January 29th, 2008
Blogging and writing novels
Yesterday, my friend Paul sent me a link to this post by Andrew Sullivan entitled “Is Blogging Harder Than Writing A Book?”.
Sullivan compares the two media:
“I’d say they’re just very different genres and each can be hard in their own way. I have to say that producing a book - I have four under my belt if you count my dissertation - is a draining, soul-sapping catharsis. Part of the strain is working for a long time and not knowing if any of it will be worth it. Blogging is almost the polar opposite: almost everything you write is read and used by someone. On a simple hour-by-hour basis, blogging is harder work. But the thinking required for a book - the slow sifting and weighing of competing ideas, themes, structure, arguments - is a deeper, more painful process.”
After reading his post, I clicked to the source of the story, an article in Publisher’s Weekly by Will Leitch entitled ‘Writing a book? Piece of cake… at least compared to blogging’. Leitch has accumulated a dizzying amount of words on paper and online, and wrote a sizeable book (”that will hurt you if you are struck across the head with it”) in five months. No mean feat, given that he did it without taking a day off from his site, where he posts up to 25 posts a day. Is this man a robot? I’m in awe at his productivity. And although he straddles both writing vehicles, he maintains that blogging requires more daily effort than a lot of jobs.
“Much has been written about the relative lack of sales success for books written by bloggers, as if bloggers were an ethnic group, or some sort of easily charted genre. Every blogger is different from the others; I can’t think of a single shared characteristic among bloggers, save for lack of a tan. The one thing we do do, however, is write. A lot. I’ve worked for newspapers, magazines, television stations, doctor’s offices, you name it, and no job requires more daily effort than being a professional blogger. If people have a slow day at the office and do a little less work than usual, hardly anyone notices. If I have a slow day, every commenter on my site lets me know immediately.”
And then yesterday, I spot another of Mulley’s great ideas - an upcoming panel discussion on the afternoon of the Irish Blog Awards with four bloggers who have gotten book deals. To kick it off, Damien has an interview with Twenty about blogging ahead of his novel coming out next month. I plan to head along to the Ladies Tea Party so hopefully they don’t clash, as I’d love to hear what Fiona, Grandad, Twenty and Kieran have to say about juggling a blog and writing a book.
Update: It just occured to me that Declan who has published two novels also blogs and has used Crime Always Pays to promote his writing - perhaps he should be on that panel too, to offer another angle?
January 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
[…] only bright part to the day so far is that Sinéad Gleeson has posed an interesting question on her blog today, so I’ll think about that when I’m […]
January 29th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Hmmm,maybe one is just more daunting than the other. Perhaps if one was to approach writing a book like maintaining a blog, as in do an entry a day, say 800 words, by the end of the year you’d have a book! Easy peasey :).
January 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I’d have to say holding together something the size of a 150 page novel is a huge task. All the threads, and different ideas in it. I’m not knocking blogs, but i think its in a different league! Anyway, you’ll get there sinead, just write a 1000 words a night, and then the next thing you know….
January 29th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Hmmm. I know far too many people who have been finishing their novels for bleedin’ years now. I’m not sure why most of them started in the first place. I think that people equate it with having some kind of purpose in their life. The other thing is that most people who do finish their novel then can’t get it published. I called into a mate one day and he was reading a draft sent into a publishing house he worked for. It turned out that it was by a bloke that we’d been to school with. To say it was absolute crap is an understatement. If he’d just sent in Chapter 1 we could have saved him the bother of writing the other 15 or so. Years of inner struggle, writers block and vanity could have been prevented in that instance.
It’s a theme that’s common to many artistic pursuits I suppose. Writers, artists, musicians and actors all struggle with achieving success in their field. The problem is 90% of these individuals aren’t very good at their chosen career. I’m amazed when I see a comedian bomb when they’re so obviously not funny. Do their friends or family not tell them that they’re not very good? Reality TV shows have really brought this home to me. Long lines of obviously untalented individuals who actually think that they’re good at singing/dancing/being funny. If someone had just taken five minutes to break it to them that they were below par it would save them years of heartache.
I’ll stop now as I reckon I’ve gone completely off topic. I’d better get back to that novel.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Ooh. Matt Vinyl. I cannot believe your editor friedn actually showed you someone else’s manuscript. Although I’m sure this happens not infrequently, especially with rubbish, something about hearing that happen explicitly makes me shudder.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
25 posts a day AND a book? One can only gape in awe. I’m delighted with myself if I can write a post every other day or so…
January 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Perhaps if one was to approach writing a book like maintaining a blog, as in do an entry a day, say 800 words, by the end of the year you’d have a book!
