M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer, blogs about the books she reads--mostly fantasy and mystery authors whose books catch her eye and keep her interest. Nothing so formal as a book review, just chats about what she liked. Theodoratus also mutters about her own writing progress or ... lack of it.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Writing and Social Networking

Do you wonder why you continue writing or social networking in spite of all the frustration and rejection? Is you answer among Pat Stoltey's reasons? Over at the Chiseled Rock, she listed Ten Things About Writing Most Writers Don't Love all of which is true. On the other hand, I'm feeling positive. All the projects I'm working on progress. Why do you persist in writing when so much can go haywire?

Why do I write?
My brain itches when I don't.

While you're thinking about why you're writing, a better question might be: Why are you blogging ... or fiddling with all the other forms of social networking. L. M. Preston did a blog on the benefits she finds in blogging. Can you say the same ... or is it a waste of time?  For a wider picture of how social networking scene can help a writer, check out Allison Pang's blog on the Buzzing of Bees.

Social networking and reading other writers' blogs can yield an unexpected chortle. Background, I've submitted my There Be Demons manuscript to a publisher, within which there is much swearing, mostly in Spanish. [Yeah, I swear as much in Spanish as I do in English, only I don't remember much Spanish, normally.]

Anyhow, while scanning through the opening hooks of my blog list, I discovered Amanda Bonilla's blog at Magic & Mayhem: The Nuances of Swearing. Seems to me that how a character swears would be a great way to delineate them from others in the story. Think what kind of girl would throw f-bombs right and left.

[My favorite expletive is sh*t, and has been since I changed my first child's first diaper at home.
Yeah, motherhood converted from the f-bomb.]

I wrote the above before I ended up in the hospital for 
exploratory surgery on a bleeding kidney.
End result. Best possible result from the kidney [no cancer cells found in biopsy], but I'm on a year watch to see if everything stays find. As usual, the hospital stay was worse than the surgery. Slowly, getting back to speed. Did get edits back to the publisher for Pat, the Pet -- a color-a-comic pre-primer.

4 comments:

Patricia Stoltey said...

Ha! Stopped by to read your whining post about social media and saw you'd mentioned the CIR post. Thanks, my friend.

Hope you're feeling much better after your hospital ordeal. Kidneys can be such a pain.

Unknown said...

Hey, your blog had some good fodder for thinking. I think gathering rejections a game, but many writers get bruised by them.

Feeling better. Would be up to snuff if I hadn't tangled my walker and foot in the rug.

Margo Berendsen said...

That is FUNNY - changing diapers converting an f-bomb swearer to a sh*t swearer! I could totally see that.

My brain itches if I don't write, too. And I'm the kind that when I discover something cool, I have to share it, and blogging gives me a kind audience :-)

But on the positive side, Susan Kaye Quinn has had excellent success promoting her self-published book via book review blogs and blog tours. SHe's put tons of work into promotion, but its paying off!

Unknown said...

I really admire people who can do blog tours and otherwise promote their books. I think I'm congenitally unable to do so.