If a writer writes and nobody reads it, is it a total waste of time?

I created this blog in a fit of “I will be a writer!” But the enthusiasm for developing an audience is somewhat gone.  I have these people in the industry who tell me I should blog, should develop a reader base, the methods of doing so, etc., but my introverted tendencies are getting the better of me, so I forget to post.

Anyway.  I finished plotting Warden’s Call, but, well, the last third of the plot is the biggest, most steamy pile of felgercarb (or dren) I’ve seen in a good long while.  So now I have to go back and rework it.  Ugh.

On the other hand, something came back to me in regards to The War for Earth, which might help.  And some other ideas have been written down and slotted away for another day. But for now, I need to fix WC.

Published by Michael R. Johnston

Father of an eighth grader, high school English teacher, writer. Fifty years old and feeling almost every bit of it on some days, and not a bit of it on others. Based in Sacramento, California, USA

4 thoughts on “If a writer writes and nobody reads it, is it a total waste of time?

  1. LOL. That’s essentially the reason I created my blog. 🙂 But so far the sparkle hasn’t worn off for me. It seems to me that if you don’t like blogging, you ought not do it. Or find a way to make it more fun. I just read that back and it seemed like the most inane advice. Well, I’m off to have a look around.

  2. You raise a good point, but I was unclear. I’ve been blogging for ten years; this is my “writer” blog, created mainly because I didn’t want to go through ten years of my other blog and cull all the deeply personal stuff nobody but my closest friends needs to see, not to mention the endless quizzes I did when I was a bored desk jockey.

    What I really meant was that my enthusiasm for documenting every part of the process has waned somewhat–I just don’t know how much people might even be interested in reading the sometimes-inane minutiae of writing a novel. But I’m probably selling myself short, and I’m trying to commit to updating at least every other day. Knowing at least a few folks might be reading helps, though–thanks!

  3. I cottoned on to that after I looked around more. But I think you probably are selling yourself short though. Since writing can be so solitary, its nice to find out others are going through the same things. Plus, very few people can just sit and write. I get very little free time and really its a competition between everything I might want to do in that time. Read? TV? Get writing done? Play sugar, sugar (it’s an evil time-stealer)? Knit?
    Back on topic – minutiae are good. People like to read these things.
    Cheers.

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