Do you dream of writing a book? Have you written one? Did you go ahead and have it published?
I was reading a blogging friends blog called Pen Scratches, tonight. She said that she has gone a bit quiet on her blog, as in the past month, she has begun to write her book. Her book!
Where would you start? I have often dreamed about what it would be like to finish writing a book. How exciting. But where would I start?
Would I write a book about my life? No I don’t think so. Firstly it would be too embarrassing. Secondly it might upset too many people. Thirdly it would open a door to memories I have no wish to ever relive.
Would I write a crime novel? A romantic novel? A trilogy? A children’s story?
Sometimes I think I would like to write short stories, but would I really?
I enjoy dreaming about writing my book. I enjoy wondering what sort of book it might be. However as my thoughts continue they eventually 
come round to the fact that I blog. I would like to consider writing one day, but for now I blog. Many say it hones your writing skills and gives you an idea about what you like to write and what others like to read. However the longer I blog the more I think I will never write that book. If I am honest I think that blogging is an easy way of getting my writing hit, without me having to make any real commitment to actually writing something more substantial.
Before I blogged ignorance was bliss. I didn’t appreciate the art of writing. I had no idea how little I knew about it, (and I have done nothing to address that) and I never for a moment thought of all that goes into publishing, and marketing a book.
Now I am a bit more aware I find I have changed. Instead of an “I can do this” attitude to writing a book, or even articles, I am now a “maybe some day”, or an “I wish” kind of person. If for a moment I think “maybe I can?” I hear loud protestation inside my head. I hear, “you need to do a few courses first”, “What about a publisher? An editor? “You could never cope with marketing, you don’t even like your photo being taken”
When I began to blog I saw no obstacles. Now I see them everywhere. In time I might learn to accept them, deal with them and get over them. Maybe then I will write that book.
For now though I think I will continue to blog, and to dream. Yet I can’t help but wonder… Has blogging killed my dream?
My thoughts on a page. 
I don’t think it has killed your dream but it has opened your eyes to what is involved. 🙂
You may be right. I now wonder am I too lazy? Or not “educated” enough.
None of the above. Maybe you are just being realistic.
I think you are right. The rest is just natural self doubt.
Not educated enough? If the God awful bestsellers I have read are anything to go by, being educated is not a problem. Besides you have already proven you can write via the blog, and a lot of people like and follow your blog. We can’t all be fools!
I too have read some ofthat crap, or bought it at least. Marketing is obviously key. As for my readers, I think many read because I am good to comment and take an interest in their blogs, as I love reading them and have built up “relationships”, I don’t really see it as a judgement on my writing.
I love reading your tweets though (and posts of course). By the way, why don’t you have comments on your posts anymore?
The comments are back now. I had them off for a few weeks while I had very limited internet access and was unable to reply to them. The posts were pre-scheduled.
I’m not sure that people only read your blog because you are good to comment and take an interest in their blog, it might be true for one or two, but I think people come back because they enjoy the writing too, otherwise people would would see your post on their Reader and think ‘Jesus, not this one again’ and just not bother reading, liking and commenting.
Maybe I’m wrong. Just kidding. Of course I’m not. I’M NEVER WRONG!
Thanks JD. I’m sure you are never wrong!
Just checked your latest posts. Number 1. I have unfollowed you?? Never did that but maybe subconsciously I had sense? Number 2, I see comments. Did I dream the time you didn’t have comments?
No, you didn’t dream the no comments thing, I turned the comments off for a few posts while I had little to no internet access, then turned them back on. See comment above, I hit the reply button too quickly the first time.
Ah good. I like to be able to comment (I’m a bit gobby!) I did unfollow you though, how I’m not sure.
Happened to me before. Blogs I followed just vanished and I had no idea until a few months passed. Just a glitch in the matrix. 🙂
i felt you wrote my voice 😉
I can imagine with so many bloggers out there we are not alone. Thanks for calling by.
no really you write with all your heart…the reader is embroiled till the end !! 🙂
Blogging does take a lot of time but while you are blogging, you may even be writing bits and pieces of your future book and don’t even realize it. I have found that some of my blog posts or stories will actually find their way into my book. Your book will come about organically and you’ll know when the time is right. The beautiful thing about blogging is you always have a record of what you’ve written so nothing will ever be lost!
I do often wonder is some of what I write will feature in a book. Maybe I’ll re read some of this and be inspired.
Thank you, and best wishes with what ever you produce.
If a book is what you want, the mood will hit one day and you will write it quickly. The decision is all up to you and your need.
Thanks Jackie. It is not something that consumes me, but I do wonder.
However the longer I blog the more I think I will never write that book.
Yes. It sort of becomes the ultimate procrastinator.
