This here entry over on LiveJournal got me to thinking about my various blogs, journals, and assorted chunks of social media, and how I use, or don’t use, them as I ought. I’ve come to some conclusions. To wit: I’m just too damn rigid about what goes where, and have things set up so I end up doing a lot of additional work every time I write something.
I’m just too damn rigid about what goes where. Now, when I started this, the idea was… hey, stop that snickering! I wasn’t talking about… hey!
Sigh. Right. What I meant was that, when I started this blog, I thought I had it all figured out. The stuff about writing, genre, conventions, and so on would go here. Non-writing stuff and whatnot would go to my Dreamwidth journal and my Livejournal. A place for everything and everything in its place.
Except… I worked at doing regular entries on this blog, but let things on LJ and DW go slack. I’d put up videos and funny pictures there, just so it wouldn’t look entirely like Uncle Gary’s Self-Promotogasm Hour over there, but never managed those substantive ‘non-writing’ entries. It always felt like Extra Work. So it never got done.
Now, conclusions part deux: (I) have things set up so I end up doing a lot of additional work every time I write something. I write a blog entry, then I go and post a link to it on Dreamwidth (which gets picked up by Livejournal). Then I go post a link to it on Tumblr, and then Twitter, and then Google+. (Facebook picks it up automagically through NetworkedBlogs.) So posting a single blog becomes an event. Even if it’s a frakking links post. Events always feel like Extra Work. I’m not into Extra Work.
So, two problems, but with one solution. I just write one blog, featuring both writerly and non-writerly stuff, and set things up so it automagically cross-posts to my Livejournal, my Dreamwidth journal, and my Tumblr (which I couldn’t do before, but can now that my site’s converted to WordPress). More varied and interesting (at least to me) things for me to write on, less work to spread it about, and more on my LJ, Dreamwidth, and Tumblr that looks like actual content instead of filler. People who are interested can read and comment wherever they want, not just on my main site. Starting, oh, right now.
Now if Google+ will get off its high horse and open up its API so I can automate that, I’ll be freakin’ golden.
You’d like me when I’m golden.
(I’m also testing out new catch-phrases. That one may need some work.)
Gary W. Olson is the author of the dark fantasy novel Brutal Light. His blog originates here.
