Writers and Blogs

Link to skip this super long post

Many writers keep blogs. If you're one of them, welcome! If you don't have a blog but love reading them, you're welcome too! You can think of this as Writer's Block Daily with a greater focus on blogs and how they relate to our lives as writers. You can discuss your favorite writing/ media blogs, blogging in general, ask for advice on getting started, and more.

I have declared this a free pimping zone, so go ahead and notify us about your updates and such—that can be very helpful if some of your readers don't have an account on the same platform.

If you'd like your blog to be included in the Troper Directory, please write up a post with your blog title, a link, categories you think it fits under (if you say "miscellaneous" and don't have a few examples of your miscellaneous categories, I reserve the right to hide under your bed and grab your legs), and a description. The description can be a simple list of things you cover frequently or an eloquent mission statement. Of course, you can use the ones already posted as examples. Feel free to bug me if you fear that I've overlooked you. Pretty much the same goes for recommendations, but you don't need to add the platform. I will also take the liberty of correcting your grammar and spelling if necessary. You have been warned.

You may be wondering about the Bulletins. No, you don't have to give me hot chocolate and cookies to get something there, but please note the following:

Things I will put in the bulletins for you

• You just posted something kind of big and significant (like a review or an update in your let's read or webnovel)
• You wrote a guest post for another blog

As you may notice, those are things you'd want a lot of attention on.

Things I will not put in the bulletins for you

• Notifications of run-of-the-mill updates
• Stuff about your personal life
• Outdated stuff

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Bulletins

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Troper Directory

Snowy Foxes: Let thoughts steep longer.

• Platform: Tumblr
• Categories: Writing, media (literature), opinions, semi-personal, ranting
• Description: Updates about writing projects, writing and literature related thoughts, responses to other posts and articles, and book reviews. As the title implies, quality over quantity is the rule here, but there is at least one post a week.

chihuahua0: Thoughts of a Young Aspiring Writer

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, reading, music
• Description: Articles, reviews and stories from a teenage writer's point-of-view as he experiences media on his journey on writing a novel by the age of eighteen.

'''chihuahua0: Young Author's Doghouse

• Platform: tumblr
• Categories: Writing, reading, music
• Description: Like Thoughts of a Young Aspiring Writer, but more on the reblog-heavy side, focusing on pictures and micro-stories on fiction and occasionally music. And sometimes random stuff.

Voltech44: Cross-Up

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, video games
• Description: A not-too-serious platform for video game and writing ramblings, as well as the occasional short story/creative nonfiction piece.

Master of Chaos: The Chaos Novel Blog

• Platform: Tumblr
• Categories: Writing, updates, brainstorming
• Description: Basically, this is where I post my progress, and I often brainstorm some ideas.

JHM: I Have Found Something That There Is No Use For

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Music, writing, literary criticism, ranting (speculative)
• Description: At this point, a blank slate, established and subsequently forgotten about... until recently. Likely to involve extensive commentary on things that no-one else really cares about, like the dialectic of music history and how to use obsolete words in a cogent manner.

Space Jawa: Thought Balloons

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, comic books, scripting
• Description: Group blog. Each week, one of the 'tenured writers' (none of us are actually paid, though) selects a comic book character. Then, over the course of the week, everyone writes a single-page comic script that involves that character in some way. Visitors are allowed to participate (and encouraged to do so) by writing up a script and posting it in the comments section of the 'why?' post in which that week's character is revealed to the public.

Vyctorian: Vyctorian's Blog

• Platform: deviantArt
• Categories: Writing, articles, personal, opinions, art
• Description: My DA page both acts as a blog and a platform for me to host my writing on. Where I write about my experience as a writer who spent most of their life trying to be an artist and how that has affected my view on writing, art, and writing as an art form.

Olivetree: Penmanship Olive Trees

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, and on rare occasion a philosophical idea (like what happens with the afterlife and such)
• Description: Just a writer's blog, with small pieces to keep people entertained, and updates on books that I intend to release at retail, updates being "I've completed chapter #." I also announce new projects I'll be working on.

burnpsy: I Am Only Myself

• Platform: Wordpress
• Categories: Gaming, anime and manga, writing, ranting, other stuff to do with me
• Description: I just basically make a post (or more) a day about whatever's on my mind.

