Why Blog?

When I finished my first novel in this series about a year ago, I thought to myself, God I’ve done it, now all I have to do is simply publish it. Wrong. And thus began my unfortunate journey with Blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking. I plunged head long into all three areas of social networking and in the end completely burned out. The love I had for my writing, my work and my fantasy world withered away due to the immense pressure of having to please others on a constant basis. How many people did I add to Facebook, Twitter or Blog. Spot today? Should I write more blogs? When can I focus on my second novel? And when do I have time to myself?

I fell into a vicious cycle and lost focus and this led me to dangerous waters. It became so bad, I actually felt pained if someone didn’t add me to their contact list and pained if I didn’t sell a book. And that was when I deleted it all. I got rid of Facebook, Twitter and Blog.Spot. I needed to seriously ask myself why it was that I began to write this series. Was it for money and fame? Or was it for the love of writing, even if that meant no sales and little networking. I had some serious thinking to do. Social networking was taking me away from what I loved and it fractured personal relationships and in time altered myself. I felt an incredible sense of freedom, simply deleting it all into nothing. I write because I love to write. It is a part of me and the characters, stories and landscapes are all a part of that. When eventually I finished another novel, I hit the same issue once more. Should I blog? Or should I simply write and do away with the social networking that now seems to go hand in hand with writing books?

To be blatantly honest I spent quite some time simply mulling over this problem and seeking counsel. I found it quite surprising that I should find the act of writing hard, when it is the very essence of who I am. And so I came to a compromise. I want to write a blog not for fame or money. I want you the reader to dive into my book series and all that it entails. To do this, I had to create measures for myself. And so I came up with these measures, to ensure I never fall prey to the pressure of social networking again.

1.      Write because you feel the need to convey information to your readers, not because you feel pushed or pressurised into doing so.

2.      Never allow yourself to be seduced by numbers. Is it not better to have a few good friends than dozens of contacts who really don’t know you at all?

3.      If you don’t feel the aspiration to write a blog during the week then don’t. Your readers are not going to fall into despair and if you are being realistic, there are bigger problems in the world other than you being too uninspired to write.

4.      When writing a blog, write well and with the intent of not trying impress others, with the intent of being honest and true.

5.      It must be fun! If it feels otherwise, step away and analyse the situation.

And so here I am once again, blogging, this time with a different set of eyes and back up in case I become addicted and consumed with the world of social networking once more. Have you ever encountered the same problems? If so, how did you overcome them?

Iseult x