I've always kept a diary, ever since the age of eight, but I only started blogging when I was studying for a degree in Creative Writing and Visual Studies.
All the students were expected to blog, or interact on online forums etc, as part of the personal development part of our course - to show that we understood the internet, and that we could find ways in which we could use it to showcase our work.
However, my first two blogs mainly involved me moaning about things, or randomly listing my favourite songs - and they didn't get much of a readership, though I enjoyed writing them!
I blogged on a very ad-hoc basis in those days, only writing when I felt like it, so there was no pressure to do it, which probably helped.
By the time I finished my degree, though, I knew I wanted to be a novelist, but - when I researched how hard it was to find an agent, or a publisher - I almost gave up before I started. And then I had my great idea...
I thought that, if I wrote my partially-planned novel as a blog (as if it was happening in real-time), and also used Twitter to add to the narrative during each day, I could test out whether there would be enough readers who liked my writing to make it worth completing the novel.
It worked rather better than I expected, as a very popular blogger noticed my blog and then mentioned it to his following at the end of the first week I was writing it, and then lots of journalists started reading it too, and tweeting about it.
This was great, except that I was under pressure from that moment on - not just to turn out a perfectly-edited and amusing piece every single day of the year - but also to tweet, and to interact with a rapidly-growing number of followers, who all wanted to discuss what was happening in the story.
I was also aware by then that one of the key things that you must do, if you want your blog to develop a following, is to blog regularly - which meant that, having started off by writing a daily blog, a daily blog post was what I had to continue to deliver - whether I felt like it, or not. Often, I didn't - and the more stressful the whole thing became, the harder it was to come up with ideas, as pressure seems to really inhibit creativity.
So, by the end of the year during which I continued to write that particular blog, I was absolutely exhausted, having researched and written a 1000+ word blog post every single day, without a single day off. I'd also edited each post numerous times before it went live, as another key thing with blogging is that you must write to the highest standard you can possibly manage. All the time.
To add to the joy, I still hadn't earned a penny from what had become far more time-consuming than a full-time job!
On the upside, though, I'd also been short-listed for numerous blogging awards, and had ended up spoilt for choice as to which literary agent I was going to sign up with - so my blogging really did do the trick, given that finding a good agent had been my main aim all along.
Some time later, I also ended up selling the book based on the blog, on the back of a book proposal, rather than as a finished novel - which is very unusual these days, in the case of fiction.
Now, all I have to do is to actually write the wretched book - which has to be different from the blog - because publishers aren't likely to pay to publish something that's already been made available for free. (That was something else I'd overlooked when I first had my so-called great idea.)
So, to sum up - I guess I blog to draw attention to my work, but also because it can be so much fun being part of the blogging community. I made loads of friends while doing it, was invited to lots of events I otherwise wouldn't have been, and even became a member of a secret society - of anonymous bloggers, who were all fairly well-known in real life, apart from me.
More importantly, I blog because it's the only way for a writer to really know whether their writing is any good, or not, unless they have an agent or publisher to tell them the truth.
It's certainly the only way I can think of for an unpublished writer to find out easily whether what they write is what people really want to read.
Sure, you can ask friends and family whether your writing is okay, but how honest can they really be, if they care about offending you? And, even if you study Creative Writing, or workshop your writing, you're still only putting your work in front of relatively-few people, all of whom know (and hopefully like) you.
So, if you really want to know whether people want to read your work, then there is no better way to find out - and to improve your work - than by blogging, in my opinion! There are over six million blogs, so it seems a lot of people agree with me, too - and the range of subjects they cover is amazing.
The fundamental thing for writers who might like to follow my example (if you're as crazy as I am) should bear in mind is that your work has to be what your readers expect, and what they want to read. After all, if they won't read your work for free, why would they ever want to pay for it?
The plus to this rather harsh comment is that, if you do find out that readers want to read your work for free, then agents and publishers are also likely to be interested in it - which might eventually make you some money!
One tip, though - if you are going to blog, don't blog daily, like I did. It's far better to blog less often - if you want to also have a life - but always on the same day, for example. That way, your readers know when to expect your next post, and the regularity with which you post helps to keep them engaged.
I don't blog my book any more at the moment, though I will start again in the run-up to publication, for the publicity, but - in the meantime - I do have another blog, so I guess you could say that I've still got the blogging bug. I use this one mainly to post visual images, though - as they make it much quicker to complete each post, and also help your blog to look good.
