Blogging for Writers

Typepad Tips

My blogging platform of choice is Typepad. I started using them because of author Barbara Curtis @Mommylife and Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt @From Where I Sit. Those were two of the first blogs I read. They inspired me to start my own.

Typepad is easy to use, has fabulous customer support and looks good. The $15/month for unlimited blogs is worth it.

As I'm building Blogging for Writers, I'll share different how-to tips as I use them in hopes of helping other Typepad users. I don't post tips about other specific platforms because I'm not familiar with them. However, the ladies at Blogging Basics 101 do offer instructions for Blogger and Wordpress.

Now, go get your blog on.

Blogging with the Writing Process

"If you're finding writing difficult, it's because you're not taking the writing in stages, and are trying to edit when you should be planning or just writing." - Angela Booth

I'm working on applying this advice to help me keep up with my blog. Hello! It's the writing process planning, writing, and editing. I preached it to my middle school students and am teaching it to my kids. Sometimes it can be condensed into short amounts of time. Sometimes, as in ACT/SAT tests, it has to be condensed. Other times the process can be spread out. The process could either by days long process or it could be minutes or hours.

The bottom line is to get my brain operating in the process mode. As I exercise with the process, my writing muscles will develop. My goals is to get better at writing quickly and well, another example of how blogging can help writers develop.

Too often I try to do the whole process in one sitting. Sometimes I can do it, most time it takes too long. I practiced Angela's suggestions with this post - just jotted down phrases and things at first, then came back to it over a few days. As Angela said in her post, sometimes she doesn't know the point until she writes about it. Her entry is full of inspiring quotes, take a few minutes to read it then go get your blog on.

Attend a Conference in your PJs

You may have noticed this on my sidebar:

What's Blogher? It started in 2005 as a conference for women bloggers and has grown to include an online gathering place for women bloggers.

Being the learning junkie I am, I would love to hang out at a BlogHer conference. However, I can't make it to Chicago, but I can still attend the conference virtually via 2nd Life.

My geeky self is quite excited about that. What's better is there is no fee to attend virtually. Woo-hoo.
It will cost me some time to learn how to participate in 2nd Life, but it will be a fun experiment.

I'm interested in the "Business of You" workshop track. It seems like a nice fit for blogging writers. Here's the description:

Business of You: This track is devoted to personal and business advancement. We will discuss speaker and media training, self-branding and promotion, mentoring, turning your blog into a book or a business, and even managing your time, your finances, your blogging policies and best practices...the business of you.

If you're interested in attending virtually, go here for more info. Let me know if you'll be there.