Quina from FFIX
A long time ago, I realized that working with weekly topics and scheduling things took the edge off blogging. I didn’t have to scramble every weekend for things to write about and people were happy to give topics. That lasted for a while and it helped since my blog ran into a few survival issues.
The biggest issue is that it was originally designed as a platform for my books, but I failed to see the flaw. Being a series author, I inevitably ran into a point where I couldn’t talk about my books. Too much would be revealed and the spoiler complaints began appearing when I started mentioning new heroes and villains. I still have a few secrets left, which I’m hold onto for as long as I can. Yet, it makes it very difficult to make this blog only about Legends of Windemere. That’s where the topics came in along with several fun things to do with them like the Old Shoppe skits and characters talking amongst themselves.
Still, there was the other inevitability that I ran into. I’ve hit a point where I don’t know what to write about. I asked for suggestions and people either had nothing or things that I could cover in one post. That’s another reason I’m cutting down here. People seem more inclined to give specific questions than lengthy topics, which is what Wednesday will be covering. (With that in mind, feel free to request a topic or ask a question any time.) I used to have an ‘Ask the Author’ page here, but it had 2 things in a year which made it dead weight.
So I did learn that having a weekly topic can help for a while, but it shouldn’t be depended on. Also that people don’t read archives and you shouldn’t expect them too, so new followers may request something that has been requested several times before. Nature of the blogging beast. Anyway, I used this tool and drove it into the ground, which is why I’m in the position I’m in now. I don’t know how many of the old skits will continue like Old Shoppe and character chats that depended on a weekly topic. Part of me wishes I could do the ‘Ask a Character’ stuff again, but I’ve been burned by that too often.
This really does prove that a blog evolves from its original form. It might not always be a drastic change like here, but you have to adapt as your audience and the blogosphere changes. This can happen in many forms and a big one here is going to be the return to smaller topics. I might end up falling back on poetry in times of having no idea what I’m doing.
So, what do you do with your when you’re out of ideas? Are you big into weekly topics, staying with your initial topic, etc.?
Legends of Windemere 
You’ve hit the major problem that authors have when they focus only on their books Charles – it ceases to be a constantly changing blog and morphs into a static publicity website 😦
I’d suggest you read my latest reblog about how to make your blog reader friendly and still promote your books 🙂
http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/2015/01/02/the-reader-friendly-blog/
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I actually only mention my blogs when events are going on. I’ve found that talking about writing works better. It does get difficult to find new topics though.
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I know it’s difficult enough for me and I have the advantage of being book free 😀
I try to mix art and musical talents, as well as humour in with the serious stuff – it works to keep variety and is great padding 😀
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I’m working on getting an author website up, so that might take some of the pressure off the blog. I’m still not going to go very far into my personal life though.
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Avoid that at all costs Charles – e.g., how much REALLY do you (or anyone else) know about ME and it doesn’t hurt the blog 😀
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I know. I was heading there with cooking posts and stuff about my son. Then I realized it was rather ridiculous as I got closer to a book debut.
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I think for me the biggest thing was simply learning to go with the flow… start typing and see what came… or follow an odd idea, a picture that made me think… anything. The blog really came into being as a means of promoting the School, then the books came along… and there is so much to talk about in everyday life…
Or maybe I should get out more 🙂
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Get out more? That’s just crazy talk. There are wolves, sharks, alligators, bees, and inchworms out there. Far too dangerous. 😛
So, did you start your blog to promote those things or was it simply for fun?
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You have a point… though here the danger is more like to come from the edible dormouse that terrorises these parts.
I started the blog originally when I was tring to learn my way round the internet really.. to see if I could. It was abandonned almost immediately… after all, who on earth would want to read anything I’d written. Then a friend launched an appeal to help my son so I resurrected the blog to help publicise that. Then the school and the books came along… but I admit, although it raises awareness for both, I really write here because I enjoy it.
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That’s an interesting evolution. I’ve heard a lot of people started a blog, left, and then came back for one reason or another.
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I think the first dip of the toes only produced an odd poem or two… must have been a year later the appeal went out. Odd how things turn out.
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If I’m out of ideas, I don’t blog. 🙂
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I’m getting there. Might end up reposting stuff just to bide time. 🙂
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I write about whatever is on my mind at the time. Sometimes I bake bread, sometimes I have a book coming out. I don’t have thousands of followers, but my regulars seem to like it.
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I still do the scheduling of posts thing because it clears up writing time for me. With the shorter schedule, I might try to be more spontaneous. Not going to bake bread though because I suck at baking. 🙂
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Having a blog about daily life is where I’m lucky – there’s always something to talk about and there’s always someone out there who can relate. After I publish, who knows? I hope I can keep a balance. As TSRA says above, it’s hard to write about one thing too long. I’m going to check out his link… 🙂
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I see that the daily life ones seem to have an easier time and can handle breaks in posting better than those that have a ‘mission’.
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I really liked it when you based your poems on the various characters. They were intense and powerful. You might try them again, showing character development and keeping in pace with the storyline covered so far in the series.
Or you can share small snippets of how your character would behave in our world.