Oh So Into Cats: The Rubbish Bin

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, literature
• Description: I will be posting reviews of books that I read and samples of the things I write, and perhaps some other things that strike my fancy. But mostly it shall be reviews. I go through a lot of books, especially audiobooks because of the nature of my job, I love movies and music. I don't presume my opinions are important but perhaps they will be helpful if you're looking for something to read and can't think of anything.

Collen: And Then A Plot Bunny Popped Out

• Platform: Tumblr
• Categories: Writing, reading, philosophy, thoughts, sometimes video games, and whatever comes to mind
• Description: I really like the theme I'm using... It looks all typewriter-y and stuff. I'm probably a terrible person for using it, in that case. I'll be posting excerpts fairly often.

Chocolate Cotton: Filia Caniculae

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, books, things of interest. I recently started an extensive project involving the somewhat harsh critiquing an Anne McCaffrey novel.
• Description: A bit of an experiment in writing something other than novels. A great deal of ranting, and it's a bit aimless, but I think I'm improving.

Libris Dedita: Beethoven, Feynmann, and Cicero

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Music, Maths and literature.
• Description: Granted, I am more of a musician than a writer, so there will probably be a fair amount of music commentary. I may work out a schedule such as Teaser Tuesdays in order to help myself write more consistently, also. I make no apologies for the Maths.

Dimanagul: Memories of a Dimanagul Platform: Wordpress Categories: Novel, Short Stories, Writing, Rants Description: Insights / details on my Novel, weekly themed short stories, musings regarding writing.

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Our Favorite Blogs

Writing

• Publish or Perish: A site that takes a more academic and analytic look at the trends of the writing/publishing world. A good read if you want to feel smart.
• Em-dashed: A blog about writing events and musings in the New York area, with the occasional review.
• Reasoning with Vampires: Did she really disembowel a Twilight book, scan the pages, and give it a beautiful nitpicking? Yes. Yes she did. You'll learn more about grammar than you ever wanted to, as well as hearing about Twilight's familiar problems in a fairly refreshing way.
• Anti-Shurtugal LJ: Ignore the fact that a good part of it is bashing Christopher Paolini and other vanity published authors and appreciate excellent writing advice/ discussions.
• Character Therapist: Jeannie Campbell uses her day job to present a therapist's perspective of fiction. Regularly, she "diagnoses" blog readers' characters. Oh, and Fridays are for Free Association sessions.
• Mystery Writing is Murder: Writing about mysteries, of course, along with more general topics. Every Sunday, the author compiles a round-up of writing links hand-picked from 2000+ writing blogs.
• The Other Side of the Story: Written by Janice Hardy, author of The Shifter. She often delves into rarely-covered topics, along with hosting regular guest posters. On Saturday, she critiques one page from a blog reader's story.
• Superhero Nation: This blog mostly goes into how to write superhero fiction and similar genres, although it covers more general topics. The comments have developed a forum-like discussion, and guest posting is relatively easy.
• YA Confidential: It goes more into of the trends of YA and teenagers, written by the "operatives", and it presents a cast of teenage "spies" and "analysts" to provide information for most of the posts.

Media/ Cultural Commentary

• Press the Buttons: A gaming site that updates with the latest news; also features polls regularly.
• Hardcore Gaming 101: Another gaming site that has a blog, as well as an archive on older, obscure games.
• Mutant Sounds: A freak music blog.
• The Click Opera: Momus (Nick Currie) is a kind of satirical musician with a fondness for the depraved and the morbid. He also happens to be frighteningly smart, brutally honest and often hilarious in a variably sick way. That said... he can veer into serious weirdness, and while as far as I can tell the blog is SFW, his topics can go into uncomfortable and awkward territory that some people might rather avoid. (His Wikipedia article should explain things very quickly, if not grasping the spirit very well.)
• Hyperbole and a Half: Ridiculously funny.
• Meditations in an Emergency: Seldom updated, but what I think is rather beautiful poetry. Others may disagree.

edited 25th Jun '12 8:25:18 PM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

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Chihuahua0: Thoughts of a Young Aspiring Writer:

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, reading, and music.
• Description: Articles, reviews and stories from a teenage writers point-of-view as he experiences media on his journey on writing a novel by the age of eighteen.

edited 31st Mar '12 7:03:19 PM by chihuahua0

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Voltech44: Cross-Up

• Platform: Blogger
• Categories: Writing, Video Games, Comedy
• Description: A not-too-serious platform for video game and writing ramblings/reviews, as well as the occasional short story/creative nonfiction piece.
• Favorite Blogs:
  • Publish or Perish — a site that takes a more academic and analytic look at the trends of the writing/publishing world. A good read if you want to feel smart.
  • Em-Dashed — a blog about writing events and musings in the New York area, with the occasional review.
  • Press The Buttons — a gaming site that updates with the latest news; also features polls regularly.
  • Hardcore Gaming 101 — another gaming site that has a blog, as well as an archive on older, obscure games.

edited 1st Apr '12 8:14:25 AM by Voltech44

My Wattpad — A haven for delightful degeneracy

Oh, can't believe I forgot. A list of favorite writing/ media blogs would be great, so post your lists!

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

I'm contemplating about whether to write a blog or not. I have an account on blogger, and one on wordpress.*

The thing is I'm not totally sure what I'd write about, because I can talk about a variety of subjects.

Originally I wrote a whole list of subjects I can write about, but it is more apt to say, "I can write about anything." *

edited 31st Mar '12 8:01:28 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

You don't need a particular topic in mind to have a blog, and you can always have more than one to group related things together. For example, I used to have a separate one for Linux, but I've removed all links to it until I actually find time to keep up with it.

Voltech, would you mind adding descriptions? Sorry for not asking for them right off 3:

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

I'll...give this a try. :/

Master Of Chaos: The Chaos Novel Blog

• Platform: Tumblr
• Categories: Writing, Updates, Brainstorming
• Description: Basically, this is where I post my progress, and I often brainstorm some ideas. It's still a pretty new blog (my main one, in my signature, was mostly filled with me reblogging funny blogs and pretty pictures |D), but I'm hoping that I'll post more.
• Favorite Blogs: I don't have any yet. D:

edited 31st Mar '12 9:01:06 PM by Masterofchaos

Favorite Blogs:

• The Character Therapist: Jeannie Campbell uses her day job to present a therapist's perspective of fiction. Regularly, she "diagnoses" blog readers' characters. Oh, and Friday are for Free Association sessions.
• Mystery Writing is Murder: Writing about mysteries, of course, along with more general topics. Every Sunday, the author compiles a round-up of writing links hand-picked from 2000+ writing blogs.
• The Other Side of the Story: Written by Janice Hardy, author of The Shifter. She often delve into rarely-covered topics, along with hosting regular guest posters. On Saturday, she critiques one page from a blog reader's story.
• Superhero Nation: This blog mostly goes into how to write superhero fiction and similar genres, although it covers more general topics. The comments have developed a forum-like discussion, and guest posting is relatively easy.
• YA Confidential: Although it goes into more of the trends of YA and teenagers, written by the "operatives", it presents a cast of teenage "spies" and "analysts" to provide information for most of the posts.

edited 31st Mar '12 9:10:19 PM by chihuahua0

JHM: I Have Found Something That There Is No Use For

Platform: Blogspot.
Category: Music, Writing, Literary Criticism, Ranting (speculative).
Description: At this point, a blank slate, established and subsequently forgotten about... until recently. Likely to involve extensive commentary on things that no-one else really cares about, like the dialectic of modern classical music history and how to use obsolete compound words in a cogent, subtle manner. Be warned, though: I am lazy and impulsive, and not the greatest self-editor out there, so you will likely be treated to alternating periods of total silence and insufferable pretentious mithering. Yay, inconsistency!
Favourite Blogs: I'm a longtime fan of the freak music blog Mutant Sounds (in addition to several others) and a more recent fan of Momus' now-defunct rant vehicle The Click Opera.

edited 31st Mar '12 9:24:09 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

I just tried browsing The Click Opera and I'm not really sure what it's about. Enlighten me so I know what to file it under.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

It's... a culture commentary blog, I guess? Momus (Nick Currie) is a kind of satirical musician with a fondness for the depraved and the morbid. He also happens to be frighteningly smart, brutally honest and often hilarious in a variably sick way. That said... he can veer into serious weirdness, and while as far as I can tell the blog is SFW, his topics can go into uncomfortable and awkward territory that some people might rather avoid. (His Wikipedia article should explain things very quickly, if not grasping the spirit very well.)

