Starting a blog is easy for the most part as the tools you can get now days makes the startup pretty seamless. What isn’t so easy is staying focused while writing as it takes time, and time is the killer for most writers. Either we don’t have enough of it, or we lose focus over a period of time and get frustrated with what we were trying to accomplish. I’ve been down these paths quite a lot before but over the years it’s helped me learn how to stay focused, or at least narrow it down so I can enjoy writing.
One of the questions I hear a lot from new bloggers is am I doing this blog thing correctly?
That question is very broad but when you break all those pieces down into why you started your blog and even why you started writing…..that question becomes pretty easy to answer.
Doing this blog thing comes down to personal preference overall but be willing to focus your material and niche so you can reach an audience.
These are just a few things I’ve stumbled over and even sometimes fallen on my face while writing and blogging. I’m no professional by any means, but I enjoy what I get to do with my little corner of the internet and I want to make it the best I can.
One of the ways to improve your blog is step back and examine all of the aspects of what your blog brings for readers. Do you have a vision for the blog, or at least an idea of the direction you want to go?
The more you narrow your focus, the more you broaden your audience. This is where vision and an idea of where and what the blog will look like helps.
Before you begin writing, consider your subject (what you want to write about), then figure out the the theme (your angle and area of focus), then put it into action and figure out what you want to accomplish.
What subject or subjects are you writing about, and what are you passionate about? If you can bring those two ideas together then you’ve made a huge step as that’s something most writers struggle with for years.
Take a look at the theme of your site and writing style as well. Think of it as a subset of your main topics and figure out what that looks like for you. Ask yourself: What will my writing “VOICE” be? Will it be tackling the humorous side of things, or maybe you take a more practical approach to writing.
Lastly, take a look at what you want your blog to accomplish overall. This is the main goal of this little exercise so take some time and look at what impressions you want to leave the readers with. Ultimately the question is why am I blogging and how does it bring enjoyment to my life?
For me writing is a passion but connecting with people is a bigger passion and that is where my enjoyment and focus comes from.
One of my writing mentors gave me this little nugget years ago and quickly became a favorite quote and one I stuck to when I was struggling with writing.
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” – Louis L’Amour
Telltale Games created a masterpiece with the Walking Dead game series and I took the hook, line and sinker when I first started playing the game. Now almost two years later after season 2 finished leaving fans with mixed emotions on how things ended, Telltale Games seemed to have closed the story with season 2. The famed developer company has been quite busy lately with the alternate story of their Michonne miniseries and just yesterday I saw the newest addition will be a Batman game coming later this year. All of Telltale’s games are pretty awesome if you ask me, as I’ve tried just about all of them, but the big question on the table is when the heck are we going to see the next season of The Walking Dead series release?
Ok, so let me start this post by saying I’ve thrown the idea back and forth for years now of whether I do film & TV reviews. It’s always come down to NO not right now as I’ve just got to much going on and I didn’t want to add to an already full plate.
From there, as the show unfolds we get to meet the cast and overall feels like a Scream movie, but different and same all at once. Weird I know, but the parallels to the first film’s characters; Sidney, Billy, Stu, Randy and Tatum in Emma (Willa Fitzgerald), Will (Conner Weil), Jake (Tom Maden), Noah (John Karna) and Brooke (Carlson Young), as these kids from “Lakewood” begin to realize a killer is among them. The show throws some other characters into the mix, including a mysterious new guy in town Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) and Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus), who was the victim of some recent cyber bullying.
As with most things in writing, there are a lot of ways to build a world well, and a lot more ways to do it poorly. First, let me start with the fact that I am still working on my first novel series, and the world building early on became overwhelming. This is no one’s fault except mine as I rushed into a very large project that at the time I wasn’t quite ready to tackle yet. Many years of writing short fantasy / sci-fi stories, and personal blogging gave me the feeling I was ready to take on a novel of epic proportions. Ultimately, I’ve loved every minute of this writing journey I’ve ventured into as it’s helped me grow as a writer, and building worlds was a huge step into the creative for me. These few paragraphs are just some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned a long the way to make world building easier, and more enjoyable.
Fourth, You’ve decided how your world works, you’ve decided your characters’ places within this world, and now you have to write, write, write. I tend to give very broad outlines of my world and the inner workings; then as the characters move through the world, I bring out those specifics. My plot within the story moves very fast and at times the world building takes a back seat, but all in all the creation of the world takes place and ultimately becomes immersive.
A Hobbits Journey 