My ideas might seem quite ordinary and impractical, but that is all that I could come up with right now. All the best! 🙂
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Thanks. I might revisit the character poems when they develop more in the published books. That can work really well for promo stuff. Them being in our world would be a tough one.
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I feel your pain. It’s a challenge to keep fresh. I run my book blog and a separate blog for my thoughts outside of the book. I keep the book blog to mainly reviews and sequel progress updates. I run the other for the sake of continued writing practice. I haven’t tried asking what my readers want to read about, though maybe I should. Let me know when you find the secret 😉
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I think the secret is to write what you want. I’ve done a lot of requests for topics and questions. It fails more than it succeeds. I might put up an old page I once had called ‘Ask a Question’, which was simply there for people to comment with post topic requests. Might have gotten 2 or 3 hits on that while it was up for a year.
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Beginning titles of your last few posts – Beginning of the End – has me wondering what’s ending re your blog other than daily posting. Sounds like you already have one foot out the WP door and are headed for other online options. I’d offer suggestions but…I’m one who suggested and liked your cooking and kid entries – which you said didn’t work. I hope this all resolves for you, Charles.
Ellespeth
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I might be slipping one foot out the door. The daily posting is certainly over, which is really what the end is about. I need to focus more on the writing and that’s hard to do when I’m spending so much of my time blogging. I wouldn’t say I’m heading for other on-line options though. If I leave WP then I’m not going to be going anywhere else.
The personal stuff certainly needs to be cut back a lot here. It opens the door to something that I’m realizing is a little too private. I’ll still do the goals and any big life events,but that’s probably it.
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I just write about what hits me at the time. My writing, my family, my concerns of publishing…Oh…sometimes I have topics and post a few pieces concerning them. I read somewhere that your readers love to know about your personal life, but there is so much you can’t or don’t want to say. They will have to be happy with the little I give them. I can’t always write about my first book or my second one coming because like you say there is only so much you can actually reveal without giving it all away. I’ve been trying to write more about the ins and outs of promoting and marketing my book. I know you have a lot of content on that subject! Share it even if you have already because NO, most readers do not read the archives. 🙂
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I’m actually going to be touching on the personal life stuff come Monday. Sort of. Mostly I’m going to be making a declaration of where I’m going since next week is the first one under the new schedule.
The promoting and marketing information has been harder to explain. I think it’s because I’ve kind of settled into a system and a lot of sites I used dried up last year.
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I used to have sticky notes plastered all over my desk, but I finally organized them onto several large sheets of paper. The stack is growing. Guess I need to write posts more frequently. 🙂
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I had a long list that I ran out of a while back. Got hard to think of blog topics AND fantasy books. Curious what’s on your list now.
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For me, it’s a matter of priorities. Yes, building a platform is important but at the end of the day, I had to ask myself this question: “are you a blogger who writes or a writer who blogs?”
Although maybe for some, there’s no distinction between the two, for me it’s pretty significant. These days, when I run out of blog ideas, I just give it a rest for a while. Taking a break gives me time and a chance to come up with new ideas without stressing out over it.
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Excellent question. Honestly, I haven’t taken a blog break in 2 years because I thought daily activity helped book sales. After I realized it wasn’t true, I just kept going like I was too far into the activity. That’s why I’m cutting back. Means I can do more writing.
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I guess I’m lucky that my topic is broad enough to keep finding facets. So far, anyhow.
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That is very fortunate. Hope it keeps going strong.
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If it helps… it may not. I try to blog once or twice a week. I write about whatever pops into my head. I write about schedules for release but also diverse topics from foods I like or what my cat’s been up to through to metal detecting and weird artifacts I’ve found. This year, I also intend to publish snippets of my works in progress but they’re going to be shorter and stand alone. As you say, with a series that becomes tricky. Heavens! Just writing the blurbs for the last two in mine without spoilers was hard enough.
So I’ve gone for just being me on line and if people like that, I hope they may buy my books. It does help that my books are funny, so I can demonstrate any innate ability I might have to be funny without spoiling the books for anyone.
If the worst comes to the worst, I just take my foot off the gas a bit and go with the flow. It just depends if you can do that. 😉
Cheers
MTM
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The blurbs have certainly been harder as time goes on. I’m at the point where the last blurb will be ‘AND NOW IT ENDS’.
I really want to stay within the realm of writing and keep most of my personal life away from the blog. I was revealing stuff before, but it felt like I was going too far. Also there were a few times where somebody reblogged a personal story that felt like it shouldn’t have been reblogged.
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Yeh, I hear you. I’m lucky enough to have a lot of generic stuff I can cover but I’ve done a couple of personal ones – about my dad’s illness and the like – and felt exactly the same way.
Cheers
MTM
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One of the oddest ‘blurb complaints’ I received early on was that I mentioned the main character’s name. This ended up ‘revealing’ that he survived the first adventure, which this person claimed was a spoiler. How in the world can I promote a book without mentioning the main character?
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Jeez you have some weird folks reading your books! Mwah hahahargh! I’m not sure how you answer that either. 😉
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I’m not sure where the comments came from. A lot of the early ones were all about how I could rewrite my books to be like Game of Thrones. Some even told me to copy it entirely to get famous. Apparently, copyright infringement isn’t known to them.
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