Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Shifting Priorities

How is it March already?

What started out as a one-week break from the blog turned into two. And the only reason I’ve been remiss is because I’ve been slammed lately.


My critiquing responsibilities skyrocketed since the fall when I joined a new writing group. We meet monthly, and the week before, each member submits anywhere between 30 to 100 pages of their WIPs. Then those pages need to be read and responded to in time for the meeting. Needless to say, when that week rolls around each month, critiquing has to be the first priority.

My own writing often has to be put on hold, and that means my blog as well. I’m also a member of another writing group that meets weekly, so I sometimes have to be creative with how I divvy up my time.

This month another variable was added to the equation—my editorial pass on the collaborative project I wrote about a few weeks ago. 70k that needed extensive line and developmental edits. Hence the radio silence on the blog.

Now, I wouldn’t trade joining the new writing group or working on the project for anything. But sometimes something has to give, and more often than not, that’s this blog.

I’ve been blogging now for three years. When I started, conventional wisdom was that you needed to do social media all the time. Now, slowly but surely, people are starting to back away from that.

If you’re a totally new, unpublished writer who is focused on fiction, memoir, poetry, or any type of narrative-driven work, forget you ever heard the word platform. I think it’s causing more damage than good. It’s causing writers to do things that they dislike (even hate), and that are unnatural for them at an early stage of their careers. They’re confused, for good reason, and platform building grows into a raging distraction from the work at hand—the writing.
Do I regret blogging? Absolutely not. I enjoy it and I’ve enjoyed the connections I’ve made because of blogging. But that doesn’t mean I always enjoy the time and energy it takes to maintain one.

Especially when it comes up against my own writing time and professional responsibilities.

So that’s where I’m at. If I’m not here, I’m writing. Which is how it should be.

3 comments:

Darla said...

Absolutely ... my blogging has fallen off as well because ... yes, I'm writing! LOL Thanks for sharing Jane's comments. My husband says social media and platform building for authors is a niche waiting to be filled ... so I'm mostly hoping to find someone who *loves* it to fill the niche for me. ;-)

Laura Lee Nutt said...

It's nice to hear from you. I was starting to get worried, so I'm glad it was just focusing on other things.

30-100 pages per person is a HUGE amount of work to critique in that amount of time. You are a very brave soul. I also hope you're getting enough time to work on you own projects.

Good luck with the critiquing, editing, and writing, and even though you're stepping back from platform building, I hope you'll still generally keep up the blog. :)

Bluestocking said...

Darla, so glad to hear the writing is going well! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's let their blog slide!

Laura, yes, the new group is definitely worth it, but I have to stop feeling guilty if that week I can't manage a blog post on top of the critiquing. I don't want to stop blogging, but I'm feeling the time pressure these days. Thanks for checking in!

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