In other words, very adult in the "not for the emotionally immature" sense, and certainly not everyone's thing, but worth checking out. Especially the post on the "anxious interval," which basically explains why the '80s are cool now.

edited 31st Mar '12 9:52:46 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

'''Thought Balloons'''

• Platform: Blogger
• Category: Writing, Comic Books, scripting
• Description: Group blog. Each week, one of the 'tenured writers' (none of us are actually paid, though) selects a comic book character. Then, over the course of the week, everyone writes a single-page comic script that involves that character in some way. Visitors are allowed to participate (and encouraged to do so) by writing up a script and posting it in the comments section of the 'why?' post in which that week's character is revealed to the public.

I don't have a blog, but I periodically write articles up on my Deviant Art and post them. Does that count?

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

I sometimes write book reviews. Not much on actual writing, though.

I started a blog just recently, but it's just about general stuff relating to me, so my writing hasn't come up yet, but it will eventually. Would that one count?

Vyctorian's Blog

• Platform: Deviant Art
• Categories: Writing, articles, personal, opinions, art
• Description: My DA page both acts as a blog and a platform for me to host my writings on. Where I write about my experience as a writer who spent most of their life trying to be an artist and how that has affected by view on writing, art and writing as an art form.

edited 2nd Apr '12 2:20:18 PM by Vyctorian

Rarely active, try DA/Tumblr Avatar by pippanaffie.deviantart.com

^^^^, ^^^, ^^ That's fine, so post your links if you wish.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

I do have a blog, It's on Google's blogger, because it's free, it's quite small at the moment though, I do have a lot of posts of some small pieces of writing on it, including a series of "Parodies" of History, where I write as inaccurately as possible, going so far as to make William Wallace the king of England. I also do updates on saturdays when I've made progress with my books I'm writing, that are still in working title stages. The link: http://penmanshipolivetrees.blogspot.co.uk/

Edit: Platform: Blogger Categories: Writing, and on rare occasion a philosophical idea (like what happens with the afterlife and such) Description: Just a Writer's blog, with small pieces to keep people entertained, and updates on books that I intend to release at retail, updates being "I've completed chapter #", I also announce new projects I'll be working on.

edited 4th Apr '12 5:56:30 AM by Olivetree

"You'd never do something as irrational as dying."

Burnpsy: I Am Only Myself

• Platform: WordPress
• Categories: Gaming, Anime and Manga, Writing, Ranting, other stuff to do with me
• Description: ...I just basically make a post (or more) a day about whatever's on my mind.

This is probably something that would be hard to organize, but how about we help promote each other's blogs by doing a bloghop?

The current idea in my mind is to use a simple topic: Pick one trope and write a post about it.

We can also consider organizing this further than Writer's Block.

^ Yay bloghop!

I did propose putting this in New Media, but I'll have to edit my OP to be a little more general if we really want to get a mod to move it there.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

I would suggest stickying this in whatever forum it ends up in.

And yes, chihuahua, I've posted about Turtles all the Way on several occasions. Never made a thread about it, though.

edited 4th Apr '12 4:07:22 PM by burnpsy

I have finally decided that I will not have a blog, yet. My schedule for the summer is going to be a hectic one. My classes are on Tuesday to Thursday about 9 hours a day from May to June. Then I'm going to be doing Jul No Wri Mo, so July is booked. Of course this doesn't factor in the possibility of a summer job. Yay for mayhem.

Also this semester is coming to a close pretty fast, so it is likely I won't be posting much.

Not that it really matters to anyone but me. -_-

Edit: I propose that this thread be kept on Writer's Block. It can be used as a spot where people can plug themselves and their work.

edited 5th Apr '12 4:53:18 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

I'd be down for a bloghop :3

Rarely active, try DA/Tumblr Avatar by pippanaffie.deviantart.com

My blog is at x-haphazard-x.livejournal.com

I am contemplating moving.