Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Blogging and me

I posted the extract from Paulo Coelho because my habit of writing is as contrary as his ... my blog has become my way of trying to organise the habit of procrastination into a daily result. But I wonder, is a routine of reading and walking and taking time to think really procrastination?

To write you have to take things in, you have to savour or process them, you need time unless you are fortunate and have a mind you can manage, as some writers have.

My habit has become reading and blogging on the mornings I'm free, recovering in the afternoon and running errands, and then writing fictional things has always been something I've done in the night, after midnight preferably.

But I write of my writing so lightly ...I haven't yet learned to take it seriously, to give it the respect it needs, allocating it the hours we all give to 'real' work.

And when are you a writer ... when you write or when you are published?

The blog has become my halfway home, the place where I 'write'.

Obviously, as the saga of moving countries and gaining legal residency and permission to work dragged on, I realised I had a need for something that measured my hours and output. I have no income, I have nowhere I am required to be in these days ... and so my blog serves a double function; a reason to write and a kind of business .

It has become my measurement of time spent and today, when I fed my url details in at the 'How much is your blog worth' Business Opportunities Blog, I discovered that my blog is presently worth $15,807.12.

Not bad, I thought to myself ...

The real test will come in the months ahead when I have to prepare and present a real-life businessplan in the hope of impressing people in Belgie with my desire for work and a Professional Card. Mmmm, let's see how that goes.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not nearly as valuable. Damn. But I think it's good, nobody tries to steal my blog. ;)

Erin said...

Oh, I love the Coelho quote. And your question "When are you a writer when you write....or when you are published?" brought to mind a story I love, but I can't confirm who it's about..I JUST read it, but where???

Anyway, some young writer asked TS Eliot (I swear that's who it was....but can't find it on the web,,)
anyway, the young writer asks: How do I know if I am a writer.

And the poet replies:
Stop writing.

:-)

Di Mackey said...

Doberman, you made me laugh when I read your comment ;)

I loved the Eliot quote ...!
Everything is a story, isn't it ... especially the people. Stopping 12 hours of Nederlands class a week has given me back my creating mind. I've been writing and having ideas for writing while on the tram.