The problem with being a novelist with an active blog is that the life of the virtual space depends on updates, interesting information and a little humour if you can manage it. I'd love to indulge, to be honest I miss writing scathing movie reviews and poking fun at bad television. [I still dare anyone with a cast iron stomach or a touch of crazy to try the Secret Life Of The American Teenager drinking game].
Sadly, I just don't like splitting my writing time like that, and I'm sure many people who just finished reading Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6 would rather I spend more time writing Broadcast 7 than plonking away on the blog. Last year I actually spent way too much time playing around with social networking, enough to decide to ignore the whole time sucking vortex as much as possible. Thankfully, I can check things once every few days instead of every few hours like some people, and I have no interest in informing anyone that I'm taking a shower, eating a sandwich (with pictures), going for a walk, talking to someone on the phone, or watching television. Strangely, more than three quarters of all social networking statements consist of that kind of airy update, which are only really useful to burglars or stalkers. I couldn't care less about what Demi and Ashton are doing unless I'm sneaking into their living room to make off with their big screen, but I digress.
My point is, I'd rather not engage in distractions, and I'm pretty sure most self motivated people can understand. I write full time, and aside from a crowd of readers, I don't have a boss. That made it pretty easy to tab out of my word processor every half hour to check Twitter, or Facebook, (which I've come to call Wastebook), or to jot something on the blog. I discovered that, not only were those distractions bad for time wasting, they were making it pretty easy to repeatedly lose focus. I blame social media for a whole re-draft of Broadcast 6. The other two drafts were necessary, but there was a whole section of jumpy writing that was cut then rewritten from scratch - about thirty eight thousand words worth.
My old philosophy of not talking about a book I was working on and keeping distractions to a minimum is working at the moment, and considering I finished writing over half a dozen or so books before 2005, before the advent of social networking that way, I'm going to revert to that state of writing.
What does it all mean?
Well, it just means that this blog will be a little quiet, you won't see hourly Tweets, and I'll be checking Wastebook every couple of days, maybe a little less. It's a good thing, trust me. The less time I spend distracted by online life, the more time I'm spending writing. As a side note, I'd like to say that I do enjoy Emails, comments and other interactions with you guys, and I'm certainly not telling you to cut it out, I'm just saying that it may take an extra few hours, or an extra day for me to get back to you.
RL
[The Secret Life Of The American Teenager Drinking Game: Every time you hear someone repeat a word in the space of 5 seconds, take a shot. If it's a character's name, you can avoid taking a shot by shouting the name aloud and pointing to the person you want to see take your shot for you. If more than one person passes their shot onto one poor sucker this way, the sucker only has to take one shot even though many fingers may be wagging at them. Good luck, don't die.]
2 comments:
Finish book now, need more. I just read every one from Firstlight to fracture in 4 weeks. Please continue
Right. So I just finished First Light, and your afterword said it all. A good read but not quite there yet at the time. Some of the sequences I just couldnt put down and then some of the character interaction seemed a little cliche and shallow. Then you would hit me with a plot twist I didnt see coming. Anyway, keep it coming. I will start Spinward series just as soon as Im done with the latest Peter F Hamilton book. If you havent read him, do it! Some of the best sci-fi writing out there.
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