Discussion Time: Why Book Bloggers Would make Good Writers, and Why They Wouldn’t

November is coming up, and for many of us that means one thing; NaNoWriMo is beginning.

For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is it’s a month long writing fest where everyone who joins pledges to write 50K words before the end November. I took part myself back in 2014 and 2015, before I started blogging, and now I am taking part again. I’ve never managed to hit 50K words, but maybe this year is my year.

This week’s discussion post is not so much about blogging or reading, but marking the start of NaNoWriMo and getting me ready to churn out 50K words.

Why Book Bloggers Would make Good Writers, and Why They Wouldn’t

Earlier this year I took part in the Who Am I Tag, which as well as being a lot of fun had a quiz designed to tell me what my future career should be. Like seemingly everyone else who blogs about books I got Writer (spoiler alert, I’m not a writer). My actual job deals more with numbers than words funnily enough, but it got me thinking about the reasons why I, and all the other book bloggers out there reading this post, could be a writer.

We read a lot…like seriously a lot.

Writing takes a lot of research, and part of that would include reading the competitions’ releases. What’s working well in the Young Adult, or Fantasy, or Contemporary markets? What are the trends, the character archetypes and tropes appearing in every new release? What’s missing? Chances are we already know the answer to all these questions.

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We clearly all love reading.

We wouldn’t be blogging otherwise would we?

‘Do what you love and never work a day in your life’ is a saying I’ve heard many times before (lectures from my parents I can now repeat word for word from memory) but it’s true. It’s evident everyone here loves blogging and loves reading, so it makes sense that if we want to try our hands at it we’d love writing too.

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We know what we want to see.

More diversity is a popular want from pretty much everyone. We want more LGBT+ characters who aren’t just on the L or G side of the spectrum, we want to read more discussions on mental health issues, we want more representation of minorities, and we want more POC lead characters. So why not write it ourselves.

While #OwnVoices is popular when it comes to diverse reads there nothing to say you can’t write diverse characters, like everything else it just takes research

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We’re already writers.

We may not be working on the next Harry Potter, or the next … but we are writers. We write reviews and tags and discussions and weekly features. I know writing a blog isn’t the same as writing a book, but it’s a start.

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We have plenty of resources at our fingertips.

There are a fair few bloggers I’ve seen who openly talk about their writing; May publishes some great posts and tips on writing, and Gretchen self-published her own book just this year.

Whatever you need; be it tips and advice, a clue where to begin when it comes to writing or publishing, or just someone to vent to about how hard writing and/or editing can be there are plenty of people out there willing to offer their help.

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So at the moment writing seems like a dream job, one we’re all perfectly suited for and should immediately start, but now I’m going to talk about the downsides.

It’s hard.

I mentioned earlier how we’re all already writers, and while that’s still true there is a big difference between writing a 1K word post every day/two days/week and trying to write a 50K plus word book.

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You’re going to have to deal with rejection.

That’s pretty much a fact of writing. If you decide to go the route of agents and big name publication houses rather than self publishing chances are you’re going to get rejected more often than not. There are so many people trying to get published, and I imagine it can be gutting to put yourself and your work out there only to get turned down, but there’s always another chance; Harry Potter was rejected 12 times before it found a home at Bloomsbury.

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Do we really have the time on top of blogging?

One of the things that surprised me, and maybe everyone else, when I first started blogging was the amount of time it took to write posts, and comment, and then reply to comments. Pretty much all of my spare time is taken up by WordPress, so trying to juggle writing a full length novel on top of all that makes my brain hurt.

I’m still not sure how I’m going to manage next month taking part in NaNoWriMo.

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You can’t take breaks while writing.

Well, OK, you kind of can.

When we’re blogging and we’re feeling burnt out, or we’re in the middle of a reading slump, or we just need a break, we take a hiatus. Before you’re published maybe taking a break isn’t that big of a deal, but after, when you’ve got deadlines to meet and fans waiting I don’t think it will be that easy.

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We procrastinate.

Maybe this one is just me, but oh god I really do. For some reason, and I’m not sure why, my blog seems to have escaped my epic procrastination tendencies but I don’t think I’m lucky enough for lighting to strike twice when it comes to writing.

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Now Onto the Discussion Part of This Post:

Are there any reasons you think bloggers would make good writers that I’ve missed from this post, or reasons we’d make bad writers?

Do you agree with these points? Or have you succeeded in writing a book alongside blogging, or taken a break with a deadline fast approaching, and disagree with the points I made?

Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo this year? If so tell me about it; is this going to be your first year taking part, have you ever reached 50K words in a previous year?

Let me know in the comments below.