Sunday, September 29, 2013

Update: Time to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog

(NOTE: the index to the Characters - Wealth and Dominance series, has moved to it's own post.)

I told you my blogging plans would change within two weeks.

As much as I love writing, I also love commentary on writing, and also playing games with stories, and also teaching.  This week I finally figured out how to integrate a lot of these things I love to do.

That is, I think I've figured out how to take advantage of my irregular passions, without burning out and bouncing from thing to thing.  It involves going back to formal blogging, and a semi-formal blogging schedule.

It also involves publishing nonfiction.

I have often thought that I ought to collect some of the posts here into an ebook. And I have a number of nonfiction projects in folders around the hard disk.  But I could never get far with them. The first quick passion would fizzle out quickly.

I realize that the reason why was my motivation.

Me: Gee, this blog is a time sink. It doesn't pay. I should stop doing it....

Entrepreneurial Self: Don't you know there is GOLD in that content! Exploit it!

Me: Well, yeah, I guess I could do that.

Entrepreneurial Self:  Find a hook! Package it! Market it!

Me: It's not really "hook" sort of material.  I mean, I guess this post here has a hook, but there's nothing to go with it.

Entrepreneurial Self: Then write more blog posts to go with it!

Me: Well, I don't know....

Entrepreneurial Self: Sell sell sell!

Me: I think I'll go do this other thing.  You keep working on that.

That makes the blog feel like the red-headed step-child, who has to scrub the floor and sell matches in return for a bed in the cinders, but who isn't allowed in the family business (which seems to be nonprofit Performance Art).  But I love this freckle-faced urchin.  Why not give her a full place at the table?  Her Neo-Deconstructionist Street Busking couldn't be any less worthy than Cousin Gwenivere's Hiccuping Mime act....

(For those lucky few who haven't experienced such a thing, that last line was a Performance Art joke.)

So, I intend not only to give the blog its head, but I'm going to just start publishing collections of posts that reflect the character of the blog.  I will probably start with a collection of posts on Cozy Mysteries.


In the meantime: here is the new blog schedule (which might last the week):

Monday: Passion commentary series of the moment.
Tuesday: Passion commentary series of the moment, part 2.
Wednesday: Update, announcements, (or no post)
Thursday: Self-Interview of the Week (or no post)
Friday: The Writing Game
Saturday: (no post)
Sunday: Update, announcements, posting schedule.

This will, of course, evolve.  For instance, I do want to start up the serial again, but I'll jump that hurdle when I come to it.

In the meantime, I'll be continuing the series on the character traits of wealth, jackassery and dominance.  And this post will become the index to the series.

The Index of Proposed Posts on Characters and Wealth and Power and Stuff

This series grew and I finally decided to give it it's own post, rather than send folks to scroll around and find it here.  That post is here: Index to the Characters, Money and Power series.

I'm making this up as I go along, folks.

See you in the funny papers.


If you read this blog, and find it useful or entertaining, buy a book once in a while, or make a donation. 

Here's a link to a list of my books.  And ... hey, look at that!  There's a donation link right below this sentence. (Donations via Paypal)




4 comments:

Lee McAulay said...

Ah, wealth... I've been going through the Dickens back catalogue recently and a surprising number of his stories reach a point where - surprise! - the main character turns out to be the heir to some remarkable fortune, and the story ends, happy ever after.
Like a snort of instant coffee, having a wealthy protagonist in a story is a fast way of hooking a reader away from daily drudgery.
So often wealth is used as a tool to remove obstacles that would slow a story down. Travelling - why take the bicycle when you can hail a cab - or better still, rouse your chauffeur? Then you can get on with the derring-do without having to trudge through the traffic.
Isn't the wealthy hero more prevalent in blockbuster/airport novels than in high fantasy? There's a lot of unsubstantiated wealth sloshing around in steampunk too. Bo-ring... give me a protagonist poor as a church mouse any time.

The Daring Novelist said...

Yep, wealth is a super-power. (In particular, it's Batman's superpower.)

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Sounds like a good plan! I'll enjoy the cozy posts, especially. Hope you'll compile the posts in an ebook...great idea.

Nonprofit performance art--ha!

The Daring Novelist said...

Yes, I'm talking about collecting existing posts into an ebook. I have 15 or 20 posts relating to Cozy Mysteries.

(Although I'll certainly write more too.)