Am I A Blogger?

I haven't posted much during the past year or so. Lately, my posts have been primarily about painting. Now that my latest and, probably my last, painting course has ended, I've been thinking about my blog and whether I still have anything to say about anything. It seems that I've gone dry.

This doesn't mean I haven't been writing. I've been writing right along. I'm well into a new novel I started in January, putting much more time into it during the past month or so since my painting class ended. So, writing is still an important part of my life. Painting will now take its (for me) rightful place behind writing. Painting has been a wonderful trip. I've learned a great deal, and enjoyed it a lot, but truth be told, writing is my passion. How painting will fit into my life in the future remains to be seen.

The question now is what direction will my blog take. Will I just post whatever occurs to me, much as I've done since my blog's inception? Will I resume interacting more with other blogs the way I used to do? I still read most of the blogs I follow even if I haven't been making comments lately. I've noticed that a lot of people I follow haven't been posting much at all on their blogs lately.

I'm not sure what the state of blogging is for writers these days. Some are still very active, but others seemed to have in effect closed shop. Maybe our expectations were unrealistic when we began blogging in this new era of social media. If blogging doesn't accomplish what we want it to, then maybe closing shop is the best thing to do. Perhaps other activities, such as Facebook and Twitter, are better.

So this is where I am in my blogging mind: I'm not sure where I'm headed.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the state of blogging. What are you finding the most rewarding thing to do in social media?

Having Nothing To Say

It's somewhat baffling to me that lately I have nothing to say. I could post stuff just to be posting, and there's nothing wrong with that if it accomplishes what you want with your blog. But I don't find that appealing. That's just work, possibly without inspiration. I'm used to writing from my emotions and deeper thought processes. So, what does this mean? Have my emotions and deeper thought processes dried up? I don't know. I only know that I have nothing to say right now (although, ironically, I'm saying something right now, but I think you know what I mean).

What does this mean for my blog? Is my desire to blog dying? I don't think so. I still read a lot of blogs, or at least take a look at them. But truthfully, I've read enough author interviews to know that we're all experiencing the same things. Some authors succeed while others struggle on. I don't think I'll learn a whole lot new by reading more author interviews.

I've read quite a few book reviews. But they're usually not books I would ever read. I've attempted to read some of the books that I read about that were highly praised, but usually couldn't get past the first few pages. Of course, there are some successes, that is, some books that did capture my interest and I read them all the way. So I usually don't read book reviews on blogs. (Goodreads is a different story.)

I've  read enough "Should I Give Up?" posts. Of course, we should never give up. (And the truth is, maybe some of us should give up and move on with our lives.)

To be honest, I've done no fiction writing for several months. I think this is probably why I'm not writing so many blog posts: I'm not sure that I'm still a writer. I wonder sometimes if I'm one of those people who should just give up and move on with my life? The desire to write is still there, but, like my blog posts, I've always written from my emotions and deeper thought processes, and they seem to have disappeared. So I could just write to be writing, but I'm not sure it would be satisfying.

My blog reflects my writing life in general. Fortunately, I've been doing quite a bit of art work. That's something I find interesting, even fascinating. So I still have an interest in creativity, still exercising it to a good extent.

This is one of those posts that writes itself. I'm just along for the ride. I hope you're still enjoying the writing process. I hope you succeed. I'll be waiting to hear about your success.

Rebirth as an Artist.

I'm excited with my new approach to writing and blogging. Thus far, I'm satisfied, even a bit ecstatic, over my new writing of short stories. I'm finding new inspiration in some of the new blogs I'm following. This reaching out to different blogs focusing on different subjects--philosophy, art, poetry, music, photography, self-discovery--plus my second drawing course, has rejuvenated me. I feel reborn: a new person. I'm happier now than I have been in a long, long time. Stepping out of your old ways into new ways of viewing life and doing things is powerful. I highly recommend it.

It amazes me that, at 66 years old, I can feel this way. It's not a 66-year-old feeling. It's a childlike one.

My drawing courses and my attempt to work with pastels has taken a bit of time out of my days. But, it's a time I'm beginning to look forward to more and more.  My artistic talent is minimal, but it feels huge in my mind. Perhaps it's a delusion. But I'm having fun with it.

Tanya Reimer told me I should write for men, men's stories, which is part of my move to crime fiction. That's a man-thing, isn't it? I know, a lot of females write crime fiction.

I don't know where this fascination with criminal minds comes from. I think it's in part because we know, deep down inside, committing a crime is something we'd all do if the right circumstances came about. Many of us have already committed crimes during our lives. Perhaps they were petty crimes, stealing something from a friend, beating someone up, breaking something that belongs to someone else. Perhaps some of us have committed more serious crimes. There's a dark side to everyone, a shadow side, and to ignore it is to do so at your own peril.

How long and how deeply I'll delve into crime fiction is yet to be determined. All I know for sure is the ideas are swirling, and that's a good thing.

Friendship and Blogging

I've been thinking about the friends I've made through blogging--virtual friends, yet real people. I feel connected to many of them, more so than just reading about them. They put their thoughts and feelings, sometimes their fears and desires, out there for the world to see. And I try to understand them and know them. But we really don't know each other, do we? I know that if I met them in person, I'd give them a warm, heartfelt hug. It would feel so good to do that, and hopefully they'd hug me back. After that, then we'd really find out if we're friends.