This is true, but I vowed several months ago that I’d do 1000 words a day (which is totally technically possible) and I am still about 20,000 words short of what will be needed when I hand in my MS in may! That said, I did write my 25,000 word Master’s thesis in a week, although the less said about the quality of that magnum opus (on Oz Magazine and the counterculture in 1960s London) the better, perhaps…
January 30th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Writing a book is much harder than writing a blog. You definitely need more discipline and what you write has to be good - in the sense that if you write a crappy blog post you can always make up for it with a really good one the next day, not that you’d deliberately write a crappy post but you know what I mean.
You don’t have that luxury with chapters. Then there’s all the other stuff once the story is written, the second-draft, copy-editing, proof reading, final proof reading, suggestions, changes, it can get a bit much.
With a blog it’s write, click, done, you don’t think about it again really. Much easier.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:29 am
[…] Sinéad Gleeson wants to know what it’s like juggling a blog and writing a book. […]
January 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Blogging is piano-lifting. A novel is piano-tuning. Same amount of work on a daily basis, if you’re doing it right, just more focused on the bigger picture for a novel. Especially if it’s a novel about pianos …
January 30th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I would have thought that a book requires far more thought and planning, or at least far more coherent thought. You need to figure out a clear purpose for the book, then execute, and then finish. You need the book to finish. Not difficult if it’s a crap manual on how to stay young or how to win in business, but a considerable challenge in a piece of literature. Blogs don’t really have endings do they. Or plot. Theme maybe.
Writers of blogs and writers of books have one thing in common though. The vast bulk of both can neither write nor think.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
“Writing a book is much harder than writing a blog. You definitely need more discipline and what you write has to be good”
That’s why I blog. Mediocrity and I are brothers in arms. And I don’t mean the mediocre Dire Straits tune.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Personally, I find the book is the killer. I’m two years at the bugger and it’s still only 3/4 finished.
Blogging on the other hand doesn’t take, for me anyway, as much effort. Even a well-researched investigative piece, complete with links to references and so on, shouldn’t take up too much time and effort.
But the sheer scale of a book can be disheartening. Even on good days with four figures words completed, it still feels like you’ve removed a teaspoonful of earth from the mountain that needs cleared.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Edel, that is a genius plan, but it hasn’t worked for me sadly.
Morgan, I believe they’re different animals, and while there’s grafting in blogging, it’s nothing like the discipline required to get through an entire book.
Matt,
I think if most people thought they wouldn’t get published they’d give up at the first fence, but there is bound to be a lot of chaff around. A friend of mine worked on the “slush pile” desk of a publishers and said they got a lot of woeful stuff - not just dull writing, but appalling grammar, disappearing characters, plot holes the size of Laois etc.
Little Red, I also shuddered a bit - have you had any thoughts on showing your work to someone yet?
Kieran, he’s got to be a robot or cyborg or something…
Stella, I’m in awe of your productivity and dedication, best of luck with your book. Let me know when it’s out.
Twenty, well sir, you’d know giving you’re about to make the great leap into publishing. Mine’s a quadruple absinthe at the book launch.
Grandad - I’m posting your wonderful response here - thank you for taking the time.
http://www.headrambles.com/2008/01/30/keeping-my-balls-in-the-air/#comment-29472
Declan - what a lovely analogy. You’ve lifted two pianos, so I’d take it handy for a while, if I were you.
Matt, I bet you do mean Dire Straits and have Brothers in Arms on 7″ gatefold picture disk.
JC, would love to hear what your book is about. Fair play to you for getting so far with it. You’re on the home stretch so plough on.
Four figure word count in a day? I AM jealous.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:28 pm
It’s a novel about an English tabloid journalist on the loose in Dublin’s meeja circuit.
A black comedy, if you will.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
[…] Blogging is writing. Article marketing and ebooks involve writing. Writers study and improve their skills, looking for something new to say or something intensely familiar. Injecting your writing with personal reflection can be the difference between being heard and being part of the noise. […]
February 10th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
[…] Blogging is writing. Article marketing and ebooks involve writing. Writers study and improve their skills, looking for something new to say or something intensely familiar. Injecting your writing with personal reflection can be the difference between being heard and being part of the noise. […]
March 30th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
[…] Blogging is writing. Article marketing and ebooks involve writing. Writers study and improve their skills, looking for something new to say or something intensely familiar. Injecting your writing with personal reflection can be the difference between being heard and being part of the noise. […]