Getting the Ink Out...

The Liminal Librarian pointed me to a "splash of cold water in the face" post on writing versus blogging.

The summary of the rant, if you're not inclined to read it, is that bloggers are often writers who are more likely to spend their time developing a good blog post than committing themselves to other writing.

There are a lot of good points to the rant; specifically, it's far easier and more instantly gratifying to sit down and hammer out a blog post than it is to craft a book together, even if you have a brilliant idea for a book. I have several children's stories I keep meaning to write, but children's books don't garner interesting comments from a few different countries overnight and one must *sigh* go through a publisher.

On the flip side though, blogging is writing and it is motivation to write. Blogging can lead to name recognition among the community which comes from generous link sharing, which can lead to further writing and presenting opportunities professionally (at least in libraries). And, for me at least, it means I'm writing. Without strict deadlines, I'm not a particularly aggressive writer and this gives me a different type of writing outlet and requirement.

So while I respect the post, I don't see myself ceasing to blog anytime soon-- I enjoy it and it's a chance to write about topics that I doubt would really translate well into romance novels, "the world's greatest YA novel," or an age appropriate picture book. (Preschoolers don't really care whether or not I rejoin ALA.) However, I really must try to schedule some off screen writing time for myself once I get through this next round of TONS OF DATABASE UPDATES DUE NOW.

Ahhh, deadlines....