a cat<\/a> has over 100,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"hwsg\"](\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/hwsg-300x260.jpg\" "\\"hwsg\\"")
I was going to add quotes from my fel\u00adlow blog\u00adgers about how they some\u00adtimes feel over\u00adwhelmed \u201cmain\u00adtain\u00ading\u201d these mon\u00adsters they\u2019ve cre\u00adat\u00aded. I was going to dis\u00adcuss how, when done in mod\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion, I have found blog\u00adging, and espe\u00adcial\u00adly Twit\u00adter\u00ading, to be great for devel\u00adop\u00ading my impro\u00advi\u00adsa\u00adtion skills\u2014the lit\u00ader\u00adary equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of jazz. And final\u00adly, I was going to com\u00adpare the strengths of 21st cen\u00adtu\u00adry communication\u2014connecting writ\u00aders with an audi\u00adence, build\u00ading a fol\u00adlow\u00ading or \u201cplat\u00adform,\u201d and pro\u00admot\u00ading a writer\u2019s work\u2014with the pri\u00adma\u00adry val\u00adue of more tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal writ\u00ading and pub\u00adlish\u00ading (non-instant), which is the slow and steady improve\u00adment of craft<\/em>.<\/p>\nAgain, I was going to write about all of those things, but I want\u00aded to keep it sim\u00adple. So here it is:<\/p>\n
The num\u00adber one chal\u00adlenge fac\u00ading writ\u00aders today is bal\u00adanc\u00ading build\u00ading and main\u00adtain\u00ading a fol\u00adlow\u00ading with con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly improv\u00ading their craft.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt comes down to Craft vs. Pro\u00admo\u00adtion, plain and sim\u00adple:<\/p>\n
\n- CRAFT: To devel\u00adop one\u2019s craft requires (for most of us) qui\u00adet, study, focus, and detach\u00adment from the vicis\u00adsi\u00adtudes of the mar\u00adket\u00adplace. This is dif\u00adfi\u00adcult to do in blogs and oth\u00ader Inter\u00adnet medi\u00adums like Twit\u00adter because the ele\u00adment of instant-grat\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion and instant feed\u00adback can too eas\u00adi\u00adly sway us to write what we may think our audi\u00adence wants to hear, or to feel as though a piece of writ\u00ading is \u201cgood enough\u201d because, hell, \u201cit\u2019s just going on my blog.\u201d<\/li>\n
- PROMOTION: To pro\u00admote one\u00adself requires being plugged into the cyber\u00adsphere, mak\u00ading con\u00adtacts, reply\u00ading to com\u00adments, giv\u00ading feed\u00adback, read\u00ading opin\u00adions, fol\u00adlow\u00ading oth\u00aders\u2019 blogs and Twit\u00adters and projects and engag\u00ading in mean\u00ading\u00adful con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion about all of them. How\u00adev\u00ader, just as it\u2019s more dif\u00adfi\u00adcult for writ\u00aders to devel\u00adop their craft in the online sphere, they also can\u2019t pro\u00admote them\u00adselves and their work in a vac\u00adu\u00adum.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The trick is find\u00ading a bal\u00adance.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/cldmtn-196x300.jpg\" "\\"cldmtn\\"")
<\/p>\n
Recent\u00adly, I start\u00aded writ\u00ading new book. The genre or sub\u00adject does\u00adn\u2019t mat\u00adter, but what does is this: Writ\u00ading any book length man\u00adu\u00adscript requires focus over the long haul (weeks, months, or years\u2014Charles Fra\u00adzier\u2019s Cold Moun\u00adtain<\/em> comes to mind) and a reliance on CRAFT, and if the writer finds her\u00adself con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly forced to put out the fires of PROMOTION, she is going to be a very long time fin\u00adish\u00ading the book\u2014if ever.