Just doing some Spring cleaning!
Oops… look what I did, I installed a new Theme and now I’ve got to tidy up the mess. Normal service will be resumed asap. Everything is still here, I just need to find out where!
Tag: blogging
Hello New Year my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again
On paper it’s been a good year. Two non-fiction books written, one published and the second out in March. One poetry pamphlet quietly out the door (even though I had to form a poets’ collective in order to get it published) to modest acclaim, which is the best I hoped for even in my dreams. Several significant new poetry friendships established. Not a lot of poems published in magazines but enough good results to keep my poet-ego going (just about!)
There are lots of positives on the horizon in the next year or so, in many different areas of my life, but one thing I know I must do is make more time to write poems. I absolutely love all the opportunities that poetry offers, whether it’s organising or facilitating events, initiating new projects and seeing them happen, going to readings or giving them, meeting new people, collaborating with others, reading blogs, discovering exciting poets or bloggers who are new to me, trying to analyse the mindsets and workings-out of poetry editors, the highs and lows of poetry submissions … and writing about it all. But I wonder if I spent too much time and energy on all that in 2014?
Social media is another area I need to manage with more discipline. A poet friend recently announced she was leaving Facebook in order to spend more time on writing and with family. She’s since amended that to say that she’ll be checking in very occasionally, but the principle remains. I can understand this entirely, and it’s very tempting. I’ve always found Facebook to be the cruellest and most suffocating of social channels. Sometimes I wonder how it would be to withdraw entirely from social media. Peace, quiet, being oblivious to other people’s lives. I know writers who pretty much stay away from the whole circus, and I envy them in a way. But online communication has been a significant part of my life now for seventeen years, since discovering the internet and joining my first online community. I can’t start to list the wonderful things it’s brought me for risk of sounding trite. It’s also my livelihood.
So, my New Year resolutions are pretty much this:
- allocate regular time to write poems, and don’t spend said-allocated time slot mewling over what I’ve already got out and which magazines haven’t replied, or who’s just won a competition and why it’s not me, or whatever.
- limit my time on social media – loads of apps and techniques to try here, for example.
- don’t stress about how many poetry books, pamphlets and mags are piling up unread. I’m considering ways to tackle this, for example reading books in strict order of acquisition, but I’m not sure that will work as some collections are very much ‘dip in and out’ and others you can’t stop once you start reading. Also, when a magazine comes through the door you want to eat it up there and then. Any ideas?
- blog posts – better editorial planning, writing & scheduling in advance as much as possible. I have three blogs I need to update regularly and 2 or 3 others that need occasional attention. I also write a lot of guest blog posts, and manage a stupid number of Facebook Pages, none of which I’m able to give the right amount of attention to. Could be time for a cull or a reorganisation.
I started this post thinking ‘I’m not going to write yet another end of year review’ and I realise it’s gone a bit that way. Sorry. Please do keep reading and commenting, I appreciate it more than you can imagine. Thank you for putting up with my rants and opinions. I wish you every joy, health and happiness in 2015.
Where blogging fits into the writing week
How does your writing week look? Mine can typically include things like
- blog posts
- a client email newsletter
- a lot of emails (sent and replied to)
- poetry writing/redrafting/editing
- commenting on blogs
- client work: proposals, meeting reports, web or brochure copy, etc
- an email newsletter for one of my groups (poetry or singing)
- a guest piece for a magazine or blog
- a chapter for a (non-fiction) book, if I have a book project on the go
- cover letters
- various lists/notes etc for myself
- tweeting etc
– it adds up to writing every day, even though when asked how much time I spend on writing I tend to um and ah or say ‘not as much as I’d like’ because of course I’m thinking of poetry writing – you know, the really creative stuff.
This morning I’d been thinking about blogging and the purpose(s) of blogging. Then I encountered Josephine Corcoran’s interesting and timely post about ‘why blog’ (in relation to poetry blogging in particular).
Blogging isn’t for everyone. I regularly meet people who, if they find out about my blog, aren’t sure what to make of it, as an activity. But sometimes they admit they too have a blog, but ‘haven’t posted for a while’ or else they’ve been ‘meaning to blog’ but are struggling either to find the time or the ideas of what to write about.
When people come to me for mentoring, if I think blogging would benefit them, I suggest it. But it’s one of those awkward chicken-and-egg things: until you start blogging and you reach that moment of ‘getting it’ (which is usually tied up with the community aspect of blogging – see Josephine’s post), it can feel like a chore. Or worse, a worthless or self-indulgent activity two steps removed from bragging and the slippery slope towards staring at one’s reflection in a pond.
