Are You A Writer or A Blogger?

The following was a back-and-forth between me and Diana Stout, writer and blogger extraordinaire.  (She writes really well, and her blog is very interesting.  Go there.)  The topic at hand was: Should writers blog?  Writers write, one thought process goes, so writers should blog.  But, at the same time, the other thought process states, writers should be writing, not blogging, because whenever they're doing one, they're not doing the other.  Blogging is serious effort--effort better spent writing that novel, short story, whatever.  So, her entry asks, should writers blog?  And--Why do writers blog when they should be writing?

My answer/comment to her blog went as follows.  And, by the way, I asked her permission to post this conversation, just to be safe, as all good writers should--

I'm a writer/blogger, so I can honestly say this: Blogs are for writers who are not consistently published who want to be consistently published. I guarantee you that once I get consistently published, I won't be hot and heavy on my blog anymore--I won't have the time because I'd be too busy being published in other ways. But while I'm working on a draft, I check my blog stats every night because I want to see who's read my stuff--no matter what it is. I'll probably write more if I don't blog because a) I'll have more time to write; and b) I'll be missing my publication/being read fix, so I'll want to finish something and send it out ASAP. Now that I say this, I should take some time off from my blog and see if this is true!

Her answer/comment to mine was this:

While I agree with theory, I disagree in practice.  It was a huge concern of mine when I started the blog, simply because I knew from experience that writing a weekly piece can suck up all my creative juices and editing time, which is why I choose to go with a once-a-month practice.  Of course, you can see how well I've not kept THAT commitment.  I use the blog as a free-write exercise, to warm me up, just like I have students do free-writes every day.  Also, it's a way for me to help other writers.  Even when you're published, I dare say that you'll still find yourself journaling if not blogging.  It's a simple outlet, one that doesn't require a editor or publisher for the go-ahead.

Okay, me again.  My bottom-line thought is this: Blogging can be beneficial for a writer, but it is still a distraction, a purposeful resistance to writing that novel or short story or whatever.  I mean, cleaning the desk off is beneficial to the writer, too, and sooner or later necessary.  But if done too often, it's just another example of resistance.  If cleaning off a spot on the office desk is a daily morning ritual, like sipping coffee and perusing the paper, that's fine, as long as the end result is substantial writing.  Blogging is the same; if it's another ritual for the writer, fine, as long as the writer writes his story immediately after.  But if you find you're not getting any actual writing done, but you are getting a lot of blogging done, then you have to ask yourself: Am I a blogger, or a writer?

What do you think?

The War of Art--Steven Pressfield

Brilliant and succinct meditation on the artist, the artist's calling, the philosophy of being a writer, and it does all of these things in ways that I would never have thought imaginable.  Some very memorable things in here, such as the fact that Krishna says that we all have the right to our labor, but not to the fruits of our labor.  (This means that we, as writers, have the right to work on our art--in fact, he says, we have the obligation to work on our art--but that we do not have the right to dictate to the gods, to Fate, or whatever, what should happen to our art after we create it.  So you write, and you finish, and you move on.  Brilliant in its simplicity.)  Or that we are all meant, in a Zen-like way, to do one thing in our lives, and that we allow our Ego, and specifically what he calls Resistance, to get in our way.  I'm not much for self-help books (this one, The Secret, and The Road Less Traveled are the only ones to ever do anything for me), but The War of Art is a keeper.  This one book inspired me to get up at 5ish every morning to write before I go to work, and to also work last thing at night before I go to bed.  I'm not creating genius all that time, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but I am creating something.

Genius.  If you're a writer, buy it.  It'll change you.

5 a.m.

That's the time that I have successfully gotten up this week, every weekday, and written more for The Gravediggers for an hour before I showered, ate, and went to work.  In that time, I've managed to finish three chapters--drafts, edits, etc.--and I've been on-time to work each day as an added benefit.

Actually, there have been many more benefits!  By writing every morning between 5 and 6:15 or so, I've had the quiet that I don't get during any other time of the day.  I also get my thoughts during my waking-up moments, which are often the best and most creative ones I get all day.  I feel a sense of peace and contentment I don't get when I write any other time of day; I'm by myself, doing my own thing.  Just me and the keys.  It's rekindled the utter joy I used to feel writing fiction.

The reason I decided at first to get up even earlier than usual--I have a get up very early kind of job--is that I was run-down by the sheer number of words, edits, papers and corrections I have to do at my job.  When I got home, I couldn't bear the thought of doing any of my own, so I had to wait for the weekends.  So I decided that I would try to wake up early and get my words done BEFORE I was completely turned-off to writing by everyone else's writing.

And what happened?  By writing in the morning and then going to work, I got enough writing done so that I was excited about doing even more when I got back.  I knew exactly what I wanted to work on, so I was already invested and focused, already driven to get more words done--even though I was still dealing with the same volume of material at my job.  It just didn't bother me as much when I got back.  I was already working in my head all day what I wanted to do when I got back.

When I couldn't garner the energy to work any more when I got home (yesterday), I got the business end done: I got my recent rejections in order; I jotted down where I'd sent things, where I should send things, which responses I'd gotten back, which conferences were coming up...

The bottom line: I refused to allow myself the excuse anymore that I just didn't have time.  I found the time.  And this is coming from an insomniac, from someone who went to sleep between midnight and 2 a.m. usually, got up around 6 a.m. and did the day.  Turns out, waking up at 5 a.m. also makes you more tired, so you go to sleep from 10 pm to midnight instead, and then do it all over again.

I followed Steven Pressfield's advice (in his tidy The War of Art) and I overcame that particular Resistance.  Check the book out.  Maybe it'll inspire you, too.  Believe me, if I can change something, like getting up even earlier, then you can, too.

Successful Chapters & More

Well, it's been a little while.  Truth is, I haven't been here because I've been writing!  (And watching baseball games.)  I'm two or three chapters into THE GRAVEDIGGERS, and things are going well.  It's exciting and a little bit freaky.  Its success has seeped into a few other things in my life, such as:

--An online friend asked me how I've been able to write, as the job that pays The Man gives me all the reading, words and editing I'd never want to ask for.  At first, I responded, "Well, vacation helps."  Then, as she is of the same profession, I mentioned that you just have to sit down when you have the time, no matter when that is.  She writes when she's waiting at a doctor's, or at soccer practice, etc.  (She'd write early in the morning, like 5 a.m., but that's when she does her running.  "Oh," I said.  I have a friend of the same profession who hits the gym by then.  I'd rather be writing.  We're all a little bit crazy.)  I have a new wish that I can get up at 5 a.m. and write more, but we'll see how THAT goes.  It makes sense to do this, as tons of other writers who were of the same profession have in the past, not to mention busy mothers and people of other professions.  The bottom line: If reading too many pages, editing too many things, and just looking at too many words during the job make me not want to write when I get home, then I have to write before I see those things.  Right?

--Steven Pressfield's The War of Art is a small, tidy helper against what he calls Resistance.  And it all makes a lot of sense, and sounds more like me than I do.  Highly recommended for writers who aren't writing as much as they want to be.

--Examples of resistance that I have offered in this blog recently that I didn't know were examples of resistance: clearing the desk; organizing the office; not being able to use a laptop a lot; reading too much; blogging and e-socializing too much...Turns out, writing is done by just writing.  I'm typing this on a severely cluttered desk with nowhere near the same anxiety I used to have.  I'll bet you have a ton of things you think are actual problems, but are in fact just examples of resistance.

--Which reminds me: I have to do more writing now before the game comes on, and then Easter dinner.  See?  Blogging is an example of resistance, too.

   Happy Holidays!