Blogging and Writing

A member of Shortmystery relayed the following contest:

http://www.writingstuff.com/blogfest.html

What's the one thing you've always wanted to write, but never got around to writing?

A novel, a screenplay, a children's picture book, a short story, a memoir, a book of poetry?

Whatever it is, we challenge you to get started writing it this May.

And you can win $2000 just for deciding to do it!

All you have to do is tell us what you want to write, why you want to write it, and what it would mean to you to be given the chance to write it.

If you can convince us that it means the world to you, you could be our $2000 winner. Nine runners-up will also share in $1000 prize money.

. . .

Closing date: April 20, 2005.

Entry fee: $5

The conditions:

There is only one condition to this competition - we want to keep up with how you're going. If you're a winner, we ask that you submit at least a weekly blog letting us know how your project is going.

Blogfest 2005 is all about people pursuing their dreams together. So even if you're not a winner, we still invite you to join in Blogfest 2005, to make your writing dreams come true, and to join our community of writing bloggers this May.

Let's make the month of May one to remember!

This brought up the question of whether blogging can help a writing career. In the year-plus since a started this blog, my fiction and poetry output has increased. I find blogging motivates me to write; one type of writing feeds the others. Some thimk blogging consumes time better spent writing for publication, but how frequently you blog is up to you.

This much said, I don't blog specific details (inciting idea, plot twists, etc.) of what I'm working on until it's done. During much of the writing process, ideas are elusive buggers. Discuss an idea too early and it may vanish into the ether.

I like $2000 as much as the next writer, but I won't pay judges for the privilege of convincing them why I want to write something. I'll just go ahead and write it.