A blog I subscribe to throws out challenges every once in awhile. They come up with a seasonal or creative topic to write about and we are invited to post our thoughts on their blog and then they pick a handful to highlight the following week.
I guess the benefit is that if I write something really terrific and people subjectively love it, I might get more readers or receive some sort of kudo. (Probably not the chocolate covered kind.)
So this concept got me thinking. I know you love it when I do that. Why do I blog?
If I decided to be brutally honest I'd tell you that I don't really know.
At all.
I did when I started. When I started blogging I was a wannabe writer with book ideas dancing in my head and some hope that if I worked really hard and put in loads of spit and polish and elbow grease and old-fashioned nitty gritty I'd eventually be published in hardcover. And when I was published I'd have an awesome platform from which to promote my book. After all, I'd have blogged about fascinating things and given out teasers and whetted appetites with witty, juicy and deep comments that left readers begging for more.
That's one of the reasons I began to do book reviews, too. To make my name recognizable in the tiny Christian publishing industry. My secondary reason was because all the authors I admired mentioned that a writer reads and learns from what she/he reads. And how better to learn than to sort information into some sort of logical format that spells out what makes a story good, believable and moving and what makes a character come to life? So there you go, writing a review does that.
That idealistic chick described in the preceding paragraphs has grown up a bit. I've attended writer's conferences, poured over articles, how-to books and had my stuff shredded and rewritten by the best critiquers around. I've entered far more contests than I'd like to admit. And I've stared at blank computer screens hoping for inspiration and the words with which to describe it.
To be continued.
