However, it would have been a much weaker book, and one that would have used only the first generation of my ideas, rather than the more refined version I am now working through.

The freedom to explore with no cost involved has certainly helped me write with a feeling of freedom.

Francis Wades last blog post..Review of AgileEra’s Software — Personal Motivation Calendar

@Kelly(#2): You’re dead on with your first two paragraphs. Angela said something out of the blue the other day that pleased me considerably – “you know, your blog really does all fit together, despite it not looking like it from day to day.” It all whirls together, though the process may seem chaotic.

The standards are lower for blogging – there’s almost no barrier to entry – but maybe that’s a good thing, as it gets people writing, thinking, and learning where they otherwise wouldn’t. I’ve done so much here through PF that I would have never considered doing if I thought I had “pass the bar.”

The process of mutual discovery, connection, and sharing is so much more powerful than solo conceptual ventures – and what’s not touted enough is the fact that the really prominent academics, writers, and artists are good precisely because they’re around others that are pushing and discovering with them.

So, blogging is to focused output as switchbacks are to mountain climbing. It lets you think things through in a less intense fashion.

Or, creative energy is non-linear, and blogging makes all kinds of connections, internal and external, that keep the energy flowing.

On the one hand the blogging world is very appealing to me, but on the other, I’ve gotta help put food on the table and raise children, plus I hear journalists bash blogging in ways that are hard to refute — but of course, not all blogs are created equal. I need to remind myself that it’s that community-building, mutual-discovery aspect of blogging that the MSM can’t touch.

Thanks for helping some of the rest of us work through our issues.

Kelly

Kellys last blog post..What She Said

So while I was on holiday I had to really think should I blog? All these hours would have my novel finished by now or I might even have sold a short story or a novella, or I could have written e-books to sell etc…

But what I have come back to is my blog provides me with a satisfaction and a sense of community that cannot easily be replaced by something else. And like your academic writing, my novel takes me longer than a blog post. Plus this way I empty out all my thoughts and I make friends (albeit online ones) and I feel connected to a whole world out there beyond my life here as a mommy and a sometime copy writer.

In other words, my blog gives me joy so I won’t be giving it up without a bloody good reason.

Kel