Literature that genuinely attempts to show and tell about this is like an unwanted orphan by the editors, who secretly may be working for the government-no, that is impossible. Or mainstream editors have a secret formula for profit-making books that includes the thrill of murders and violence coupled with endless suspense with some lust about topics and people that have no connection to readers or reality.

Escapism literature seems to dominate. Oh, there is nothing like it. But the country does seem to be suffering some. Why? That is a question that ought to be answered by somebody or by many!

And I will pass your words on to BSC (she’s a good friend, though her life is beyond belief busy). I miss the perspective she offered, though I love the perspective she offers. While we don’t have a cohesive online literary community, we have a strong online community. As someone who cannot imagine life without reading, this gives me great hope.

And, man, you have to laugh at it all. I often note that if this were a real business, we’d all be in trouble.

Blogs are tools. Tools are not rules. They are there to help you do what you want to do. During the session I noted (second paragraph, blogs as books), one of the participants was an author who hated blogs. She’d done some sort of blogging tour, but didn’t like the notion of blogging.

Completely justified. Her type of memoir writing didn’t lend itself to blogging (by the way, I do love that comments allow me to extend posts in ways that wouldn’t work in the ordinary flow of the piece). That makes sense. But she also displayed (which is why I’m not naming names) an inordinate misunderstanding of the medium. To her, blogs were one thing. As Scott Karp noted, they are many things.

Tools not rules.

She’d cut herself off from possibility. Potential didn’t exist. If it works for her, I cannot say she’s wrong, but what I know about real life (and publishing) tells me that you need good tools. She’s rejected the best, the easiest, and the most flexible because she doesn’t get what it’s all about.

It is a cold, hard business. But it’s ours, you know? There’s survival of the fittest, then, well, there’s us.

I’ve resisted the “everyone must blog” imperative for a long time (I have my own site and post things on it, to keep my presence out there), because I agree completely with you that the technique for writing a good blog is a talent in and of itself. While I enjoy the good ones (like yours!) I don’t have the knack for doing it myself, being strictly a long-form kinda fella.

I also know that no matter how naturally it might come to you to do it, it’s also a lot of work! So thank you, for putting in the time to do it, and keep us both informed and entertained at the same time. )

I am comfortable with long-form fiction as well. I think the two styles complement each other.

You mention structure — I like that. Structure is one of those things that you only consider when it’s missing. It strikes me now that what I’ve been calling focus really is structure. Once you’ve built structure, then you can play at will. Structure holds the blog together. Before this site launched, I spent a lot of time considering what I wanted it to be.

It’s changed very much over time, but that’s because I would be bored doing the same thing day in and day out. I like to think most of the changes were gradual and a lot of readers stuck with me as I grew. I know one change was abrupt and scary — and then I just did it and, well, if anyone noticed, they’ve never said a word.

Sense of humor matters very much. To me that’s part of voice. If I love your voice, you can blog the phone book and I’m enjoying every moment of it.

Now I do think there are advantages to maintaining presences on the various social networking sites — the trick is to bolster your core effort, not detract. I think Kirk is going to be talking more about this subject soon.