IF Seal: If you were making a new blog, when would you make it?
i want to make a blog and drop an intro post for my wip, but then i think of the general wariness some people have towards new blogs, since there have been countless no-demo blogs that go inactive without ever posting anything. i guess i don't want to be overlooked, or some part of me is afraid I'll end up ghosting. i Could wait until I've written at least ch 1, but i feel like that's several months away and I'm anxious to get the ball rolling, you know?
I'm aware i shouldn't worry about others' opinions so much, but what would you do, if-seal, if you were making a new a blog right now?
Dear Anxious Friend,
I do hope you are still feeling good about your game idea! I entirely understand the sense of excitement that comes with new ideas and the burst of energy that happens when we want to tell everyone about it! And perhaps part of us wishes that part of it was already here so that we could show off something concrete.
However...
While sharing thoughts about your idea is a great deal of fun, I recommend caution - simply because if you are several months away from a first chapter being ready to share, you may not have written much (or maybe not anything at all). That means that there's the risk of a few things:
- When you do start writing you may realise that some of the details you shared are not actually what you want to include. This can result in worry about whether you should change things to go with what now feels right, or whether you should leave it because it is now "fixed" in stone.
- You may realise this project is not, in fact, what you want to be writing at this point in time and you want to make something entirely different.
- There may be a huge flurry of interest which inadvertently puts a lot of pressure on you because it is very hard to be writing when you are trying to live up to the excitement people have about something that only exists in their minds.
- There may be not very much interest (for any reason: it does not necessarily correlate with how good the idea is!) which can put a major dampener on enthusiasm and make you feel as though it is not worth pursuing this piece of writing.
- Talking to people about the idea can take away your time and energy from making the idea a reality.
For all these reasons I recommend writing a chunk of your game before making a grand introduction. Once you feel confident in your writing, you can then make a decision about how much you want to share straightaway. There is nothing wrong with writing a chapter, making an introduction, and then putting up the chapter a short while later. That approach does three things: it helps your momentum because by that time you'll be working on the next chapter, you will feel more grounded and comfortable in your work so you may not feel so compelled to make changes in response to feedback, and it makes readers more confident that your project is one that will see the light of day.
If you have energy that you want to put into a blog, I recommend setting something up and making it private for now - or putting the energy into writing your project or fleshing out your characters, mechanics, or world.
Best of luck with your writing, friend! And have a happy new year!