I started blogging because I needed the discipline of catering to an audience. And I keep blogging because people will occasionally say nice things about my writing and I love compliments. So I guess ‘narcissism’ is my simple answer!

You are on to something important when you write about not being able not to — I wrote a review of Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert at Harvard in which he says that we are wired in a way that makes it easier to recover from disappointment at trying something and failing, versus the regret that comes from not doing what we know we should.

The mention of novel writing also resonates. I’ve been working on a collection of short stories for years and every time I consider adding to the blog I glance over at it. The quick fix of blogging versus the delayed gratification of long-form writing… a constant struggle.

Maybe a group of bloggers could write one page each, and then at the end of the year, there’s the novel!

Have you thought about blogging (there’s that word again!) *about* your short story writing? Perhaps one can kickstart the other?

I’ve actually completed a draft of a novel after several bungled earlier attempts. Finishing it (kind of a fictionalized comic version of my senior year at college) and realizing the many miles I needed to go to turn it into a polished final product (and likely MAJOR rewrites it needed) helped me to reinvent the idea that I could be a capital W Writer without being a Novelist

but that’s just me. and yes Blogcritics did play a big role in my continuing desire to write at such a prolific rate.

I keep saying I’m going to dump both my blogs…but I can’t bring myself to do it. I think there’s either something in the water or some cosmic ray that makes us addicted to our blogs. (That plus how easy it is compared to every other form of writing.)

Good stuff!