When I entered the blogging world six years ago, first as a lurker and occasional commenter, then with a blog of my own, I was looking for information and advice. I lapped up posts on the writing craft. I devoured advice on querying and looking for agents and publishers. I followed endless numbers of blogs by big name agents, and then started hanging out with other writers.
The blogging world was alive with posts, comments, awards, tags, and blogfests. Then, maybe two or three years ago, I noticed things started changing. Once-vibrant well-known sites like Query Shark, The Public Query Slushpile, The Intern, and Flogging the Quill, are either dormant or very quiet. Many writers’ blogs I follow that used to be hives of activity have either slowed or died.
I’ve seen a spate of posts recently about this topic, so I don’t want to rehash old news. I’m looking for hope and positive thoughts in all of this and I’d love to hear your collective wisdom in the comments.
First off, I know my own relationship with blogging has changed over time.
As a blogger, I’ve always mixed in life and hobbies alongside writing-related topics. The latter has tailed off as I concluded that the world will survive without yet another post on the correct use of the apostrophe.
As a blog reader, I barely touch blogs by industry professionals any longer. I will occasionally read posts on the craft of writing, but these days they have to be offering some new perspective to make me sit up and take notice.
But that’s just me. One small drop in a very large pond. It doesn’t explain the overall slowdown. Or is that slowdown just an illusion? Maybe it’s just that the group of writers I connected with in the early days have moved on as a group. Maybe there are other hives of activity out there beyond my horizon, where people are beginning the cycle all over again.
What do you think? Is the slowdown widespread, or just patchy? Or am I imagining it all?
Blogging remains my chosen social media outlet. I shudder at the thought of FaceBook and Twitter. But in order to keep blogging fresh and alive, people need to be posting things that other people want to read.
So…
What attracts you to a blog? When you follow a blog, what enticed you return to it? What do you look for, and how has that changed over the years?
Ian Bott is a science fiction writer who successfully evaded the writing bug until it bit him, late in life, by means of a sneak stealth attack. As a software developer he rebelled against narcolepsy-inducing software specifications and resolved to write technical documents fit for ordinary human consumption. From there, it was a small step to speculative fiction.
He lives in beautiful British Columbia with his wife, two children, and a steadily expanding menagerie of pets.
Ghosts of Innocence is his first novel. See details on his website: http://www.iansbott.com/
Or connect with Ian on his blog: http://www.thebaldpatch.blogspot.ca/