Tag Archives: blogging

From slump to score

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Lately I’ve been noticing that my writing has been in a bit of a slump. I only write a blog when I’m riled up about something, and then usually feel like it’s just a rant that isn’t worth posting after the emotions are spent. I’ve been writing really brief blogs about the books I’ve been reading, over at Crack Books, which is fun… but it’s not exactly the stuff of genius. I’ve been writing cover letters and endlessly tweaking my résumé, which is duller work than anything in the world. And then there’s just the sea of words that I feel like I’ve been drowning in, with all the print and web material I’ve got in my “to read” pile.

So I’ve decided to kick it up a notch and put myself on a strict writing regimen, to get things moving in the right direction and change my personal scoreboard from “zero” to “hero.” (Wow, that was cheezy! But somehow true.) Here’s what I’ve got lined up, so you can play along at home if you like:

  1. Just try and tell me you don’t want to run right out and get one of these New Leaf Paper composition notebooks for yourself! (image via New Leaf Paper)

    7 haiku per day, with coffee. I’ll bust some poetic moves as I drink my morning beverage of choice, getting the creative juices flowing and a feeling of accomplishment at seeing those 5–7-5s line up on the page. I’m doing 7 a day because that’s how many fit on a college-ruled page in my composition book. (Mad props to the New Leaf Paper company, who’ve really sexed up the standard composition-style notebook, all with 100% recycled paper. HOT!) I figure if I keep up this rate, by this time next year I’ll have a book of haiku to publish.

  2. Sending out work for publication. Every day I’ll try to find at least one new publication where I can send some of my finished work. I know I tend to procrastinate on this, or just let the stuff sit there, wondering what to do with it. No more! It’ll be out there, circulating, so that even if it’s getting rejected, at least it’s being read. Like they say about the lottery: you’ve gotta be in it to win it.
  3. Writing new stories. This is another point: while I do have some finished work I’d like to get out there, I’ve also got to keep updating the files with new work. So, I’d better get on to writing some stories! Every day I’ll work on either starting, editing, or finishing some new bit of work. When I hit a wall with one, start another. Keep ‘em in rotation and see what comes out of it.
  4. Finish that novel. I’ve been plugging away on my novel, on and off for a few years. It’s time to get serious, write the stuff that needs to get written, edit the stuff that needs to get edited, and get that sucker done. Just like the short fiction, just keep things moving and keep coming back to those pages. My biggest issue seems to be procrastination, so let’s put it on the To Do list and move it up towards the top, rather than letting it slide daily to the bottom.

That’s the four-pronged approach. I’ll probably still have to keep sending out résumés and cover letters on a daily basis, but I’ve decided to limit it to a manageable amount and do that type of admin work only until noon. After noon, it’s time to write. After all, I’m not an administrator, I’m a writer. Sometimes you have to remind yourself, y’know?

Anyway, that’s my approach. Do any of you have a specific writing routine or regimen that you like to use? Tell me all about it; I’m always curious to know how the rest of the world writes!

P.S. Here’s one of the 7 haiku I wrote today, reflecting on the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympic Games:

Hipsters reading pomes,
A friend asks: “Is this what your
country’s all aboot?”

Don Draper vs Anaïs Nin on blogging, transparency and trust

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Blogging has always been fun for me, but I’ve never given it much serious thought. I have always been the type to throw down a few words, and then unleash them on the Internet. This style offers great things in the way of instantaneous feedback as well as blowing off steam, but can definitely go wrong in the TMI and personal privacy departments.

Don Draper (via Glory Fades)

Don Draper (via Glory Fades)

CT Moore has recently been writing about the concepts of transparency and trust on the Internet, and he says in his post What Would Donald Draper Blog? that building your personal brand is not about sharing everything. He notes that Don Draper “wouldn’t talk about his personal life or what he likes doing on the weekend. And he definitely wouldn’t gossip. Neither of these would do anything to help him fill the demand of his audience.” Indeed, being personal or authentic isn’t the same as being transparent. In fact, he argues that Don Draper wouldn’t be transparent at all, because his personality is actually a brand he has built to hide his true identity, Dick Whitman.

