Thursday, June 29, 2006

Deserting my blog

I'm off to Dubai tomorrow for five days or so on business. I've got a very crowded schedule and there'll be no time for blogging. I imagine the ensuing peace and quiet will be welcomed by all, especially the neighbours on West Egg.

While I'm away I will be thinking about the topics I'd like to address on the blog after I get back. Here's a flavour of what's in my mind:

1 What is the natural lifespan of an unpublished writer's blog? Obviously, there is only so much you can say about not breaking into print.

2 How depression affects writers. I've been putting off tackling this subject ever since I started my blog because it looms so large in my life. In the Pundy House it truly is the elephant in the room, almost blocking out the light.

3 The best way to self-publish. Putting up your novel on the net so people can read it from a screen or print it out is not the answer. Most people still want to read a book. What's the best way to satisfy that need if you can't get published in the traditional way?

4 Beyond technique. There is a lot of really good advice and information out there on how to be a good writer but most of it is from a technical perspective. Grammar, dialogue, plotting etc. But assuming you've mastered the basics, what will turn you into a truly great writer? I need to know.

5 How to use your blog to be a better writer

6 Is writing a blog any different from writing a novel?

7 How to get a link to the GOB. Only joking. Given that I'm going to continue to write this damned blog I would like more readers though. How to get them is the question.

8 Is humour funny? I'm not joking. Should this blog adopt a more serious tone if it ever wants to be taken seriously.

Well, the contemplation of those little questions should tide me over my sojourn across the desert. Might even take my mind off the saddle sores.

See you at the back end of next week.

17 comments:

  1. Safe trip my friend.

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  2. Thanks, Minx. Make sure you misbehave while I'm away and blog all about it.

    I want something good to read when I get back.

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  3. Anonymous10:00 pm

    Here are the answers for you to ponder over on the plane.

    1. The natural lifespan ends when said writer decides to go on a business trip to Dubai for 5 days.

    2. It depresses them.

    3. Use the money you saved from not going to Dubai to pay the printer.

    4. Write

    5. Write

    6. Of course it is silly, a blog is a blog and a novel is a novel.

    7. Write

    8. Life is funny

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  4. Ah, skint, so it's over then? I feared as much, even though in some ways it's a relief. Been fun though, for a while, hasn't it? We had a few laughs, didn't we?

    You're wrong about depression though. It's much more complex than that, and the results are more interesting.

    You're right about the writing bit. At the end of the day that's the only answer, everything else is nothing more than displacement activity.

    Even going to Dubai.

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  5. Anonymous11:00 pm

    Depression is of course complex, just as digestion is complex, but in the end it's just another thing us humans have to deal with. Acknowledge it, accept it, and just get on with it.

    You can obviously write, blogging is a great way to express yourself even if you never get published.

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  6. Anonymous11:05 pm

    Anyway, why does nearly everyone want to 'get' published. Why does nearly everyone expect someone else to 'give' them a job.

    Those are just two of the myths that keep us all depressed, and why? Because happy people don't spend so much.

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  7. Anonymous1:36 pm

    ah - someone interesting to investigate upon your return? I've taken my name from the question posed...

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  8. Anonymous2:44 pm

    your toadying is paying dividends methinks pundy . . .

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  9. Depression and blogging are inversely correlated, I have found, empirically.

    I don't agree that depression is like digestion, if Skint is reading this. Depression is opening the kitchen drawer and sticking the knife from it into said digestive apparatus, becuase that's the obvious and only thing to do.

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  10. Shhh Maxine, we can't talk about it until he comes back. I think there will be a big pow-wow on this one. So shhhhhh.

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  11. Anonymous3:48 am

    I'd put my two cents in, but I'm too depressed...

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  12. Anonymous9:52 am

    I don't mean to diminish depression, god knows I've been there, all I'm saying is that it is part of the human condition and we all have to deal with it -

    yes maxine, blogging is a reasonably good way to do that

    Let's use pundy's blog to kennel our black dogs

    grrr - woof - - snarl -bark - grrr - bite - woof - grrr - grrrrrrrrrrrrrowwwwl

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  13. "Because happy people don't spend so much."
    How true, Skint. Sometimes I wonder if Douglas Adams' Shoe Event Horizon was uncannily prescient.

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  14. Pundy, Pundy, I am batting them off with a Manolo Blanik but they just won't listen.
    Back, back foul black dogs, be gone until the boss comes home!

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  15. Anonymous7:08 pm

    come on pooches, we can't let a mere minx beat us - grrrrrr

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  16. Alright everybody, I know this conversation is officially closed, however I NEED TO SAY THIS! Everybody who's feeling crummy and depressed, TAKE VITAMIN B! Or a B plus C combination of vitamins. Believe me, I've had experience in these matters having been surrounded by super-depressed people all my life. I might go that way myself, but every time I find myself feeling miserable and cranky I take B vitamins. I've seen this work so many times, for so many people! Please, try it. Ask yourself how you feel; if the answer is 'rotten', take B vitamins.

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