Community is a big part of blogging – after 15 years I’m still amazed who you meet on the internet and I’ve always believed (from personal experience) that connections made online can be every bit as strong as those made ‘in real life’. And the wonderful thing is that it’s still mostly fuelled by the written word.
So to follow on from Josephine’s post, my feeling is that blogging helps my writing, because it is writing. It’s part of my writing life – just as is everything else that goes into the writing week, except on a blog I give myself permission to use cliches, make (sort of) jokes, say LOL or whatever else grabs me. I give myself permission to make mistakes, try out new ideas, ask questions, come across as a bit naive or opinionated or whatever. I give myself permission to write without drafting, or re-drafting, or planning, or reaching for the thesaurus, or (much!) editing. To write 200 words or 2,000 words. It’s my ‘sandbox’ I suppose. It doesn’t mean I’m totally unguarded, but I’ve noticed how people appreciate openness, so I think it’s a good thing to aim for. It’s probably an antidote to all that sales/commercial writing that invades our space (bits of which I’m responsible for – sorry!)
What do you think – does blogging flex our writing muscles, or does it just take us away from, well, proper writing?
Another three great poetry blogs
Thought it was about time I shared a few more blogs, one I’ve been following for a while and two that have come to my attention just recently.
I’ve particularly been enjoying Clare Pollard‘s ‘poetic journeys’ – most recently through Kent, from Broadstairs and Margate to Canterbury and one of my favourite places, Dungeness. The journeys are part-travelogue and part-personal pilgrimage, illustrated with poetry extracts. Clare also blogs about everything from gardens and lullabies to writing children’s fiction, her own poetry and that of others, and her day to day life as a working poet. A rich and interesting read.
Rob Mackenzie isn’t a prolific blogger, but he always seems to put an effort into his posts – so I guess he comes under the ‘I’ll only blog when I’ve got something interesting to say’ category of blogger. Quality not quantity. There are some neat posts here – Rob’s musing on the nature of celebrity, the music of David Bowie and the real truth about what a poem in the Guardian gets you. And check out the sidebar – his blogroll is phenomenal, and there are masses of links to poetry magazines & webzines, poets’ blogs and resources, as well as to his own poetry publications, articles and reviews. This must have taken a lot longer to compile than a few blog posts. Respect.
I think I have Rob Mackenzie to thank for pointing me in the direction of Very Like a Whale.
Although the most recent posted is dated May 2013, don’t let that put you off. I was very excited to find this blog – not least of all because of Nic’s interest in nanopress publishing (“aka alternative poetry publication, with gravitas”) something I’d not come across before. See this post about what it is, and Nic’s interviews with three nanopress publishers.
And that’s not all, Nic has written a ‘ten questions’ series in which he poses key questions to people in the poetry biz. I have only read a couple of the interviews in the ‘Ten questions for poetry editors’ series, and there are about a dozen more to feast on. I am glutton for this stuff – good thing it has no calories. I dare you not to enjoy it.
Upcoming events
Just a quick one … typing is a tad painful having just seen the physio about my shoulder (impingement of the supraspinatus and subscapularis, in case you’re interested).
A few things I’m looking forward to this month:
Tomorrow at the Lewes Arms is the launch of Margaret Wilmot’s Smith’s Knoll pamphlet ‘Sweet Coffee’ – should be a nice Lewes poetry event.
Monday 17th – Brighton Poetry Stanza workshopping group – although actually I can’t make it because I’m due to give a talk about blogging at New Writing South’s Tonbridge venue (time and venue tbd).
Friday 21st – Saturday 22nd – Britmums Live – the UK’s biggest bloggers’ conference, apparently (the people who run it aren’t british and I’m not a mum, but hey!) I’m making my ‘panel’ debut – always wanted to be on a panel! – and also giving a talk on blog design.
Thurs 27th – Needlewriters in Lewes – Clare Best & Sacha Dugdale – should be great.
Back
I haven’t posted here in a while, I actually took the blog ‘private’ for a few months, after a conversation with Catherine Smith about poets and blogging… she argued strongly for poets retaining a certain mystique and not baring their souls to all and sundry (or their weekly shop, or what they thought of the Jubilee etc).
So, being somewhat underexposed as a poet so far, I thought perhaps I’d go into hiding. But I don’t know. The exhibitionist in me wants out. And I haven’t published anything here terribly revelatory. Plus I’m careful not to post any poems that haven’t already been published. So I’m back. I’m also hard at work nurturing my Blogging for Creatives blog, so that’s got be back my blog mojo.
Who knows, if I make it interesting rather than completely random, someone may even get some entertainment from it. See you soon!