Blogging Talk

Allow me to break away from the pack a moment and make a decisive, if possibly optimistic or a little naïve, comment: I love reading industry blogs.

At least, I think I do.

Here’s the thing, I don’t actually follow all that many agents’ blogs. I’ve got Query Shark on my daily reading list because I love her advice, and I do follow a handful of agents on Twitter, but that’s about it. And, with the exception of Scott Westerfeld, I don’t follow any writer’s blogs.

Most of my blog-searching is done through being linked by others, or hearing the news through re-Tweets, or just searching for information on a certain subject or piece of advice.

But when I do read blogs from people in the publishing industry, I love it. I love every minute of it. I love getting advice, I love hearing what people have to say about this trend or that trend, I love to geek out with people over my favorite books and, occasionally, I like to feel the righteous little burn of having a good debate with somebody intelligent.

The same goes for reading writing advice books, without the social aspect of course. I have a nice little collection of my favorites, and I love to add to it when I find good ones. It’s not that I take advice from every book that I read, it’s just that I like to compare my techniques for going about various things and comparing them to others. It’s an engaging, creative thrill for me, and I’ve never really gotten burnt out on the subject.

Maybe it’s because I don’t try to read everything at once or submerge myself in it constantly, so I don’t get overwhelmed. I read writing blogs when I feel like reading writing blogs. I stop when my itch to pick other peoples’ creative idling has passed. I comment occasionally and skim past topics that I’m not interested in. And really, all things considered, I think it’s served me well.

It always makes me kind of sad when I hear that people have gotten burnt out on keeping up with these sorts of things. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I’d be missing something, like this writing thing wouldn’t nearly be as fun if I didn’t indulge in these sorts of things. But like I said, that’s just me.

Current NaNo Stats
Page Count: 54
Word Count: 16,800
Story progress: Finally making progress through Chapter Six
Status: Hungry. But I don’t have any idea what I want to eat. Pooh.