Photo by Yousef Karsh via Wikimedia Commons
Emphatically, YES!!! I know many writers are hesitant to the idea of blogging. It feels like just another social media chore, but nothing can be farther from the truth. In fact, blogging is probably the ONLY form of social media that 1) draws from a writer?s strengths and 2) doesn?t try to fundamentally change our personality.
Yes, as a social media expert Jedi, I will tell you that it?s a good idea to tweet and learn to use Facebook, but I?m also going to tell you something you already know. Most of that kind of social media is NOT natural for a lot of writers. Is it good for you? Yes. It shoves you out of your comfort zone and makes you work an area that will be vital to career success. But, of all the various on-line tools we can wield, the blog is by far one of the best.
Oh, but Kristen. There are already way too many blogs out there.
Yep, and guess what? There are way too many books out there, too, and that hasn?t stopped you guys from writing one, has it? Blogs are a lot like books. In fact, that is one of the reasons they are such an excellent choice for writers. Blogs connect using?words. Same as books. They connect through information or emotion?same as books. If people learn to love your blogging voice, it is no great leap to love your novels.
Ah, but just like books?
Most people who start a book never keep pressing until it is finished. Similarly, most people who start a blog will abandon it for some new shiny two months in. Most people who start writing a novel believe it is easy, and that they don?t need any professional instruction or guidance. Guess what? Same with blogs.
Too many people who start a blog just throw up content without learning what to blog, how to blog, and what makes a blog grow and become successful. This means the competition is not nearly as daunting as some might believe.
So why would Hemingway blog? Well, actually, he did. I am going to paraphrase a story relayed by mega-author and Hemingway expert, David Morrell.
Hemingway was a Blogger Journalist
As a young reporter for the Kansas City Star, Hemingway learned the value of lean, uncluttered sentences. In fact, the newspaper?s style sheet underscored the, ?Use of vigorous English?Be positive?Avoid the use of adjectives.? Though Hemingway followed these principles as a reporter, he apparently forgot them when he decided to write fiction. When he moved to Paris and showed Getrude Stein his work, she slayed him for his purple prose. She told him to toss everything and try again.
A few months later, Hemingway met a reporter in Switzerland who expressed interest in his work. Hemingway was so excited he wrote to his wife and asked her bring all of his manuscripts to him straight away. Being a good wife, she packed everything he?d written in a suitcase and hopped on a train?and the suitcase was stolen, taking every shred of Hemingway?s writing.
Hemingway rushed home and turned his apartment upside down, but to no avail. It was all gone. Hemingway almost gave up, but then he thought back to Gertrude Stein?s advice to chuck everything and begin anew. Hemingway rolled up his sleeves and went back to work, yet this time he harnessed his reporting skills and went about his writing in a far more organized fashion, with the verbal discipline he?d learned from the Kansas City Star.
Hemingway learned that less is more, that economy of description can produce clearer effects than descriptions with detail piled upon detail. But, economy doesn?t only mean reducing a description to its essentials. It also means going for so clean a line that adjectives and adverbs become a sign of bad writing. ~David Morrell The Successful Novelist p.117
I have been running my writing contest for over two years now, and I see the same problems over and over with new writers. The prose is bogged down with all kinds of fluff. The sentences aren?t clear and the prose is weak.
Just like Hemingway used his experience as a reporter to strengthen his fiction (which made him one of the greatest writers in literary history), we, too, can use blogging to refine our prose and strengthen our writing skills. There are many great authors who used their journalistic muscles to write great works of fiction. Hemingway, Orwell, Dickens and Twain to name a few.
Blogging is a modern equivalent of journalism, and I believe Hemingway definitely would have blogged had he been a man of a different era. Can you imagine Hemingway tweeting images of giant swordfish he?d caught deep sea fishing? Or posting a video on You Tube of him running with the bulls? Maybe some images on Flikr from his latest safari?
Where was I? Oh, yes!