There are just some things that can't be experienced through the Internet, through blogging. You can't touch the person to feel their warmth. You can't hear their speech patterns, the sound of their voice (although YouTube makes that possible). It's hard to know how tall they are, how sincere they are through just the written word and a photo or two.

Some bloggers want to remain anonymous. Maybe they feel they can be more honest and genuine that way. I know that I keep a lot of things to myself, because I'd be embarrassed or I might hurt someone's feelings if I talked about them. But, if I were using a pseudonym, I could be more open. But then, would you really know me? You might know more about me, but you wouldn't know me, that is, who I am. And isn't that a part of friendship, knowing both about each other and each other the person? I think so.

I would like to meet my virtual friends. But it's also a scary prospect. What if we really didn't like each other? Then what?

What are your thoughts on this? I'm itching to know.

My blog turned two in November. How did I miss it?

Somehow, I missed noting my blog's second anniversary. How did that happen? I was so excited when my blog turned one year old that I wrote a post on it. This past November, I didn't even think about it.
What does that mean? I really don't know. I'm not even sure what I was doing in November that was so important.

Reading over the post I did for my first anniversary, not much has changed about me or my blog. I'm still a bit eclectic, writing whatever seems interesting to me at the time. I think I've not reviewed as many people's writings this second year as I did the first year. I'm not sure how many novels or stories I will review in the future: a few, probably, but not many more.

Writing fiction has been difficult for me this past year. I've done some, finishing one novel I'd been working on, but decided to shelve it after a Beta reader read it. The suggestions for change she made are not difficult in and of themselves, just difficult from a psychological point of view. I've grown tired of reading and re-reading the story. I need to put it away for a while. I'll come back to it later. Actually, that's the case with two novels Beta readers read. I'll look at them again sometime in the future.

I've followed a more diverse range of blogs, not just writing blogs. I follow various photography blogs, movie-review blogs, arts-and-crafts blogs, book-review blogs, baby-boomer-aimed blogs, and some blogs written by men primarily for men. I hoped to pick up a more diverse group of followers. That really hasn't happened. But I enjoy the blogs, so I'll continue to do so, branching out even more.

One thing I've noticed is that it seems like some of the bloggers I've been following since the beginning are not posting as much as they did two years ago, some not at all, which is OK, because I can hardly keep up with the ones who are posting regularly.

As for this third year, I have no particular blogging goals. I'm happy doing what I've been doing. My goals are more fiction-writing goals. I want to get two or three more books self-pubbed. Hopefully, I'll do that. If it doesn't happen, I don't think I'll agonize over it much. I'm not that stressed about it. I'm now more content with my writing life than I was two years ago. Maybe that's a good thing.

The Power of Association

About eight months ago I was (and still am) a member of two writing groups here in my town. That was it. I barely knew how to use a computer or surf the internet. Sending email was about it for me. Then my son-in-law sent me an email telling me, because I like to write, I should look at this website--Webook. So I did and I joined it. I was overwhelmed at first. But I gradually began to understand it and play with it. It's now a part of my daily routine. I wanted to be a part of a group, so I hunted around and found someone--Lilysea--who had her first chapter of a novel posted for review, so I reviewed it and sent her the info. She asked me to be her friend, so I accepted. I saw that she had a blog. I had no idea what a blog was, but I took a look at it--Peter's Crossing. I somehow discovered some other blogs by writers. I was gaining information I didn't even know I was looking for. Then it dawned on me that I could write a blog. But how do you do it? I checked out a book from the library, "Publishing a Blog with Blogger." It told me what to do, so I gave it a try. I was amazed. It was so easy, a child could do it. So I started my blog around October 2010. And I've been blogging ever since. I notified my email list of my blog, and Lilysee welcomed me to the world of blogging.

I came across another website--AgentQueryConnect--and I recognized some of the members as members of Webook, so I decided to join. What a powerful experience that has been. It opened a whole new world of writing and publishing to me. I soon discovered the world of self-publishing. And if you've read some of my earlier posts, you know I've gone back and forth about it. Then I discovered Amazon.com and that you can publish books for free, so I began investigating it.

I also made a new friend through AQC--Tanya Reimer--who became a follower of my blog. So I learned what following was and signed up to follow her blog. Now that I knew what following was, I signed on to follow Lilysea's blog, and some others.

In the meantime, I was learning about Facebook. I had heard of it. My children were all on Facebook, but from what I had seen of it, it held no interest for me. But the more I read about it being part of the self-publishing world, the world of cyberspace, and that many writers were on Facebook, I decided to join. I did so not very long ago, maybe a month ago. In trying to figure out how it works, I've discovered that I actually like it. I've made a number of friends and reaquainted with some old ones. I've created a Page for my writings. Oh, and I've made friends with Lilysea on Facebook.

Through AgentQueryConnect I learned about San Francisco Writers University, liked it, and joined. It had a free course on Setting Up Your Storefront in Cyberspace, which was all about what I was learning to do. I've followed some of its advice--I'm taking baby steps--including joining LinkedIn, which I did today. Who did I meet in LinkedIn but Lilysea and I also saw that one of my daughters is on Linkedin.
Hey, I'm still a baby in cyberspace, but I'm worlds ahead of where I used to be. And all thanks to my son-in-law. Thanks Kent.