Writers Should Not Blog About Writing
Filed Under: Writing Advice, Writing Process, creativity
We’re writers, so we should write about everything, right? Not if we care about maintaining an audience, we shouldn’t. Despite our deep-seated belief that every thing that happens to us and every thought we have is interesting to others, some things writers like to blog about are just plain boring or, worse, portray them in a negative light. I’ve learned most of these because I’ve done them and driven off readers with them, so don’t think I’m setting these down as reminders for others. They apply to me doubly so. They include:
- Your rejection letters. You can use them to illustrate a point, but blogging “rejected by F&SF, 8 days” isn’t very interesting. Also, it makes you look kinda like a schlub when your blog is full of rejection letters. Your readers only need to know when you have new work coming out. They don’t care how many agents turned you down, or how many rejections you gathered along the way before the sale.
- Your word count for the day. Good for you, seriously. I know some people use this as a kind of social reinforcement, but personally, I can’t stand looking at a blog and seeing nothing but a long list of short posts talking about what you wrote that day.
- Your favorite snippet from your work-in-progress. Out of context, it isn’t nearly as neat or interesting as you think it is. Publish the story and we’ll bask in the glow of your genius then.
- Grammar. Snore.
- In general, the craft and daily travails of being a writer.
I firmly believe that writers should be interesting for something other than being a writer. It’s a rare individual who can be scintillating to the general public while talking about the sausage-making of writing.* If you’re a writer, surely you’re passionate about something other than writing. Blog about whatever that is.
Look at it this way–who is your target audience? The subject of writing is interesting to other writers and aspiring writers. They are not necessarily the readers you want, because there are not very many of them. If your goal is to collect a following greater than a few hundred people, then you need a subject of broader interest–even just the genre that you write in is more interesting than the act of writing itself.
Clearly I am not following the advice of the last point here. I write about writing for a good reason, and that’s because my freelance business caters to writers. Writers are my target audience for these posts, so I am comfortable with it. As I complete my business website, these kinds of advice posts will transition to that site, and my personal blog will become more, well, personal.
*Exempt from this advice are writers with staggering readerships, such as Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi.
ETA:
Nick Mamatas has this to say in the comments, and it’s a strong point:
So I took this advice much further than I should have. And I should point out that my advice was aimed squarely not at writers who blog as a kind of personal journal. I aim it at people who are looking to deliberately and methodically grow an audience. If you’re writing a personal journal style blog, but want to use your blog to grow an audience, I thnk you need to think about transitioning the kind of content you post.
The subject of writing is interesting to other writers and aspiring writers. They are not necessarily the readers you want, because there are not very many of them.
Crazy talk. There are millions of aspiring writers, and thus an industry to service them—several monthly magazines, a plethora of how-to books, seminars and conferences, over 100 degree-granting programs in the subject, etc.
Aspiring writers also tend to read more widely (and deeply) than non-aspirants. Aspiring writers are certainly a large audience worth cultivating.