So what does this have to do with me, Laura Roberts, the person, or the “brand”? Do I even have a brand? To some extent, yes, I have several. I’m the face of Black Heart Magazine. I’m V for Vixen. But here, on my personal website, I’m Laura Roberts, Writer. And that brand needs developing.

How does one develop a writer brand? By writing, of course. But also by writing about writing. Not to the extent that your writing is overshadowed by talk about the writing process, but enough that it helps you to clarify your own thoughts on that process and how to move through it.

The other day I wrote a blog about How to Get Published. I was tired of people asking me the same old questions, of coming to me for advice that they won’t even take, of pumping me for information that is freely available. But you know what? The fact is, that information is freely available, so what does it matter if they want to get it from me instead of from Google? It’s already free, and it doesn’t damage me in any way to share what is already known and available. In fact, it may even increase the trust people have in my writer brand, so why not do it?

Should I charge for these pearls of wisdom? If I can, yes, that would be great. But if someone asks me for an opinion, or advice, why should I be stingy, or tell them I’m not going to give them the information they’re looking for unless they pay me for my time? The information is already out there. The fact that I will pass it along for free can really only make me look good. It’s something for you, and something for me. No money needs to exchange hands.

Anaïs Nin (via Famous Poets & Poems)

Anaïs Nin (via SLGA)

So yes, I can answer your questions about writing. I can share a few “secrets.” And I can keep a few to myself, too. But blogging—and writing in general—is about setting people free and giving everything you’ve got to the page (or the screen). To quote Anaïs Nin:

“To write means to give all. No witholding is possible. The best writers are those who give all. However, there is the choice of clothing: fiction, symbolism, poetry, etc.”

In the end, I subscribe more to the Anaïs Nin school of writing everything and choosing the veils through which things are presented than the Don Draper method of building mysteries from the ground up, though each has its value in different situations. Here, as my writer self, I choose not to withold anything, whether we’re talking about writing, art, sex, life, the universe, or anything else. That authenticity is important, even if transparency isn’t.

Which type of blogger are you: Don Draper or Anaïs Nin… or someone else entirely?

Help name the MediaBistro blog, or forever hold your TK

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namefailOkay, I will admit that I am not tops at coming up with brilliant names, headlines, sub-heads and so forth, but I definitely know a clunker when I see one. MediaBistro is starting up a blog that will allow their AvantGuild members to showcase some of their work, comment on the media fields in which they work, etc., and currently their chosen blog title is… TK.

That’s right, TK. For those not in the media, “TK” is what you write in a piece when you think “Hmm, there should be a fact or figure here, but I don’t happen to have it right now, so I will have to go look it up later.” It’s a placeholder meaning “to come” that makes it easier to return to the spot in your manuscript once you have the info, or else it acts as a reminder that you have to look something up. It’s perfectly helpful and reasonable for a writer to use TK in their drafts, but as the title for a blog, it stinks. Total name fail.

Here’s why:

  • It implies that the people writing the blog don’t actually know anything, because they will have to go look it up later (as this is what TK literally means)
  • It looks like the name of the blog is, itself, a placeholder, which implies that the people who started it have no idea what to call it and have given up
  • It’s trying to play on some “insider” knowledge, but TK is pretty low on the list of things an insider would need to know to get ahead in the field
  • Seth Godin (writer, speaker and agent of change) says you should never use a placeholder name for your blog, as people will fall in love with it, and then changing it will be impossible. Please, for the love of dog, listen to Seth Godin!

That being said, it’s better than all their other idiotic suggestions, which include 4UXU (“for you by you”), The Mediabistro Bump (supposedly “an homage to Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Bump”), UFTW (“you for the win”), and the possibly-maybe facetious “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Blogorium.” Seriously.

I know media types love puns (hell, I sure do), and riffing on already-famous titles, song lyrics, etc., but 4UXU? UFTW? These are pathetic. We can do better… can’t we?

In the comments section, there were a few good suggestions. Greg Vogel suggested “BistroVision,” and Ed Cohen went for “In Communicado.” These are both far better than “TK.” As I said in my comment, the blog needs something that suggests its connection to MediaBistro, something that’s clever but not precious, and avoids being a lame variant on “for us, by us.” I certainly don’t think “BistroBlog” is the most original name in the world, but at least it’d be honest.

So what would you name a MediaBistro blog?