Blogging Takes Us from Neophyte to Expert MUCH Quicker
Malcolm Gladwell asserted that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. Add blogging to your repertoire, and guess how quickly you can rack up that 10,000 hours? Blogging will teach you to write faster, leaner and with far more power in much less TIME.
Bloggers Learn to Ship
When you have a blog due, you learn to kill Little Darlings with ruthless efficiency. Bloggers (like journalists) learn not to grow overly fond with sections of prose. We are copy editing MACHINES. We are great at meeting deadlines because we don?t need 42 different opinions to convince us to part with some prose.
HACK! HACK! SLICE!
Bloggers Grow a Thick Skin
Writers who also blog are showing the world they take their profession seriously. We put our work out there, good, bad or WTH?. We open ourselves to criticism, and we learn to take it like a champ and come back swinging.
I?ve met a lot of writers who get defensive, angry or abusive when told their work isn?t a glittery kitten hug. This business is tough, and blogging will whip a writer into fighting form in no time.
Blogging Trains Us for Other Paid Work
Since blogging is so close to journalism, it is easier for us to get paid work writing articles, blogs or even copy work. Bloggers have a BLOG that shows the world that they are serious. Potential employers see a writer who can make deadlines, who can work even when they don?t feel like it. Bloggers, like journalists, don?t sit around and wait for the inspiration fairy. They roll up their sleeves and do what real writers do.
They write.
Additionally, many writers supplement their book income with other work (like articles), and blogging is a great way to get your foot in the door.
Getting Started
So for those who don?t want to blog, that is fine. But for those who do?
Blogging is one of the best ways to build an author platform (mainly because it has us operating in our strength?writing). A blog is far less volatile than other forms of social media. Who knows if we will have Twitter in five years? Twitter may go, but a blog will remain and can continue to grow for YEARS. We don?t have to be a Chatty Cathy social butterfly to be a kick@$$ blogger, and this is really great for those shy introverts out there. In fact, in my experience, you guys make some of the BEST bloggers.
Starting a Successful Blog
A lot of blogs fail simply because writers take off with no instruction, and, because of this, they are left to learn by painful trial and error. If you believe you would like to blog, but you?re uncertain, I?m doing something new. To accommodate those who are still on the fence, I?m now running a Basic level for my upcoming blogging class.
In the Basic class, you get to be part of the WANA1012 team and receive all the forum lessons (none of the live webinars are included). This is a really great place to learn if blogging is right for you (Blogging Training Wheels).
If you?re ready to skip the training wheels and get started blogging, then get your spot NOW. My classes have a history of selling out. I offer a Blogging Bronze, Silver, Gold, and even Diamond, for those who are ready to go all the way.
This is a TWO MONTH class?one month for lessons and one for launch?that you can do in your own time, at your own speed and from home. And since you will be part of a WANA team, you won?t have to do this blogging thing alone, so your odds of success are MUCH higher. For those who want to do NaNoWriMo, we can extend the two months if we have to. That?s one of the benefits of being the owner of the interface 
.
Anyway, what are your thoughts? Those of you who blog, have you seen an improvement in your writing? What questions do you guys have? Thoughts? What other famous writers from history would be cool to see tweeting or posting blogs? Poe? Steinbeck? Shakespeare? What do you think would be their favorite social site and how would they use it? Picasso and Pinterest?
I LOVE hearing from you guys!
Oh, and if you love this blog, I would love your support. I am in the running to become a community blogger for my hometown, so I?d appreciate your votes. Just click the link and scroll down until you see my name and vote. THANK YOU! When the zombie apocalypse arrives, I promise to share ammo and Twinkies with those of you who vote for me .
Back to the regular contest?.
To prove it and show my love, for the month of September,?everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book?We Are Not Alone?in your blog?you get your name in the hat THREE times.?What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.
I will pick a winner?once a month?and it will be a critique of?the first 20 pages of your novel,?or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
And also, winners have a limited time to claim the prize, because what?s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.
At the end of September I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!
I also?hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books?We Are Not Alone?The Writer?s Guide to Social Media?and?Are You There, Blog? It?s Me, Writer?.?And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.
Source: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/would-hemingway-blog/
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