Thursday, September 30, 2010

Big Announcement, Big Changes


October 4th is my two-year anniversary writing this blog. My first post talked about a class I had just finished at Grub Street. Two years later I'm still talking about taking classes and writing and books and publishing. For the most part. Which is great. And I plan to continue writing about writing, but just not on this blog. 

Why keep a blog? It is standard publishing-business wisdom that a writer trying to make it in the cut-throat lit world must keep an active blog, keeping a high profile up and running continuously. So, that's what I've been doing. And I love keeping a blog, but feel I've covered, in two years, about all I can say about my little world of literary without starting to get redundant.

And if we're talking audience, I've averaged about 20 views a day for a good long time, and don't see that changing. So switching it up at this point isn't going to break a lot of lit hearts. Besides, as my regular readers probably know, I post over at Beyond the Margins once every couple of weeks. I'm lucky and grateful to be a part of that blog and am finding more often than not I save my tastiest morsels for that outlet.


But I love Unreliable Narrator, and am glad I started it when I did and have kept it going, because it's a wonderful feeling to look back over two year's worth of posts and see the bulk of writing that continues to accumulate. I had no idea I could turn the fiction side of me off so cleanly, and push aside my technical writer brain, for these brief spells. It's been a challenge to write in these chunked blocks of essays.

Unreliable Narrator has never been about the daily life of a writer. I've never felt comfortable spilling my guts on an internationally accessible forum. I did not use UN to talk closely about my current writing projects ("Dear UN, today really sucked because chapter 3 is not going well. I'm having trouble with Claude, my new talking horse character, and also I can't seem to describe how maple syrup flows, or how one chainsaws a branch. I wonder if I should write in third person instead of first? That flashback I wrote last week about Claude's bad time with the nuns back in parochial school is taking on a life of its own, and could be the start of a screenplay or a pilot."), although there are writing blogs that have that focus, which is well and good.


But I am of the mind that after you start talking to everyone you know about your current project, the air starts getting let out of the proverbial first-draft tires, and soon you can't help thinking what everyone is thinking about your writing. I'd rather go off in a corner and write for a few years, then start showing it to people, and then start worrying about what people think about it.

So. I'm trying something different with UN. Starting in a couple days the format will change, temporarily. For one year I will be writing about a topic other than literature (for the most part, there will be days when I will just have to share some writer/book/pub thing with y'all). What's that other thing? I'll announce it soon. While I whip up a tasty post about why I want to write about that topic, and the concept behind the switch. Yes, there's a concept, an idea. Or as they say in the publishing world, a platform. My blog is soon to have a platform.

9 comments:

Liz's Mom said...

OK, I will look forward to reading anything you write. Your essays are always entertaining, witty and full of insightful observations.

Dell Smith said...

Thanks! I hope you like the new direction.

Phil Beloin Jr. said...

can't wait for the changes, too

Dell Smith said...

Uh oh. I guess I better come up with something good!

Laurie said...

You scared me there for a minute, Dell. I thought you were ending UN. Phew! I'm looking forward to hearing about your new platform. :)

Dell Smith said...

Oh, it does almost sound that way for most of the post. I'm sorry to give you a scare, but happy that you cared enough to be scared!

Robin said...

We're looking forward to your mixing it up in your blogs! The pic. with Chester is priceless.

Cynthia Sherrick said...

Great photos! Good luck with the new Unreliable Narrator. :)

Dell Smith said...

Thanks Cyn. I think (hope) you enjoy the new format.