Getting the Balance Right Between Blogging and Writing

I'm making good progess with my second book. I love to write at least a couple of hundred words on it each day. When I'm really focused in on the writing, nothing else matters. It's like my brain can only hold one thought at a time, and then I blank everything else out.

But suddenly, often when I'm mid sentence, I remember that I have to write frequent blog posts as part of my marketing strategy. Then my thought process transfers from my writing over to worrying about what I ought to blog about today. I check all the social media sites for any inspirational articles that I might be lucky enough to find, and then I start to jot down notes. For the next couple of hours all my creative writing skills go out the window as I struggle to write something half decent for my blog.

Should it be like this? In an ideal world: no. But I think most writers struggle to get the balance right between writing and blogging.

Most authors blog because it's a way of getting your voice out there in an instant. Blogging also improves your writing skills and it forces you to write regularly if you're fortunate enough to be self disciplined. If people have a good stream of traffic coming to their blog daily, the blogger can feel extremely satisfied knowing that what they're typing is being read by people on an international scale. And because of these reasons I think some writers let blogging take over their lives. Blogging is addictive, especially when people blog to promote their work/product. You feel you have to be out there online in order for your product to sell. But I'm always cautious when I think about this issue because if you spend all your time blogging and promoting you don't have time to do anything else, and that includes writing.

It takes time to write well. Books aren't something you can write in the space of a couple of hours. And if you spend your time blogging, you might not be at your creative best because you're devoting a section of your time to writing something else.

I think writing for myself is the most important thing I can do. I never blog before I write anyway because I need a 100% brain power to write properly. By doing things this way I can really focus on what I want to write, and that's writing to entertain others. When I blog, I write not only for entertainment purposes but to inform others of what works for me in my writing life. I want to share my experiences in order to help people.

But at the end of the day, writing is the most important job for me to do. And I try my hardest not to let other things get in the way of that.