Peter V. Brett linked me up with this. Robin Hobb makes a very good point, which is that you can lose many hours to doing different stuffs, blogging among them, on the internet from the comfort of your own home while other possible things you can do (working/writing/movie/stroll/visit-w-friends etc.) don't get done. But wasn't it always thus? You can watch Survivor and see people every season on some beach with nothing to do, and who still manage to find things to do other than the necessary nothing. That's the point which I think Robin Hobb is missing.
Some people, Brandon Sanderson or John Scalzi or others might big-time, will talk about how blogging helps to knit a close community with them and their readers. Maybe it does.
I have a day job; I haven't posted in a few days because the day job has kept me busy. There are other people in the world who would have let the day job slide so they could post and comment and monitor comments and whatever. I don't know if I'll blog forever because I have to let the day job come first, but with blogging as in most things, everything in moderation. Except, of course, for buying books my my clients!
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I agree. I know that obsessively monitoring comments and visitor logs would be an unhealthy waste of time for me. On the other hand, when the writing's flowing well, I also have lots of good ideas for blog posts and plenty of energy to write them. Blogging is a way I reach out into the world from the isolated place I sometimes slide into when the writing's intense. It's all in balance.
(And I absolutely never mind when bloggers I read take a hiatus; I prefer that to scrolling through "filler" posts written for the sake of putting something up every day.)
I remember reading the article in question after I was directed to it per George RR Martin's "Not a blog" blog. I remember thinking that I wouldn't fall into the "trap" of blogging. Alas, I have.
I've henceforth decided that blogging-just like all things-is what you make it. Meaning, I can choose to write a little (or alot) on my blog...or not. People with addictive personalities probably struggle with this more than those without but in the end it's a way to feel connected.
I also should say that out of all the authors I know (not that I know many) I respect Brandon Sanderson the most as a person. Why? It’s because he has made the effort to become an actual person to his readers and not just the name on the title page. That is probably because he reaches out via blogging, facebook and the like.
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