Fantasy author Robin Hobb on the evils of blogging for writers

Jaye Welles turned me on to Robin Hobb's rant on why blogging is bad for writers.

It's something every blogging writer needs to read, and there's more than a little irony that I'm using my own blog to share it.

If Donald's comment about blogging scratches the writing itch didn't stop you in your tracks, this sure will.

Here's some highlights:

"Ah, my writer friend. It is harsh but it must be said. Compared to the studied seduction of the novel, blogging is literary pole dancing. Anyone can stand naked in the window of the public’s eye, anyone can twitch and writhe and emote over the package that was not delivered, the dinner that burned, the friend who forgot your birthday. That is not fiction. That is life, and we all have one. Blogging condemns us to live everyone else’s tedious day as well as our own.

"You and I, we are meant to write and edit and write again."

"My dear friend, writer of writers, esteemed teller of tales that no one else can tell, beware! Blogging is not writing. It masquerades as such, t’is true. You sit at the desk, your fingers dance their blind and clever dance across the keyboard, words appear upon the screen, and oh, it feels like writing, like the easiest sort of writing, the writing that needs not to be justified on the morrow. It is the writing that makes the idle stupidity of the day something of worth, for has it not been written down, have not readers shared it and responded to it? Have you not been recognized, flattered and preened for today’s bon mot? Is not that what the writer lives for?

"Remember that you are a storyteller...."

Here's the link to the rest: http://www.robinhobb.com/rant.html