If you have an idea, then I think you should just go with it. The next time you have a few minutes to spare, type/write down a few lines and see what happens or doesn’t. No harm done either way.
When I hear people speak of writers bloc I am always amazed as I never have any trouble coming up with a topic. Sadly I am the same about a book…. too many ideas.
Maybe though just like a post, some would die quickly if pursued. I’d love to try it.
Sadly you have too many ideas? Yeah, right, and sadly I have too much money. That is great! Start on one idea, if it doesn’t work out, you have a back-up.
Write one paragraph today. I dare ya! And forget all the grammar and spelling rules, all the publishing and marketing malarkey. This is a first draft, you can fix all those things later on.
That is your goal for today. One paragraph, as short or as long as you like. I want to check back here later on and see a comment that says ‘I did it!’
I did it. Actually since I read your comment earlier I couldn’t get this idea out of my mind. I had no difficulty beginning and even though I didn’t write much, it has allowed me to begin.
As you say, what does it matter how many times I begin. Thanks J,D,
Great!
Start with some short stories perhaps? A collection of your more popular blog posts? Perhaps the dream is not killed, merely put on hold till you feel ready.
That is something I did think of, or maybe expanding or developing those more popular posts.
I do think you are right. Maybe I am just on hold.
Oh I hope not (that you have lost your dream of writing). You have a wonderful voice in your writing. You don’t need to take any courses. Some people just have a natural talent for writing and bringing people into their worlds and you are one of them. I like the idea of a collection of your most popular blog posts. They will bring a wealth of emotions to any reader that has not had a chance to find your blog yet.
Thanks Charlene. That is a lovely comment. It is very difficult to see what others like in your own writing. I am glad you find I can “Bring you into my world”.
Thanks also for the idea.
i think that blogging IS writing. you are a writer tric, and a damn fine one at that. nothing to do with more education just the desire to do so, if you ever decide to go the book route. like you, i tend to get my writing fix from sharing it on a blog, but who knows what the future may hold? one day i may wake up and decide to go the book route and then i’ll follow that path. until then, i don’t worry about it having to be either/or, all or nothing, i just write.
Thanks Beth. I do enjoy my blog, but if I am being truthful with the time blogging takes I do wonder if it is stopping me taking the time to write or think of writing anything more substantial.
Sigh…. maybe in time.
I cannot imagine the commitment to writing a book! I have a hard enough time just starting a post let alone starting a book! I have things to say, just don’t know quite how to start…:)
Yes I agree, but maybe if I didn’t spend so much time blogging I would have time to work on ideas for more substantial writing.
I think you say a lot in your posts, and especially in recent times it has been obvious that blogging was a release for you, as it is for me.
Yes, blogging has become a release and someone to “talk” to. You are so much cheaper than a shrink!!!😊
I had a very similar feeling for a long time, until a blogging friend encouraged me to sign up for NaNoWriMo last year. That helped me to focus on one of my ideas….and I wrote the manuscript in 21 days. Then came editing, editors, publishing and marketing….new and a bit overwhelming, but doable.
Wow 21 days. Well done you. Had it been in your head for a long time? is it all finished?
Well done again.
I had about 4-5 ideas in my head that I had been thinking about for a while. I selected the one I thought was easiest to write. Yes, it’s all finished, published and on the market. the whole process took about 4 months. Working on my second idea now hoping to get it done before the end of the year 🙂
I have a blog precisely because it gives me a “writing hit” What a great phrase! One of the reasons I began the blog was because I missed writing after I lost my job. I don’t have any desire to write a book, but if you do, I’m sure one of these days something will pop into your head and you will rush to the PC and just start typing….
I would love that to be the case. Maybe it will. I do think I’d love to eventually write something which I would see in “real print”.
in the meantime I’m with you, totally loving my “writing hit”. Love your blog.
I used to wonder that – was I using my blog to procrastinate about getting down to writing a book? But it will happen when the time is right and you are honing your skills. I love crime books but I know I’d never write one. Your writing may run on from what your blog writing is?
Remember too that publishers have turned down writers until they have a social media presence. You now need a following on social media to become a published author so in a way you are well on that path.
Thanks Lorna. It is a lovely thought, the idea of writing a book, but just like pushing my blog, I suspect I’d find it hard to push a book, especially after seeing the fantastic efforts you have made and continue to make with your book.
However if I ever did write one I agree, blogging has given me a chance to see how social media works.
And if you do want to make a start, as Tiny said, Camp NaNoWriMo is on in July. I’m doing it with an aim to get to 30,000 words. I need deadlines to get me focused and I suspect you do too 😉
Oh I definitely need a focus and a deadline!
