Today I'd like to discuss another form of writing that will help your career as a novelist: blogging.
Maybe you already do it. Maybe you've considered starting. Or perhaps it's not on your radar at all.
Here's why it should be.
1. Blogging will help you relax your voice
Us novelists tend to take ourselves a bit seriously at times. After all, writing a novel is a big undertaking. It's challenging and important and... and... kind of lofty. Right?
As a novelist shut away in our writing cave for months and years on end, it's easy to get wrapped up in the grandeur of the story we're spinning, and forget all about that little thing called the reader. And the problem is, if our storytelling voice becomes all lofty and self-important, we've lost most of those said readers from the get-go.
Blogging is different. There's a matter of hours between writing something and having it go live before a real-life audience: an audience who gives us immediate feedback on our work. Therefore, it's easier to write with said audience front and center in our writing brain. The result? A tone that is conversational, friendly, down-to-earth, and relatable.
Once you've been blogging long enough, you'll find that more natural, conversational voice finding its way into your longer fiction as well. And that's a good thing.
Blogging will help you strip affectation from your voice, simplify, relax, and keep things real.
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| Image by Ambro, freedigitalphotos.net |
Blogging is like the stomach-crunches of the writing world.
Maybe it's not as exciting or glamorous as signing that big book deal, watching your novel climb the bestseller ranks, or any of the other delightful things we like to daydream about.
But it gives you a solid foundation as a writer. It requires you to be consistent and meet small, regular deadlines. That is great practice for one day down the track when you have deadlines set by a publisher.
3. Blogging will improve your productivity
Sometimes the best thing for a story block is to switch writing gears and hammer out a blog post. It's an easy and immediate style of writing, and it'll give you the satisfaction of completing something - which is a great antidote to frustration.
Besides, the more you write, across all genres and platforms, the quicker you get. Wanna be a prolific writer? Start blogging. Your output will increase overall, because it has to.
Before you know it, ideas start flowing faster from brain to fingertips, and you're all limbered up and ready to dive back into your story-world.
4. Blogging will help you find and connect with your audience
This flows on from the first point. Blogging puts you in touch with readers - right now, without having to wait for some "maybe day" in the distant future.
Publishers want to see that you have a platform. We all know how essential that is in today's marketing climate. There is no better time to start building a platform than before the book deal.
Wait till afterward, and you've probably left it too late.
When you blog consistently and strategically, you are building a tribe of people who are interested in what you have to say.
To have a voice, and someone to listen.
Do you blog? If so, why do you do it, and how do you find it helps you as a writer?
If not, what are your reasons for not blogging? Is it something you'd consider?
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Karen Schravemade lives in Australia, where she mothers by day and transforms into a fearless blogger by night. She's a Genesis finalist for women's fiction and is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such. Find her on Twitter, Google+, and getting creative on her home-making blog, A house full of sunshine.
