on writing

crazy, crazy thoughts this a.m. Thinking about Hemingway and other great writers and it dawned on me that they could not blog. Who did they get to read their daily dribble. No one. They wrote and wrote and wrote and hoped they could get someone to publish anything. Did they get depressed? Maybe, maybe not. But the point is, they continued to write without a pat on the back. I think the writers that really are good paid their dues. Years of writing without pay or that pat on the back. They had courage and conviction.

Why do I bring this up? How does this relate to writers in the world of blogging?   Maybe it doesn't to others, but for me blogging takes to much time and interferes with my story writing. Maybe I use the blogging as a procrastination tool. It is difficult to keep a story line moving. It is easy to write a short snippet in response to a prompt, post it and then pay my dues by commenting on other blogger's snippets, hoping they will drop in and say a few words.

Is my writing any good? Hard for me to judge. I have never been published but I haven't submitted that many stories. I certainly haven't paid any dues. However, I do enjoy blogging and it does give me writing practice. Maybe we bloggers are lucky because we can write and have someone read us.

I do think I need to find someplace to submit short stories for a critique. We bloggers are to nice. Every one pats the other on the back. No criticism of any kind. Maybe we could figure out a way to send each other money.

I wonder if Hemingway could have blogged, would he have become the great writer he turned out to be?