When I began my blog two years ago I was reading a lot of other blogs which kept saying writers needed a platform. The extolled the virtues of building this platform so you have a ready-made gang of readers when you get published. Many of them posted 2 to 3 times a week. As I said in my first ever blog post, I was slightly sceptical about an unpublished writer having a blog. After all, being strictly amateur, what could I possibly have to share with others? But as I’ve gone along learning more about writing and also about self-publishing I’ve realised that I do have something share.

Some might say I’ve not taken blogging seriously. I’ve never been a regular blogger. I don’t have a specific day when I post. Yes, I stockpile posts but I don’t have a strict schedule. You see, in answer the question above, I put myself firmly in the first category. My first duty to myself is as a writer, so any spare time I get must be devoted to my fiction writing first. If I’ve hit my target for the week, then I can allow myself to work on a post for the blog.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy blogging because I do. I love turning up, writing and sharing post with you and hearing your feedback, and I’m not a bit sorry that I started my blog. Since I’m preparing to self-publish my books next year, hopefully you guys will become my first audience, my first band of readers, but the people who read my blog are much more important than just future readers. I love the fact that I can talk to you and share my ideas and tips with you. Writing is such a solitary activity that it’s good to have outlets such as Twitter and blogging to share information and socialise with other readers and writers. Hopefully the advice and information that I share is helpful to other writers as well as interesting to readers.

For me, writing has become a lot more professional in the last couple of years. Once I started “going public” and telling people I was a writer, I had to start acting like a writer. That meant turning up and actually writing. So while I enjoy blogging, writing will always take priority. I’ll continue to produce more fiction because that is where my writing career lies. The blog will play a supporting role in that but supporting is all it will ever be.

It’s important to decide where your loyalties, if that’s the right word, lie. I will always be a writer first and a blogger second. I have little enough time for writing as it is and therefore must set my priorities. So I will continue to blog but only if it does not encroach on my writing time.