webstuff4writers.com
I’ve started a new blog.
It won’t take the place of this blog, though.
It’s about writing. And the web. It’s called webstuff4writers.com.
Inspired by ‘Booking Through Thursday’, I’m going to post weekly writing topics that can be used in blogs about writing (like this one). These topics will usually be posted on a Sunday, unless there’s another day people prefer.
Anyway, here’s the first one, and my answer.
Writing about writing: Week one
Do you think keeping a journal or blog is a useful practice for writers? Why or why not?
webstuff4writers.com is my new attempt to keep a regular journal. I’m not good at keeping a regular journal. This blog in itself is evidence of this. There’s more evidence of it in a wardrobe of my parents’ place, where there’s a pile of notebooks, each about one quarter to a half full. In both 2006 and 2007, my New Year’s resolution was to keep a journal every day. This year, I made it to March.
That said, I do think that journaling is a useful practice for those who want to write. A lot of my short stories have come from journal and blog entries – both from those entries where I’ve recorded something that’s happened to me, and those entries that I recorded something I’ve observed happening in the world at large. Some of the scene-setting in Lessons to Learn was based on my travel journal from my time in Korea, and from the emails I sent home which became almost like a travel blog.
The other advantage that I’ve found is that keeping a journal is a good way to start writing each day, and that when I’ve written one piece – whether it’s non-fiction, stream-of-consciousness, or a poem – it’s easier to write something else. If I had all the time in the world for writing then, this process would be ideal. However, most days there’s only half an hour before work, a couple of hours after it. And then, if I spend too much time blogging or writing about my day, then no novel writing gets done at all.
Still, I’ll give webstuff4writers.com a go, and see how long it lasts. Hopefully others will find it useful. Hopefully I’ll managed to keep it out of that virtual wardrobe, where abandoned blogs go to die, for a couple of months at least.