No, seriously. I figure than, in order for people to want to read my blog, I should put things in my blog that they would want to read. Given that I am striving to make a name for myself as a writer, that's kind of a big responsibility.
How do I attract people to my blog and keep them interetested when they get here. Well... there are the sexy men, of course, which people seem to like, but, for a writer, that really isn't enough.
I am posting a short story in bite size segments, which might be interesting to anyone who wants to get a flavour of what my writing is like, before they go running off to buy the books, but not really much more than blatant self promotion, which you can get in lots of other places.
So, what can I do to make my blog more interesting? I thought of interviews with other writers. The couple I have done were so much fun and possibly interested people in me... possibly not. Put the shoe on the other food and I'm not sure that anyone would want to be interviewed by me... yet. I am not likely to give them very much exposure or publicity.
If there IS anyone out there who
Well, I could do pieces about things that interest me, like the Nephylim, or vampires, or why people treat each other the way they do, but that might frighten people off.
I could write about writing... grammar, syntax, story arcs, pacing... etc etc, however, that would be pretentious because a) who's going to listen to my voice, being so new b) even if they did then the fact is I know very little about them and, even if I know what they are am likely to be crap at explaining or exploring them and c) I don't stick to the rules so I'd be pretty much a hypocrite discussing them. Although, I guess we need to know what the rules are before we can break them properly.
I thought about maybe doing features such as putting a question out there and having a few interested people giving their advice and answers. For example... Character Building - How do you make a well rounded and believeable character. How do you make sure the character is consistent in appearance and behaviour. OR Genres - What are they? Are they useful? Are they too rigid? What do you do when a story overlaps or doesn't fit into any of them? What if it fits into one that is totally misleading?
SO - over to you. What do you think I could do to make my blog more intereting? Would you submit to interview? Would you participate in a discussion? Would you prepared to teach myself and others the rules?
Any other ideas?
Anyone interested?
Anyone actually listening? :)
Looking forward to the millions of responses. I hope I don't get TOO snowed under :)
You know me, I'm up for just about anything. I love to discuss writing skills, plot and character building, rules. . . not so much. Though I do like to know them, and I'll share if I know someone else needs to know them as well.
ReplyDeleteDiscussions and interviews would probably be your biggest draw along with story postings. On my blog story pieces get the most views, then linked story suggestions come in second.
The empirical avenue might be your best way to figure out what will draw the most traffic. Since blogspot tracks that for you and what posts get the most views, you can try different things. How many comments do you get? How many visits vs. views of which posts - that sort of thing.
Interesting points. So are you offering to be a guest speaker ???? :)
ReplyDeleteLOL. Anytime Nephy! I won't really draw many visitors though, as I have fewer followers than you do, lol.
ReplyDeleteI come to this point the other week. I've been blogging for about 2 years now, and suddenly it hit me and I found myself asking 'what am I blogging about? What's the point?' I read so many blogs were people talk about how to build worlds, how to mould characters, and then how to write them, and all of them are so good it made me lose confidence.
ReplyDeleteBut then all of them are different. You can't teach. All you can do advise. Everyone has different ways of dealing with things, and it's what works best for them. People who need a nudge in the right direction often scout for advice, so blogging about how you create your characters, your worlds, and how you write in general will be a great help for them on their journey.
Interviews with other authors, etc, will always be a cool thing, and over time your name will spread. PS: Rules are there for a reason - but rules are also there to be bent...
Hey!!! I've just awarded you with a couple of blog awards If you're interested, pop on over and check'em out x
ReplyDeleteWhat? Where? How?
ReplyDeleteClicking on the link name of a person just before the date of their comment will take you to their 'dashboard'. That page has links to their blog if they have any, and/or to a list of blogs they follow. Click on DRC's blog, WTF and check out his posting. :D You come with a content warning, LOL! Isn't that the truth? (just go read it; you'll understand later)
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