<\/p>\nThe con\u00adclu\u00adsion I\u2019ve come to is that if you\u2019re going to err one way or the other\u2014towards craft or promotion\u2014you\u2019re bet\u00adter off lean\u00ading towards craft<\/em>, every time. The tools and tech\u00adnolo\u00adgies we use in the pro\u00admo\u00adtion side of things change so quick\u00adly that any invest\u00adment you make in them in could go away overnight. Sure, you might have built up a siz\u00adable audi\u00adence for your blog, and if that\u2019s the case, great. But more impor\u00adtant than the size of the audi\u00adence is the idea that when they come to your site, you have some\u00adthing to say, and the kind of deep reflec\u00adtion that pro\u00adduces good writ\u00ading usu\u00adal\u00adly only comes with atten\u00adtion to craft. One of my favorite quotes about writ\u00ading, by F. Scott Fitzger\u00adald, and which I use at the bot\u00adtom of my email sig\u00adna\u00adture, speaks direct\u00adly to this point:<\/p>\n\u201cYou don\u2019t write because you want to say some\u00adthing. You write because you have some\u00adthing to say.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis brings up anoth\u00ader draw\u00adback to the inter\u00adnet medi\u00adums, which is that we often don\u2019t fig\u00adure out what we want to say with\u00adout a long peri\u00adod of ger\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion<\/em> and revi\u00adsion. Tru\u00adly, ideas are seeds that require water, light and time to grow. They can\u2019t be rushed, which is exact\u00adly what the inter\u00adnet medi\u00adums often do to our ideas\u2014they rush them.<\/p>\nWe feel rushed as blog\u00adgers and Twit\u00adter\u00aders because we\u2019re try\u00ading to be recep\u00adtive to, and giv\u00ading to, our audi\u00adence. And in the worst case sce\u00adnar\u00adios, we\u2019re sec\u00adond-guess\u00ading our audi\u00adence. This, said the great teacher of screen\u00adwrit\u00ading and author of STORY, Robert McK\u00adee, is the def\u00adi\u00adn\u00adi\u00adtion of a hack.<\/p>\n
When we focus on our audi\u00adence, we lose the Muse. The Muse says, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to lis\u00adten to me? Fine! I\u2019ll find some\u00adbody who does.\u201d But when we lis\u00adten to our Muse, no amount of ups and downs in our audi\u00adence will take away from our improved craft. Bet\u00adter writ\u00ading is bet\u00adter writ\u00ading any\u00adwhere you go, in any medi\u00adum. But con\u00adverse\u00adly, if you have lit\u00adtle craft, or noth\u00ading to say, it does\u00adn\u2019t mat\u00adter how<\/em> big your audi\u00adence is.<\/p>\nNew tech\u00adnolo\u00adgies, new inter\u00adnet com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion medi\u00adums, will come and go, but this dilem\u00adma isn\u2019t going any\u00adwhere. It will only become hard\u00ader to achieve bal\u00adance, and ulti\u00admate\u00adly each writer will have to find that balance\u2014his com\u00adfort level\u2014for him\u00adself.<\/p>\n
Remem\u00adber when I said I was\u00adn\u2019t going to have quotes from fel\u00adlow blog\u00adgers? Well, I lied. Twist\u00aded Princess, a friend and fel\u00adlow blog\u00adger, defines her com\u00adfort lev\u00adel this way:<\/p>\n
\u201cI need the blog, okay? I love the instant feed\u00adback. I\u2019m addict\u00aded to it. But Twit\u00adter? For\u00adget about it. Twit\u00adter and I are only ever going to have a casu\u00adal rela\u00adtion\u00adship. Noth\u00ading but booty calls.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I had big plans for this blog entry. BIG plans. When I orig\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adly envis\u00adaged this piece, it was going to be a 5,000-word polemic on\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-technologyandinternet","category-writingexperiences","category-writingtools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9219,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/9219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"914602205_c7e0426ce0\"](\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/914602205_c7e0426ce0-300x203.jpg\" "\\"914602205_c7e0426ce0\\"")
I was going to do all of that. But since what I want\u00aded to say was pret\u00adty sim\u00adple, I fig\u00adured, why both\u00ader? Just make your point and be done with it.<\/p>\n