living in Christchurch’s post eq grunge has been a big part of that, trying to balance between the long distance event that is novel writing, and the 50-100 metre dashes of social mediarizing has not always been easy, ie muscle faitgue from vastly different training regimes!:) I am hoping this will be the start of striking a better balance.
Four, ot even three times a week is still very demanding, Helen, while maintaining your writing schedule.
Personally, I think I am doing well to post once a week. I like to blog, but don’t want to see it as work, that is, something I have to do.
Good luck with the changed schedule.
I agree, Penelope, 3 to 4 posts per week is still “not nothing” by any stretch. My feeling is that the main thing is to be consistent and for readers to know when content is ticking over. I also need to get some “follow” buttons activated — it’s inching its way up the “to do” list.:)
Go for it.
Every day that is a bit extreme, by which I mean,one helluva commitment. It’s your blog, you do what you like, I’m just looking forward to winter really getting going so I can find your books and find out if they’re as good as they appear at first blush.
Anyway very nice to find there is an international fantasy author based just over the back fence (Rangiora).
Why not take 3 days break from everything and go along the Banks Peninsula Walk, there is something about early winter that appeals.
You must definitely check the books out. 😉
As for being a local international fantasy author, my hope is that, together with Elizabeth Knox, Karen Healey and Russell Kirkpatrick, to name but a few, I will be one of the handful of pebbles that starts the avalanche.
How many times you post on your blog, is completely your decision. The readers must just be glad that you do post (and this on a regular basis, something I can say of little other authors…).
So just keep the good work going!
I have only one question – will the “Big Words on Small Screens by Rebecca Fisher” feature continue to exists? I like it very much.
Thank you, Tim. You’re right, it is my call, but blogging is also interactive so I like to remain open to feedback.:) On which note, I am delighted you enjoy Rebecca’s series, ‘Big Worlds On Small Screens”, and absolutely yes: I shall be keeping it going for as long as Rebecca wishes to keep posting. I know, too, that she has some plans for some more mini series along the lines of “Stop Motion” October/November and “Miyazaki May.”
Like Helen says, “BWoSS” is pretty indefinite! Glad you’re liking it!
Sounds like a great move, Helen – I think 3 to 4 times a week is still a really decent amount, folks will stick around, surely! 🙂
I hope so, too, especially as intend to aim for quality over quantity.:)