Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Liberated to Live the Dream

Last week Shauna, the new marketing guru for WiDo, said something very liberating to me. We were talking about platform building and I shared all the places I frequent online, including this blog and Unicorn Bell. Here's one of the things she said:
You’re covering your bases with your own blog and Unicorn Bell, which is good. However, your own personal blog should give more of a sense of who you are and your own writing. I’d be sparing with the writing tips, but more of the personal (because that’s fun and interesting), author interviews and reviews. The only reason I say that is because you already have Unicorn Bell, which functions more as a writing community blog and would be the better forum for the writing tips.
Why is that liberating? Because I often struggle to say something intelligent over here. If I do think of a good topic I want to save it for UB, but then I feel like I'm letting you guys down over here, even though most of the time what I'm saying is just my opinion or what I've learned by experience. That means it works for me but might not work/fit for someone else's writing journey. 

I know other people have covered it better, but I felt like I was SUPPOSED to write about how to write. This ties me in knots!

I started this blog as a journal, and then you came to visit. And stayed! I want to make sure I'm making your time here fun, comfortable, and worth your while. That's why I try and do some writing related topics.

But do you know what I enjoy the most over here? Journaling, book reviews, sharing your book covers, interviews, and BLOGFESTS! I so love those when I have the time. So, I'm going to make this blog more personal and save all the writing stuff I'm learning for UB. I'll make sure I announce it over here too, but if that's what you're looking for it'll be over there.

So my question for you today is:

What makes you stop to read a blog post when browsing through your google reader?

Oh! And tell me about all the blogfests coming up so I can sign up for some. ;)

13 comments:

  1. Glad you are liberated! I knew from the beginning I would never offer writing tips. I knew my blog would be different from other author's blogs. And I embraced that. Which is why I've never run out of things to say.
    And usually guys run out of things to say after three sentences...

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    1. LOL, about the running out of things to say. And your blog format works wonderfully!

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  2. Yay for you! I use reader to read my blog and scroll down. I usually stop to really read when the info is something I am currently looking for or when the topic is very personal to the author and there's a question. =)

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  3. That's good advice. I try to be myself most on FB and twitter, because I only have one blog and it's strongly focused on writing content. But then I don't struggle on what to post there because I love writing and love to offer up whatever I can think of to help--that's who I am. So, I guess I just 'married' the 'who I am' into that blog. :)

    I stop when a title pulls my attention in Google Reader, or I see someone I haven't connected with for a while. The busier I get, the less time I have to connect and I don't want to lost any of the relationships I've built. So, I might not stop in as often, but I do try to stay connected via blogs or FB, Twitter, etc as much as I can :)

    Angela

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    1. And we love you and your blog!

      Titles. I really need to get better at that. :) I'm also trying to comment on my favorite blogs more because for a while I just lurked every where. I know I still won't have the time to comment everywhere (How does Alex do it?!) but I want to do better.

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  4. sounds like a great plan! i read informative posts about a topic i'm struggling with but mostly i check out my friends, good quotes, good news, good advice, hmm its all good! oh yeah, and a good joke!

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    1. Ooo, jokes! I'll have to get my family working on that. I don't know if they're "good", but we sure have fun making up stupid ones.

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  5. That is good advice, but it sounds like it came from a person who has never visited your blog. It would be like you coming in and me telling you, "Charity, you need to eat food to survive." And then you'd blink and look at me and say, "Um...Mike, that is good advice, but I do eat every day."

    Here's my point and what I've learned from you in your blog:

    1) You love to jog and are really physically fit.
    2) You have a great family and do lots of family activities that include crafts, cooking, and hanging out with lots of people. IN other words, you are very active (outdoors and socially).
    3) You love science fiction and have an incredibly intelligent and keen mind when it comes to science and creativity.
    4) You take your religion seriously.
    5) You are a hard worker and travel quite a bit.
    6) You love cruises and delicious food.

    I mean, seriously, there's all kinds of things that people know about you from just following your blog. This advice from the WiDo person just sounds like Barack Obama's or Mitt Romney's speech writer.

    Example: "How do you fix America."
    Answer: "We create more jobs."

    *Everyone claps while I'm the only one staying silent in the audience thinking...uh...did anyone else think that answer was kind of obvious?

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    1. This is one of the nicest things ever. It's good to know that those of you who've been around awhile really do "get me". And it's good to know that I have been myself here. :D

      I think the liberating part is that unless I really feel like sharing something new I learned about the writing or publishing process, I can just be me. What I love is being social. And helping others. So now I can focus more on helping others with blog tours and maybe some critiques.

      Now I'm getting excited!

      Oh, and the whole political comment gets an amen from me. This is why I don't talk politics because everyone is so vague/evasive that you never can be sure what you're gonna get. And no matter where you look to try and get the facts, all you get is someone's slant on things. Yeah, add this to your list--I hate politics period. *sigh*

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  6. I'm with Michael on this one. What has brought me back to your blog over the years is wanting to know what's happening for you and your stories, not to learn specific writing lessons. Like you say, there are other blogs that do that. We don't all need to. My blog is a mixed bag, but I try to keep it grounded in my own experience. I like to make sure there's some of 'me' in all of my posts, and that's probably why I connect with your blog so much - because you do the same! :-)

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  7. While going through my reader, I scroll. If something catches my eye, I may read more closely. (There's probably more to it than that, but I am crunched for time at the moment and I can't think when I'm crunched for time.)

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  8. I'm really glad to hear that you will be being more personal with your posts as those are what I enjoy reading the most. :) I love to see people announcing covers and book deals and agent deals and how much they've writing that day. I like to know people. Writing, while it is possible to learn, is more of an experience thing.

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