Discipline. Thy name is not Venus.*

I love my blog roll.

I love my 67 enthusiastic bloggers who share their world and their writing & publishing & querying tips with me.  I love them so much that when I get on my computer I spend so much time catching up on what they have to say that I never get around to doing the things I need to do... like write.

There's always one more opinion or post to read, one more comment to make.  I'm not very good at saying, "This is not important," and moving on.  Nope, I read it all.  Reviews aren't too helpful to me because I'm anti-spoiler, so I can skim those.  But I always check out the top of the post to see who is talking about which book, and I always check out the bottom to see if they liked the book or not.  I skip most author interviews too.  It's rare for them to catch my attention early enough in the interview for me to want to keep reading small variations in answers to the same questions.

And the agent blogs, they're less helpful now than they used to be.  Lots of reminders about following the rules, followed by lots of posts saying the writing matters more than any rule out there.  Plus, agent blogs usually wind up turning me on to other agent blogs, which, while interesting, don't help me much in the discipline department.

The writer blogs are often overrun with contests and less "run" with helpful writing information.  That probably has more to do with me than them.  The basic things that you can glean from a blog post are things I already know, and the in-depth things about writing that I still need to learn and practice are unsuited for a blog.

Then I have to factor in the 2cents philosophy.  I love adding my 2 to a discussion.  I've discovered that I usually pick up on a different thread or point in a post than many others do.  So I usually comment before I've read what everyone else has to say, and then I get e-mails from the rest of that discussion that I feel compelled to read all the way through as well.

By the time I'm through reading my daily blog roll, I've got a full mailbox, and another couple of books to find and read.  Those with discipline probably don't get it.  If it's wasting your time, you're smart enough to stop doing it.  Apparently, it takes the rest of us a bit longer.  *rolls eyes at self*

Today, I'm going to try an exercise in moderation.  I'm going to delete 23 blogs from my roll.
If you don't make the cut, it isn't because you don't entertain me, it's possible that you entertain me too much, or perhaps I feel like I've already picked your brain clean of useful information.  In some cases it's just that you're so prolific that to keep your blog around would undermine my needs.

Good Lord.  I can't believe I committed to that.  In public no less.

Here's to productivity!  Here's to discipline!  Here's to cheating and deleting blogs that never say much anyway.  hee hee hee...





Just Finished: From Dead To Worse 
Just Finished: Her Colorado Man 
Currently Reading: Wild Card 
Currently Reading: Wolf Tales VI 
Currently Reading: Some Like it Hot-Buttered 
Currently Reading: Sins of the Night

ETA... * My name is not Venus either--just in case anyone out there is confused.  Venus is a pen name and my real name is just for real life people.