Should an aspiring writer blog? Like so many other questions in life… It depends.
On what?
Do you want to…
-
- Have a place online to share your bio and contact information?
- Share your writing?
- Help with the craft of writing?
- Keep a personal diary
- Generate sales when I finally publish?
- Present yourself to the world?
- Find and interact with your audience?
- Promote your work?
- Have a clue about any of the above?
Take a deep breath. It’s okay.
Even if you’re #9 all the way.
It’s okay not to have a clue about what you want to do with a blog, or what to do for your author platform in general.
You can even say, “No blog for me for right now” or “I’ll stick with a website with my info”.
Or, you can learn.
Simply,
Plan. Make time. Schedule it.*
Things to keep in mind would be
- How much time do you want to devote to…
- Thinking about your blog and its purpose?
- Writing blog posts consistently?
- Networking your blog?
- Maintaining your blog?
Those are tough questions, right? Because you don’t know what you don’t know. What will the return on investment be on all that time spent?
No easy answers for you, my friend.
Some, like Jane Friedman, believe “the average author does not benefit much from blogging.” In contrast, others believe Facebook, not blogging, is the way to go. Others place more emphasis on a website with your bio and contact info. Some assume you’ll be posting work that will eventually be compiled into a product for publication.
When you have a few minutes, think about what you want your blog to do. If you end up with a long list like my list above, prioritize.
I assume you don’t have all the time in the world to actually write, so consider the time investment required to blog consistently. We’ll talk more about time and writing later.
Don’t forget to prioritize actually writing! That should take precedence, especially if you have limited to spend on germinating a writing career, like me.
Happy writing!