I know a lot of author folks who let their blogs languish. After all, if only a few visitors pop in, why go through all the hassle of putting up stuff?

Sudden Celebrity

If one of your books started selling thousands of copies a day, there are going to be a flood of folks who will visit your website or blog to learn more about you. If the last thing they see posted is a complaint about buying a bag of moldy bread in 2014, they might think you’re deceased. Or creepy and weird, if you post everything like it’s 1972 and you’re publishing blogs several times a week.

You don’t want to be caught in a position where you have to suddenly have to spew out posts to fill up your first page. If a publisher, editor, reviewer, or agent stop by, they’re going to see you’ve dropped the ball. It would be better to nuke the site than to let it fester and get covered by comment spam and kudzu.

Practice, Practice

Writing is more than putting words on a page. It’s more like making a habit of putting words on a page. Posting on a regular basis keeps your fingers moving on the keyboard and allows you to finish small articles like this one. As a writer creates works, they’re building up their skills. Every word committed to digital paper is one word closer to getting past that “million words of crap” before one becomes adept.

If you’re having issues with writer’s block, flip over to your blog and write a post. Heck, try writing about your current block, and before you know it your fingers will be dancing their familiar tango. Think about it as a case of inertia. If you’re not writing, you tend to want to not write until acted upon by an outside force or motivation. When you’re writing, you tend to forget to eat lunch because your muse is whispering sweet nothings into your virtual ear.

It’s Historical

Sometimes it’s good to keep a blog journal to remind you about things that have happened while you were pounding out that novel. All of those details will eventually get lost to the clutter and background noises of time’s onward march. Sometimes it’s cool to note where a character came from on the very day they popped out of your pen or keyboard. Those kinds of details are what future fans of yours will devour. Consider all of the cool notes added to Pottermore by J.K. Rowling. That historical detail will be worth a lot to your followers in the future.

Recycle

I write articles for several other websites like The Fictorians. I treat the works like short stories. I debut them on that website (First World Rights), and then post them a month or so later (Reprint Rights) on this blog. One article, multiple uses and appearances.

I’m taking some graduate classes, working towards my MFA degree in creative writing. I do my best to pull out some of my homework assignments and post them here. Waste not, want not. There are a couple of short story reviews from the pulp days that came from homework assignments, and I’m building up some literary analysis pieces from a Women in Speculative Fiction class I’m taking. After all, I took the time to write those pieces, so I might as well get some use beyond a grade and obscurity.