Why do I want to blog a novel and\/or a collection of poems? \u00c2\u00a0Because I can. \u00c2\u00a0Because it provides a necessary creative outlet for me. \u00c2\u00a0Because the blog provides a space for meaningful experimentation in both process and craft. \u00c2\u00a0Because the world is full of fiction and poetry blogs, and mine might as well be among them.<\/p>\n
My relationship with blogs has evolved a great deal in the past few years. \u00c2\u00a0I’ve broken up with more blogs than most people ever ask out on the first date. \u00c2\u00a0At first, I did with blogs what I have also first done with Twitter. \u00c2\u00a0I posted random thoughts. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t believe anyone does that and stays with blogging for long. \u00c2\u00a0You have to blog with a purpose for it to stick.<\/p>\n
I found my found my first real purpose for blogging in discussing teaching ideas with other literature and composition instructors. \u00c2\u00a0That was great fun while it lasted. \u00c2\u00a0But a large part of the fun was in the social aspect of it, and even academic social lives have moved to Facebook now. \u00c2\u00a0Idea sharing has moved to Twitter. \u00c2\u00a0It turns out you can say a lot in 140 characters. \u00c2\u00a0It also turns out most of us never really had that much to say. \u00c2\u00a0Twitter is the perfect place post a link and a snide remark and move on with your life.<\/p>\n
And still I yearn for the blog. \u00c2\u00a0What can I say? \u00c2\u00a0I like to be verbose.<\/p>\n
Thus I have floundered for a new purpose. \u00c2\u00a0I have searched for projects for my blogs. \u00c2\u00a0I have applied for grants that have enslaved colleagues to blog projects. \u00c2\u00a0But I am greedy. \u00c2\u00a0I want more, more, always more.<\/p>\n
Then somewhere in all of that it finally occurred to me that the Ph.D. that got me the job that I’ve spent all of this time yammering about online is actually in Creative Writing, not in Composition. \u00c2\u00a0Poetics, to be more precise, whatever the heck that is.<\/p>\n
And what have I done with this degree? \u00c2\u00a0Nothing. \u00c2\u00a0I’ve spent my life teaching composition. \u00c2\u00a0I read poetry in secret the way some people smoke in secret. \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes I write poetry. \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes I write fiction. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bad news is I don’t have the time to devote to writing I need or desire. \u00c2\u00a0The good news is I write anyway. \u00c2\u00a0The other good news is I can write whatever I please because I’m not answering to anyone, and I have nothing to prove. \u00c2\u00a0I’m the only person at my job with a degree in poetry. \u00c2\u00a0When you exist as a universe of one, you can conquer it (or not) any old day you please.<\/p>\n
The other bad news is that I don’t send my work out. \u00c2\u00a0I may have made a half-hearted attempt once every five years or so to send to one or two journals or contests. \u00c2\u00a0But I haven’t made a job of trying to publish. \u00c2\u00a0I already have a job that eats up all of my time. \u00c2\u00a0I hate thinking about trying to publish. \u00c2\u00a0Looking at the Poet’s Marke<\/em>t makes me unhappy. \u00c2\u00a0I just want to write. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n I’d say it doesn’t matter if no one reads what I write, but you’d see that for the lie that it is. \u00c2\u00a0The blog exists; therefore, the desire for audience does as well.<\/p>\n What doesn’t matter is how highbrow the audience is. \u00c2\u00a0I have nothing to prove. \u00c2\u00a0I’m not working my way up the academic ladder. \u00c2\u00a0I have a job where I will likely stay for many years. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t need publications to keep it. \u00c2\u00a0I can be an academic vagabond if I want.<\/p>\n And so I blog because I can, because I have nothing to lose. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n I’m not even concerned that I might miss an opportunity for a “real” publication because of the blog. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n (1) Blogs can be taken down as easily as they were put up. Besides all that, I’m learning from the blog. \u00c2\u00a0That really does mean something.<\/p>\n Breaking up a chapter of a novel into 500 word chunks to post on a blog is a whole different process that I would have ever encountered otherwise. \u00c2\u00a0It makes me pay attention in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise. \u00c2\u00a0It makes me question the necessity of entire paragraphs. \u00c2\u00a0It’s even heightened my awareness of the way others might understand the story.<\/p>\n So what if only one friend is reading it? \u00c2\u00a0It’s been good for me. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Blogging the novel creates some structure and design in my life that I wouldn’t otherwise have. \u00c2\u00a0It’s very difficult to arrive at that once you finish a graduate program in creative writing and go off somewhere to a job where you fall deeply and irrevocably outside any kind of community of academic writers. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n When you have no one to answer to you don’t get up at 5 in the morning, not even to write a novel. \u00c2\u00a0The blog, if nothing else, keeps a record of how well you’ve answered to yourself. \u00c2\u00a0An immeasurably good quality if you ask me.<\/p>\n There is a stigma attached to the act of self-publishing that has probably held me back from blogging stories and poems as much as anything, but the hell with that. \u00c2\u00a0It doesn’t mean anything anymore. \u00c2\u00a0Not to me personally in my situation of having nothing to lose. \u00c2\u00a0And not to the world at large when everything is changing to a self-marketing, social-networking model.<\/p>\n What knows what will happen next? \u00c2\u00a0Maybe I’ll put together my own e-book at the end of the blog. \u00c2\u00a0It might be fun, and that’s why I went to Poet School in the first place…for the party in my mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why do I want to blog a novel and\/or a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writerlyhaphazardry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(2) Why would anyone even care if poems were previously found online? \u00c2\u00a0They aren’t going to lose money because of that. \u00c2\u00a0They weren’t going to make money off selling poetry, and people are more likely to buy books of poetry if they can google the poet’s name to find out if they like the style. \u00c2\u00a0I know I am.
\n(3) I’m writing fiction for my own entertainment. \u00c2\u00a0I know myself well enough to know I’m not likely to even try to make it anything other than that.
\n(4) If I am going to ever work at self-promotion, the blog is as good a way to get there as any.<\/p>\n