For me, at least.
I set my goal, when I started this blog, to post a story, or part of a story, everyday. This was to push myself to practice writing daily. But after doing it for a couple of weeks, I found that having to publish my story on the same day that I’m writing it had its limits. I was forced to spend most of my day thinking about a proper ending for my 1000 words that I wrote for that day. That time could have been spent writing an additional five hundred, or maybe another thousand words.
For the past two days I did not post any stories, but I was working on one. It is a different approach to my training routine that I will test in the coming weeks.
What about you, my dear friends? How often do you blog? And how often do you think you should blog?
Marc Gate 
I just blog when I’m happy with something I’ve done, though I don’t try to finish my stuff. Nothing really ends anyway.
I was forcing myself to end each 1000 words with a cliffhanger to post it on the same day. But now I’m going to do it more like you, and post when I’m happy with something I’ve done 🙂
Sometimes forcing yourself to write something is just as bad as not writing, it can become a chore. Writing everyday and posting when it is done and you are happy is a better plan, I feel 🙂
You’re right, it did become a chore for me, but I still need to have some kind of a deadline to keep myself from straying too much. Maybe I’ll post every three days, or once a week, I’ll test different routines and see what works best for me.
At the moment I’m trying to post at least once a week. It seems to work for me, and I’ve even found that I’m more productive when I’m working on a strict schedule. I’m not a routine-oriented person, anyway, and once I feel I have to do something, I start to resent and rebel against it.
Writing each day is a good habit. I do try to do that. But certainly not everything you write daily should be for your blog.
My suggestion is to post when you have something to say or something you’d like to share. Forcing words, as Harliqueen mentioned, can be counterproductive. You don’t want to get burned out.
Thanks for the good advice 🙂
I actually started thinking about changing my routine when I was writing that “romantic” story 🙂
I was working on it and didn’t want to post it right away, there was still much I wanted to add and change. That got me to question why was I rushing myself.
So I hope this upcoming short story will be my best post since I started this blog 🙂
Meant to say that I’m more productive when NOT working on a strict schedule. Sheesh. But yes, don’t rush yourself. Writing shouldn’t be a sprint all the time. Sometimes it’s going to be a marathon. Of course, I want to read that romantic story when it’s at its best, and when you are happy with it.
By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask: what is your native language?
It’s, High Valyrian 🙂
Just kidding, it’s Arabic 🙂
Oh! A truly beautiful language. It’s on my list of top five languages I’d like to learn before I die.
I’m glad you think so of it 🙂
Learning a new language is one of the most rewarding experiences. You’re not just learning new words and letters, but discovering an entire culture, a whole new world is open to you for exploring.
So I hope you have fun exploring five new worlds 🙂
If you have any questions about Arabic, I’ll be glad to help.
I can attest to that: learning new languages opens a variety of metaphorical doors.
I speak French and Estonian. Writing my master’s thesis is truly the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, so kudos to you for writing fiction in a language that isn’t your mother tongue.
Thank you for the praise (nobody ever said kudos to me, so I don’t know how to properly respond :roll:)
I need a full post to explain why I chose to write in English, but I can summarize it in 2 points:
1) I’ve only read fiction in English.
2) Arabic literature is not written in the same way that we speak it in our daily lives. Think of it as the difference between the language Shakespeare wrote in, and the way English is spoken today. So when I write a story in Arabic, it doesn’t feel “real” to the reader. But that maybe only how I feel about it.
Anyway, I can only imagine myself writing stories in English, so I hope I can succeed in it one day 🙂
🙂 No problem. That’s interesting — about Arabic. Is the official Arabic language the ‘literary’ language? I know that there are many varying dialects depending on region and society. At least that was my understanding. I’m definitely no expert.
I think it’s great that you’re working at it. You’ll definitely succeed — especially if you keep practicing. Aside from a few slight things here and there, it’s almost impossible to tell that you’re not a native speaker! 🙂
Now that is more praise than I would have ever hoped for at my current level 🙂 especially when it comes from a ‘true’ native speaker! Thanks, Michelle 🙂
You are right in your remarks about the Arabic language. The official language is used in writing literature. It is the only language that has standard rules for writing that everyone understands. But, like I said before, the problem with writing fictional work in this language is that we don’t use it in our daily lives, it’s too formal, so if I write any dialog in it, for example, it would feel like a play rather than a real life situation.
So why don’t I use the spoken language instead? If I did, I would be limiting my readers to a single region of a single country, and still not all of them would be able to understand what I write as I intended it to be, because there are no rules for writing our spoken language. I hope I made it as clear as possible 🙂
That makes perfect sense to me. 🙂
Forcing yourself is a nice way to break the initial procrastination block, but if it doesn’t go smoothly from there, it might be better to wait a better time/idea/mood. Writing is like sex. Some days you just can’t be arsed.
So true 🙂
But like I said before, I like to have some sort of a criteria to judge myself with, and keep track of my progress. Maybe posting everyday was too much, so I’ll change it to something like, 5000 words a week, for example, and post only what I’m happy with. I have to respect my readers and post only what I think is worth their while, instead of daily publishing stupid-unreadable-first drafts.
On a slightly unrelated note, I found just enough time between working my arse off and working my arse off today to catch up with your knight story. I’ll gladly offer my opinion (and critique if you wish it), I only need you to say whether you’d like it expressed publicly, or perhaps through private channels.
Keep in mind that while I AM a good critic (not my own opinion, but there it is), I tend to be caustic about the business. So just drop me a note on your preference and I’ll get at it. There’s enough potential in that story for me to want to contribute to its improvement.
I am extremely honored that you see any potential in my story, my dear friend 🙂
I am eager to hear your opinion (and critique) whenever you like to provide it. And I have no problem with it being in public, a comment on the last published part of the story would be just fine, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether to post it as a comment, or send it as an email to marcgate@live.com.
Let me thank you in advance, you would be doing me a great favor that I would have a hard time paying back 🙂
My blog posts are purely from when the muse strikes me, and as you can tell that is fairly often. I’m trying to mirror the thoughts I’m having, the processes I’m working on, and so far it’s done a lot. As for your writing, release it when you want to. I work daily on something, and I just use a sidebar to show my current progress.on longer works. That, and if you don’t want to end stories on cliffhangers, don’t. Simple.
I have no problem with posting about one’s thoughts and interests on a daily basis. My mistake was in forcing myself to post a new part of a story each day. But what can I say, a noob gotta make his share of mistakes to grow I guess 🙂
But it’s a bless to have people who can share their experiences with you, so thanks for all the help 🙂