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Has Blogging Killed Your Writing?

Has Blogging Killed Your Writing?

I’ve recently been catching up on the Showtime program Californication. Centered around mid-life crisis sufferer Hank Moody (played by David Duchovny), the show is packed with sex and sarcasm. A subplot follows the lead as his career as a novelist dead ends due to writer’s block, leaving him with no choice but to take a paying blogger gig. Which the show portrays as a huge blow to the character’s ego.

And that got me thinking…

Ever since I became a prolific blogger, the fiction writer in me has disappeared.

POOF!

The writing styles are clearly different, and blogging, quite honestly, helps me pay the bills (while fiction was only a hobby). Interesting, because as far as I’m concerned, I’ve always found that writing breeds writing.

I’m curious to hear if you’ve experienced anything similar. Answer this question in the comments section below:

SINCE YOU’VE STARTED BLOGGING YOU…

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a) Write more fiction
b) Write less fiction
c) You never wrote fiction to begin with

Now that I’m aware that I’ve turned my back on true ‘creative writing,’ I will make a conscious effort to incorporate it back into my life.

Finally I find myself writing for volume the way I always tried to discipline myself to do, yet the format is different than I expected.

View Comments (9)
  • I may have to go back to writing fiction because blogging sure doesn’t pay the bills. Someone pay me to blog, quick! :)

    Seriously, though, I’ve found that The Internet in general saps my creativity, and I’ve recently started to severely limit my online time. It’s amazing how much more I get done when I’m not zoned out in front of web site after web site.

  • I’ve written significantly less since I started to redirect my attention towards other styles of writing like commentary and criticisms for my blog. My fiction writing has definitely suffered, and although the two pages I’ve written of my most recent work are good, I can’t gather the creativity to keep going with it. It’s frustrating :(

    Although you’ve given me the idea to add some purely writing/brainstorming posts to my blog. We’ll see how that works :)

  • I think writing for a blog site is equally creative as writing in other forms of creative writing. Writing is writing and therefore certain priciples of craft must apply. I do not feel that there should be a respect drop for writers who post material on a blog site. I feel that blog writing is an additional for of creative writing in recent years and should not be taken for granted.

    I think this is a big topic and more posts should be mentioned on your site my friend…thank you.

  • Write less fiction, definitely. I felt rather sad that Hank despised blogging so much, but at the same time, I do feel very strongly that it’s a completely different sort of writing. When I’m blogging, my goal is to get it written: to communicate the idea as succinctly as possible, and move on. When I’m writing fiction, that’s much more about quality before speed of production.

    What I’d like to be able to achieve is to take that “get it written” stance back to my fiction: to silence my inner critic, and to actually get some fiction finished instead of endlessly writing half-works which I then abandon.

  • Yes, since I started blogging, I have written no fiction. Mind you, I wasn’t writing much fiction before I started blogging. I used to write much more (and poetry) when I was younger and had more energy.

    I really only have just so much “writing energy” in a day and it now gets used up on the blog rather than on fiction or poetry.

    And I do find reading blogs and jumping from web site to web site very energy sapping.

  • I still write creative stories and poetry the same as before. However, I keep it in a physical journal instead of posting it online. When I’m online I end up going into ‘work mode’ no matter what the situation is. I’m content. :)

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