I've had a bit of a hiatus from blogging, due partly to the transition from the school year schedule to the summer schedule, and partly because of my own habits of procrastination. Many posts have, of course, been written in my head in the interval, but what good is that? E. F. Benson, the author of the Mapp and Lucia series,* said something to the effect that a writer is not somebody who can write, he is somebody who does write.
I tend to read quite a lot of blogs about writing, and funnily enough many of the people who choose (why?) to follow me on Twitter are also writers. Why do scribblers love peering over each other's shoulders? Is it insecurity, or is it that sitting at a desk cranking out words is such a lonely life that they're looking for company? So over the last few weeks, I have absorbed a lot of advice about blogging. And I've come to the conclusion that I'm a disastrously unsuccessful blogger.
For one thing, people aren't rushing to comment on my posts. My goodness, I should be getting 5-10 comments at least on everything I say! Of course I could change that in short order; if I raised the subject of abortion or wrote a critique of atheism, I could probably garner lots of comments from opinionated people, whose comments would then be commented on by opinionated people of the opposite opinion (try saying that fast five times!) Of course their comments would swing wildly away from the topic of my post, but by the 100th comment would I care? Success would be mine at last!
My next handicap as a blogger is that I don't write about just one subject. Consistency, I read, is the key to successful blogging. Your reader wants to know what to expect. So pick a topic, dear blogger, and stick to it like glue. Or more or less like glue; my friend Sivje, who writes a very nice blog mostly about sewing, goes off topic sometimes without, I'm sure, any loss of readers because we're all agog to see the newest example of her impressive talents.
Then there's the school of thought that says that the best use of blogging is to promote your book, or product, or whatever. Mention it in every post. I guess that would cover the one-subject requirement as well!
So what's a blogger to do if she doesn't want to write about the same thing all the time, doesn't have any particular talent to promote, hasn't written a Magnum Opus that needs to be brought to the world's attention, and doesn't have any great interest in being controversial enough to attract hatemail? (hateposts? hatecomments? must update vocabulary.) She is doomed, poor thing, to float around in the backwaters of the blogosphere, watching blogging stars throw out their nets and catch hundreds, even thousands, of new readers in the nets of their bold, consistent words.
If I don't sound all that worried, it's because I'm not. For several reasons. One, this is my first blog, and I'm still finding my voice in this new venture. Two, I'm not writing to be successful, I'm writing because it's fun. I found this quote on a random page thrown up by Google: “Writing is not a profession, occupation or job; it is not a way of life: it is a comprehensive response to life.”
-Gregory McDonald.**
Blogging is just taking that response to life into a potentially public space. It's a bit like going to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, London, and starting to speak. You may draw a crowd if you're interesting enough. Most of the time you'll be listened to by maximum five people, who will be sniggering (either on the inside or on the outside) about how eccentric you are. But you'll have had the guts to do it, and to my mind that's what counts.
Three (you'd forgotten I was doing a list, right?) if I wrote about the same thing all the time, I'd bore myself. I can't imagine anything worse than voluntarily boring myself. I'm quite happy to bore other people, obviously. Four, I have a very dim view of success. I don't like the industry that surrounds successful people. Fortunately, success as a writer is often of a very modest kind, but even then you are expected to market your work by going on endless book programs and, oh yes, blogging. I read a post from a literary agent today who said she's not really that interested in writers who are not prepared to use social media to promote their work. Wow. I'm really quite glad I haven't written that Magnum Opus yet.
* I find it interesting that E.F. Benson lived in the same house in Rye (Sussex, England) that Henry James occupied until his death in 1915. Called Lamb House, it's now owned by the National Trust and is well worth a visit. If I could pick any house in the world to own, it would be this one. It has a really pretty garden and Rye is soooo picturesque (see picture at the top of this post.)
** Gregory McDonald, if you are still alive, I apologize for having no clue who you are. One day I'll google you. Promise.
