IWSG:

 It's the first Wednesday of the month--time for the IWSG post.

  

 Why? The IWSG is here to share and encourage, to offer a place for authors to admit their insecurities and offer help and support to each other.

How? The official IWSG posting day is the first Wednesday of every month. Hop around the list and see who has worries, triumphs, and news to share.

 Every month we have an optional question to spark discussion. 

Our motto: 
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

 

The awesome co-hosts for the April 3 posting of the IWSG are Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, and Pat Garcia!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

April 3 question - How long have you been blogging? (Or on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram?) What do you like about it and how has it changed?

 

This is a nice question with opportunities for nostalgia as and ever-shrinking number of bloggers participate in the April A2Z blogging challenge (not me. I like to head to the desert SW in April).

 

I started blogging early in 2012, on my now-retired Ninja Librarian blog site. I think I have deleted those earliest posts, written as I struggled to figure out what it meant to blog. The earliest extant post is a short story, one I've always like. Here's a link, in case you want to read it.

So what do I like about blogging? Or, to put the question another way, why am I still doing it?

• Habit. I'm used to it, and it is my "easy" marketing outreach. Probably not a very good form of marketing, but as noted, I'm used to it.
• A place to share book reviews, photos, and my progress as a writer (see my activity summary below).
• The community. Pretty much everyone I know who writes and offers me the help and support I need to complete my novels, I met through blogging. So even if this medium never sells a single book, it does enable me to write them. Not to mention making some genuine friends.
• Marketing. Maybe it's not very good at it, but it's the only marketing I really do, so there it is. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to make this a better author's platform.

What has changed about blogging in the (ahem!) 12 years I've been doing it? I think it's become much less of a place of readers and more of a place of writers. I get fewer comments and less interaction.

 

Although every few years I try to rethink my approach, I continue to do pretty much the same things, except that I think I'm doing more photo posts than ever (and honestly, I'd keep blogging just for the sake of having a place to share those photos).

Tell me your blogging story in the comments!

Now:

Writer's Update

I've been home from my Africa trip for 3 weeks, which feels like a long time, but I'm still struggling to get traction. I am working on revisions on Washed Up With the Tide, and gradually making progress. As for submissions, the number is zero. I have received a rejection from the second residency application. and my writer's to-do list looks exactly like it did 2 weeks ago, as I've completed none of those tasks. Currently nothing is out on submission, and I need to fix that!

Here is your essential gratuitous photo. Okay, 2 photos from the ones that didn't make last Friday's post.

White-headed buffalo weaver, with lunch.

Baobab at sunrise.

 

 

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.
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