Best of luck to you in your new venture. Somehow I have very little doubt you will get there.
I will be watching.
Blogs are buoyed up by the work of frustrated writers. For years I was consumed by the elusive ‘book’ but I’ve come round to the idea of the need to have a good story for the words to hang on.
And have you a good story? I sometimes think I have but then other days I think “Nope”.
Not a bit of it. Well, lots of little bits that never lead to a substantially bigger big. I was chasing an idea for ages involving two writers who lived together. Both were researching historically based novels and weird overlaps would start hatching. Also, one of them used an old-fashioned typewriter with a buggered ‘f’ that kept sticking. You’ve fallen asleep, right?
I’m fully of shite to be honest but I believe in a few hardcore elements to writing, and the other one is reading.
The idea of short stories makes a lot of sense to me. I think your writing resonates with people in potentially many ways. Not least your observation of characters you’ve met along the way. Particularly during your nursing days. A few of those anedotes are already ripe for tinkering into a short story.
Would you be up for taking on a small challenge or suggestions from others as a crack at some discipline? I’m new to this lark and I prematurely knocked out a post looking for suggestions for posts. I was open to anything. Titles. One words. Whatever. I always feel the best of my own writing is usually in response to the thoughts (or argument usually) of another than carving out a post from scratch on my own. Hence the notion of experimenting about that pretty much fell to an arse.
Anyway, I hope you nail those elusive ideas that might you may have inked in other ways here!
G’luck.
Tric, don’t underestimate your writing skills/ability. Thinking readers ‘only’ read because you are a wonderful commenter is not accurate. 😉 I hate to call you out on that. 😉 People can’t read what is not interesting, pulling to them in some way. Speaking for myself, I cannot engage in reading if the topic is dull or has no value to me.
I think it was Beth who said in another comment that blogging IS writing. Indeed it is. Remember the day we used to dive for the newspapers and magazines to get the most recent news or editorial or human interest story? Though there may be bad journalism, short writes are still writing.
Maybe you enjoy the blogging form of writing now because it fits in to your life style. You wanted to write, so you write. You have dreamed of writing a book, but haven’t yet. I suspect it’s because the idea, the perfect story in your head, hasn’t been tripped over yet to where you said THIS is my book. When you open that thought in your head, you will know it. And you will write some more, when you write your book.
Just my humble opinion. 🙂
I think you speak a whole lot of sense here Coleen. I do think blogging suits my life at the moment, and you are right I do not have the story jumping around my head just yet, but I’d love to think maybe some day I will.
Thanks for all your support, as always.
You’re welcome. Years ago I had a line that kept running in my head. The line was “There’s a story in my life”. I didn’t for one minute think it meant my life. A friend of mine challenged me to do the NANO thing. And I literally sat down, typed that line, and a sweet (I think) and short book followed. Without a story line. I typed it because the time was right. And out it came.
I believe your book just hasn’t made it’s self known to you yet.
You are writing some interesting posts here. I don’t know if blogging has killed your dream though — frankly I doubt it. I am betting that you do have a book in you, and when you are ready, you will go about making that happen.
Good luck to you!!
Thanks a million. I agree, maybe it is that I am just not ready.
I’ve been thinking of blogging as practice. My story ideas still swirl around in my head, but sometimes now I have a better idea of how to capture that “voice” and how to get it down on paper. I have one short story completed and one longer one in process. I think that when the time feels right, and the inspiration comes to you, having been a blogger will make it easier for you to jump in and get it done!
What are you going to do with your short story? Will you enter it in a competition, or publish it, or is it just for you?
Best of luck what ever you do.
I can imagine once you begin to write and eventually finish something, that it must be easier to write more.
Until then I’ll keep blogging.
For me, there are a million ideas and lots of started stories; I often even know the ending, but can’t find the middle! I’ve been using the story planning charts that I give my fifth graders, and they have helped, lol!
I sent my story off to a couple of magazines, but haven’t followed up. It just felt so good to finish something!
Hi, every time i used to check web site posts here early in the
dawn, as i like to learn more and more.
I definitely hear what you are saying. I too know quite a few bloggers who have written their own books. And I am in awe of them all! I think that blogging does hone your writing skills – I certainly feel that I have learned a lot from it. And gained a lot too. Blogging is a release and as some of us often say ‘blogging is free therapy’! I also think it’s good to take a break from it too, sometimes I need that to find my mojo again! But would I write a book? Doubt it. I feel writing about real life events is easier than making up a whole story and characters and everything. I really admire anyone who can do that! If you want to do it then for it I say! xx
Hope you are home tonight! Congratulations on your shortlisting. Maybe you’ll write a book after all, a non fiction one. 🙂