Thank you all for your responses to my fiction vs. nonfiction quandary, both online and in person! I still have more thinking to do, but I feel I’m approaching the point where I can grant myself permission to ease up on my original dream of being a novelist, and pursue nonfiction for awhile. Since I keep a tight hold over my habits and goals, making a change requires prying my fingers away from the old and placing them one by one onto the new. I’m in the process of that now. I can acknowledge that a new path is opening up, and I will be walking down it.
That being said, there are some changes coming, and I want you, my readers, to be the first to know. Writing nonfiction means I will need to build a strong digital platform for the subject I’m writing about. That’s going to start with a NEW BLOG!
I’m going to let that sink in for a minute. I’m starting a NEW BLOG!
HOORAY!
(Are you excited? I bet you’re not as excited as me.)
I will be essentially blogging a book: collecting data and writing chapters in a blogging format. I’ve already purchased a new domain name and am in the process of setting up the website. I’m doing research on the new topic and spending many hours brainstorming ideas for chapters and posts. I have a 47-point plan. (Not really. I mean, I haven’t counted the exact number of points in the plan, but it is a lot.)
What does that mean for Words From The Sowul? I’m glad you asked.
This blog will not be going away anytime soon. I LOVE this blog; my work has grown up and evolved here. I love writing about writing and reading. It’s my main platform for making connections with fellow word-lovers, and I’m not giving that up. I may be posting only once a week so that I can post at the new blog more often and develop readership there, but I will continue to post regularly. And of course, you’ll be able to visit me at the new blog, where there will be more posts to peruse and the opportunity to join a new community of people who love reading about…
What’s that? I didn’t mention the topic of the new blog/book?
You’ll just have to wait and see!
If the idea of blogging a book sounds intriguing to you, either because you’d like to know how I plan to pursue it or for your own blogging interests, please visit Nina Amir’s How To Blog A Book website; she’s also published a book of the same title that I highly recommend.
Wish me luck!
All the luck in the world, though with your talent, you won’t need!
Aww, shucks!
Oh my goodness, Leanne. You’re a brave soul for tackling a project like nonfiction. That said, I recognize all the steps you’re taking from things I’ve learned from reading blogs and especially from attending WDC last year, so you’re definitely going about this new project the right way. I can’t wait to find out what your topic is, and I’ll definitely follow your new blog as well as continue to visit you here. 🙂
Thanks Sara! I’m excited to try something new. That said, I’m still keeping one hand in the fiction world. I am still querying (another agent requested my full manuscript yesterday, so fingers crossed!) and I’ve actually found a pocket of time every day to write just 500 words of the Blizzard novel, so I can keep it going even though it’ll take awhile to finish a draft. It would be ironic if, just as I’d decided to go in a new direction, I finally landed an agent and had to re-focus on fiction again. Kind of like relationships: it’s only when you decide you don’t want to be in one that you meet the right person.
Good for you! I look forward to hearing about your new topic–and I’m glad you won’t be abandoning this blog, because I enjoy reading it. I will check out that link, because I have a book in mind that I began writing YEARS ago, and I’ve wondered if blogging it would be a good way to break it down into manageable (i.e., not terrifying) chunks.
Thanks Kathy! I’m super-excited about the book blogging process (as you can tell). The Nina Amir book was very helpful. Good luck with your project.