My pledge to my blog...

I had something of a light-bulb moment yesterday with regards to my blogging. It started with Talli’s blog post on ‘blog fatigue’ and how it can sometimes feel like a burden being such an active blogger.

As you can imagine from the sparseness of my posts – I am in no danger of any kind of blog fatigue! In fact this blog is more likely to wander off in search of a more caring owner if I don’t pay more attention to it.

I make my excuses, I don’t have much time, I don’t currently have internet access at home (shh – I’m meant to be working right now!) when I’m not writing I’m currently running… Wah wah wah, what a load of rubbish excuses.

My biggest problem is that I’m not sure what I should talk about.  

I don’t feel like I have any great pearls of wisdom worthy of sharing, or that anyone will be interested in what I am thinking about. What do people talk about on blogs? What do people want to read about?

?

To all the writers out there – what is the single most important piece of advice anyone has given you with when you ask what you need to do to be a writer?

READ!

Read anything and everything you can lay your hands on, read the genre you write, read what you enjoy, read the same book over and over until it falls apart (that would be Prisoner of Azkaban for me!)

And I do read. Constantly, if fuels my imagination, gives me ideas, shows me how a good story is structured, teaches me different writing styles – and of course entertains me!

I have gone off on a tangent – my point was this:

If you need to read books in order to write one, then surely to write a blog you need to read them!

Simple huh? I had the answer all along.

I think I was a little overwhelmed with all the blogs out there – my twitter feed is full of interesting links and posts, reminding me that all these people are far cleverer and more articulate than me. Far from inspiring me it just made me feel rather inadequate!

However, yesterday I found myself with a precious half hour to spare, so I decided to catch up on a couple (yes just a couple) of blogs posts.  

One of the posts I read was from Emma Pass whose blog can be found over here. It was a really lovely post, one that resonated with a lot of people on feeling like an outsider, but finding a sense of comfort in being there. It was certainly a point that resonated with me. I have to make a conscious effort (and at times it really does feel like an effort) to involve myself in social activity, otherwise I run the risk of becoming a hermit. And not just a regular hermit – on no, if left to my own devices my world would become rather warped indeed – I would in fact become the mad cat lady on the corner.

It was this point in particular that sparked of my thought for this post:

What’s helped is the realisation that I need a balance. Too much time alone and I start to feel stale and cut off from reality – and as a result, so does my writing. Conversely, too much time with other people, especially in large groups, just wears me out. I need time with others to stimulate me and draw me out of myself, but time alone to allow my creative well to refill.

Anyone else feel a light bulb go off?

When I apply this thought to my writing (in particular my blogging) I see quite easily that I need to find that balance. Trying to follow too many blogs is exhausting, overwhelming and uninspiring. But attempting to write one without reading any, I seriously run the risk of becoming cut of from reality, and just as uninspired.

So my challenge to myself now is to find some balance! I have earmarked a grand total of three blogs to read during my lunch breaks over the week, in the hopes that I will be inspired enough to blog on a weekly basis!

So that’s it there in black and white - my pledge to my blog! I promise to be more attentive in future, and fill you with reasonably sane and interesting thoughts!

Have a good weekend - and I'll be back next week!