How Not to Blog: 22 Things for New Bloggers to Avoid
From author Anne R. Allen:
1. Ignoring comments. If somebody comments, respond in the thread. Personally, I did not know this for, like, months when I started out. If any of you who commented two years ago are still reading in spite of my cluelessness—I apologize. Email responses are good, too—but responses in the thread stimulate discussion and further comments. And if you want comments, turn off the %&@! CAPTCHA, word verification, people! Your spamblocker blocks 95% of spam without it. The other 5% you can delete yourself.
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4.Whining: Resist posting rants about the unfairness of the publishing industry. Or how lame that famous writer’s work is compared to yours. It’s OK when you’ve had a big disappointment to ask for the emotional support of your friends, but don’t give specifics and never rail against the agent/editor/reviewer who spurned you. Remember the first thing an agent will do if she’s interested in your query is Google you. She probably just had lunch with that editor you called Mr. Poopy-Brain.
5.White text on dark backgrounds. Ouch! My eyeballs. Seriously. Every “how to blog” article says this, but still, half the blogs I visit have dark backgrounds. They are a big “go away” sign.
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13. Acting like you’re a rock star from Mars. Don’t pretend you have fans when you’ve never published a book. Talk to your readers as equals, not adoring minions. Don’t assume all your readers are newbies who don’t know the basics. Or they are fans come to worship at the feet of your greatness. And it’s kind of creepy to make oblique references to your characters as if the reader has been living in your head.
If somebody disagrees with you in a comment, argue respectfully, or delete their comment if it’s offensive, but don’t say— “When you’ve written a whole novel like I have, you ignorant pipsqueak, you’ll know I’m right.” You may be talking to a bestselling novelist—or an agent’s assistant who’s about to read your query.
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21. Letting blogging take over your life. You CAN’T read all the top publishing blogs and comment on all your friends’ blogs every day. Choose one or two days a week and let go of the guilt.
Link to the rest at Anne R. Allen’s Blog
Am I allowed to make oblique references to my characters if I’m trying to be creepy?
For you, Carrie, there are no rules.
Thanks much for the shout-out, PG! Carrie–nothing wrong with creepy if creepitude is what you’re going for.
I’m writing about vampires. I would hesitate to put it in the horror genre, but I’m certainly aiming to raise a few goosepimples, mainly by the fact that I’m taking great care to make them scientifically plausible. They could be real.
Plausible, non-sparkly vampires? We need a few of those. Bringing back the scary vampire is a noble cause.
They don’t sparkle. Like I say, they’re not scary, at least in the Dracula sense. They’re modern vampires: characters not monsters. I’m not sure you could call it a horror story, just because it’s got vampires in, but I’m aiming to creep people out a touch. They’re different to humans, and a lot of the ways they think and behave are not easy for humans to get their head around or accept as anything other than plain wrong – but it’s right for vampires. And there are bad ones of course, and they can be scary. They’re predators, and just as humans have traditionally been happy to kill any species other than their own, so many vampires have seen humans as animals. They have to decide whether to change or not, and immortal beings don’t find it easy to change.
And they’re real. They work, without magic or pseudo-science. Immortality, greater strength than humans, sharper senses… but from the outside, just about indistinguishable.
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