Blogging Thoughts
I’ve been blogging in one form or another for about 20 years ago. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, it was LiveJournal and hand-coded a Geocities website, mostly to post my daily wordcount and talk about progress on the novel with a handful of other newbie and wannabe writers. (I even remember my old Geocities website address!)
That’s a lot of blogging. I vented over legal struggles (behind a tight friends-lock) back in the early 2000s. I bemoaned my rejections and celebrated the occasional short fiction sale. I talked about diabetes and depression. As I developed an audience, I also became more aware of fandom and of the larger SF/F scene, and wrote more about that. I argued and vented at folks — often justifiably, but not always. I celebrated stories I enjoyed. I talked about harassment and discrimination and inclusion and the ongoing struggle to make my genre more welcoming to those who have been historically excluded. I posted cat pictures and made memes of book covers.
I haven’t been blogging as frequently this year. Partly, that’s because I’ve had to focus more on the fiction writing — first revising Terminal Uprising, then writing ProjectK in three months before trying to get started on the third Janitors book. I have a few smaller contracts and deadlines coming up as well.
But I also find myself hesitating sometimes because I feel like I’ve already talked about a given topic. Sure, I could write about the underlying racism and hypocrisy of Robert Silverberg’s criticism of N. K. Jemisin’s Hugo win and speech, but do I have anything new to say that I haven’t said a dozen times before? Or I could talk about the frustration that even after 13 published novels, I still get stuck trying to plot out the next one, but I’ve written about my writing and process so many times, aren’t we all tired of it?
And I’m realizing I’m wrong about that. Just because I’ve written about something before doesn’t mean everyone’s read it. (How arrogant would it be to assume everyone’s read the entire archives of my blog?) Hell, some of you people weren’t even alive when I wrote my first LiveJournal post!
I wrote something on Twitter last night about how I wrote and published a lot of books before I even considered quitting my day job. This got a number of responses, which surprised me at first — it’s hardly the first time I’ve talked about that.
Our audience, our community, is constantly changing. And it’s not about always having something new and unique to say. Sometimes it’s about participating in the conversation. Sometimes it’s about trying to offer counterpoints and balance to the nastiness.
I’m still struggling with the planning for book three, so I can’t guarantee a flood of new blog posts. But I’m going to try to stop chucking possible posts and topics just because I might have talked about them before.
Erika Ensign
August 29, 2018 @ 1:33 pm
I was Quite Relieved when I reached the end of this post! At the outset, it looked like it might be a “I’m wrapping up this whole blog thing” kinda post, and my heart skipped a beat. (Yours is one of only 2 blogs I have shunted directly to my email inbox so I don’t ever miss it.) FWIW, even when I *have* read something similar, I never mind if another post covers the same ground. Sometimes further discussion helps me come to grips with a topic. And sometimes these things need to be repeated because the world is a weird and complicated place, and the problems don’t just go away. So I, for one, heartily support you in writing about whatever you feel like whenever you have the time.
Jim C. Hines
August 29, 2018 @ 1:47 pm
Thanks, Erika. Don’t worry – even if I did try to quit blogging, I’m sure the moment I did, something would inspire and/or piss me off to the point where I immediately had to sit down and write an 800-word post about it 🙂
Lenora Rose
August 29, 2018 @ 1:58 pm
I think I’m at least two years from my last blog post. I keep thinking about resuming, but I keep being daunted. This is a reminder of some of the good reasons why to do it.
Beth Wheeler
August 29, 2018 @ 4:43 pm
I really appreciate your take on a lot of issues, and you often have a fresh perspective. Keep on blogging!
Nicole
August 29, 2018 @ 5:39 pm
Obviously, it goes without saying, but always do what you want with your blog! But also, you’re totally right: not everyone has read all of your posts (I’m a more recent follower and I am ALWAYS game to read about writing advice, processes, etc.) and even if someone else has talked about a topic, you haven’t and your perspective is important! And even if you have written about a topic in the past, but feel the need to rehash it currently, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, either. Because you’ve grown and changed and adapted, so who knows what new wisdom, story or advice you have to dish out!
Regardless, thank you for all the blog posts you do write. I’m so excited to check out Terminal Alliance!
Carpe Librarium
August 30, 2018 @ 11:06 pm
Jim C Hines, Captain Awkward, Ask A Manager, Shakesville and The Bloggess are the bookmarked shortcuts in my phone Chrome page.
The others are the news and Facebook.
Each of those pages helps me challenge my preconceptions and learn to be less of an arsehole.
I followed a link to your blog in late 2012 and did in fact plough through your entire archive.
If you check your emails from around the 17th/18th June 2013, I contacted you to tell you how positive an influence your blog has been.
That hasn’t changed one iota.
Thank you for using your wordsmithery to help articulate the way some of us can feel about a situation but struggle with quantifying *why* we feel uncomfortable.
I hope you always get pleasure and satisfaction from your writing, in whatever form it takes, regardless of whether you choose to make it public.
Fraser
September 2, 2018 @ 5:32 am
I’ve only been reading this blog since the first Librarians book, so that’s a lot of stuff I haven’t heard you blog about. Based on my own blogging experience, if you write about a new incident (whatever this Silverberg thing is, which I will now google) it’ll probably be different enough to be worth saying.
Fraser
September 2, 2018 @ 5:44 am
Found it. Sigh.
Eleanor Ray
September 3, 2018 @ 11:09 am
I think one does not say a type of thought once and then stop, or one fails to reach a lot people. You do *not* just repeat yourself, Jim, even speaking on topics you have generally spoken on before. Your thoughts on how *this thing* (Silverberg or otherwise) applies to your stated positions is helpful to those of us who may not entirely internalize the point of view you put forth the very first time we hear it.
I have gotten much more aware of why cultural appropriation is bad from listening to you define several iterations of it in society and the F/SF community and how they apply to that issue. I have discovered better ways of routing out racism in myself from reading several posts of yours on various aspects of the issue over the years.
And if you silence your own voice on a subject, you do the work of the bigot for them.
As to writing issues, and depression, and diabetes, et alia; these, too, are issues that your perspective on is helpful over and again. Depression, for instance, is not an on/off switch, it interacts with one’s life differently from day to day. Knowing how it affects another helps those of us who have it to see how it can manifest, and to become more aware of it in ourselves and others. That is not a perspective shift that comes through the very first time you see something on the subject.
Please consider that we need articulation of such issues as you discuss in an *ongoing* manner, not just as a one time expression. You have a good voice. Keep using it.