Life in progress

Oiling the Creative Machine

60 Comments

I’m looking for input on an idea. It all started like this…

I decided to play with a pseudonym, but I didn’t want to have to keep signing in and out of this WordPress account to keep my name a secret, so I went to … hold on to your seats … Blogger. Don’t everyone gasp at once. I’ve been there for a whole four days and not a single peep out of any one of the maybe three people who have looked at my blog. Needless to say, it’s frustrating. SO much harder to follow people over there – I swear I can hear crickets. You may be wondering just why I would want a pseudonym. Easy. Yes, that’s right, I want something easy to write – short, sweet, random, funny snippets that don’t take away from the theme and goal of this blog, which is to talk about my life in a reasonable manner and to further my career as a novelist. I can’t see shooting out the occasional random crap as a stop to reaching that goal. The other, more important reason for my Blogger blog came up in relation to my shoulder. I’ve been told to bend over and let my arm hang, swinging every once in a while to keep the joint lubricated. Just like I need to lubricate my creative joint by writing… But writing things like decent fiction and grammatically correct articles takes up so much time!! So here’s my crazy little idea.

What if I created another WordPress blog, just for this purpose. I could keep the pseudonym, only everyone will know it’s me, because when I write and comment my gravatar will be there. Would you follow me? Some of it will be semi-fictional, some will be more like a tweet only longer… all of it will be just random amusing crap that may well culminate in huge discussions. Most of all, it will be for me.

So, input? Have you ever considered doing something like this? Your opinions will likely have a lot to do with whether or not I go through with it, so please be honest.  Here, I’ll make it easy for you.

The poll is no longer active. Thanks for voting!

 

 

Author: Linda G. Hill

There's a writer in here, clawing her way out.

60 thoughts on “Oiling the Creative Machine

  1. I was just moaning this morning about how my blog has a very specific focus, relationships/marriage, but also a kind of tone that’s a combo of serious, funny, mildly self disclosing, all based on practical advice. No musings.

    I write occasional film reviews for a food and film site, mostly about relationship movies, but they don’t really fit within the frame of my blog. The idea of having some place to not worry about your brand and cut loose a bit has a strong appeal.

    Good luck over in your new neighborhood. (Enjoyed the vitamin C story!)

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  2. Of course you should open up another WordPress blog! I have a few writer friends who run two blogs under different names. More work for you, but you already have the following. 🙂

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  3. Looks like it’s a done deal!

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  4. I think Blogger is hard to comment on. I’ve tried to comment on a Blog I follow on Blogger and I find it quite frustrating to get my comments to go through. I’ve just started on Tumbler and its easy to use but not so easy to reply to comments. Or maybe I haven’t figured out how to reply yet! 😉 So far, I have found I can reply to “fan mail’ from my Follower provided I follow them back but I can’t seem to reply if I don’t follow back that Follower. I can only add a comment if I reblog my own post! Maybe I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet, but it seems rather complicated. WordPress has a much easier and friendlier interface to use, though I have to admit, I am about to abandon my wordpress blog for facebook ( 3 different pages),tumbler and google, but not because I don’t like it but I just have too many sites to maintain.
    My two cents worth would be another wordpress blog. And while I may not read everything, I will follow.

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    • You’re not wrong about Tumblr. I contacted them and apparently the only way you can comment on a post is if there’s a question mark at the end… but the original poster can’t comment back in reply. The only way to communicate is to reblog. It’s very frustrating, especially when trying to have a conversation! I’m following you there by the way. 😉
      While I’m sad that you won’t be posting on WP any more, I’m very glad I met you here!!
      Anyway, I’ve set up a new WP site. A post with all the info is coming soon. Thanks for your input, Susie! 😀

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  5. You know you could have used a different account in WordPress but just used a different web browser to log on, that way you could have that site and your normal site logged in at the same time.

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  6. I didn’t vote in the poll as I wasn’t quite a match for any of the answers. I would definitely follow an additional blog from you. What I can’t guarantee is that I would read it all the time. This blog is one of a subset that I follow by email, so I see it on a regular basis. Blogs that I follow just through my reader are not so likely to get read. I’m sure your additional blog would be great fun; I, unlike most people, am just not that attuned to humor. I hope that you will go for it!

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  7. I know what you mean because I started at Blogger. That’s the reason of being at WP now.
    My two cents opinion: Why can’t you do the same here at this blog? Just maybe adding here the new feature? My take is: a writer (and a blog) evolves, and may want to remove what doesn’t work anymore, and (like you) even better, may want to start doing new things in parallel.
    I’m sure this poll will show that you won’t have a problem to be followed by all that already love what you do. The poll shows that.
    As you are not going to do it anonymously anymore, wouldn’t you want to make the experience to follow (and click) you, easier, by offering a one-stop shop, whilst also making it easier for you to manage all in one place and strengthen your brand (name)?
    I think that only if you go anonymously, then you need a new blog.
    Just my thoughts.

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    • I think the stuff I want to write on the other blog will do nothing but weaken my brand by diversifying it too much. It would be kind of parallel to Stephen King writing children’s books without using a pseudonym… Okay, maybe not that dramatic. But you get the point.
      Anyway, I’ll be posting more about it later. Hopefully I’ll explain a little better then what my goal is. Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment, Lucile! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I already write random crap! It is really cathartic for me and I love to try and bring a smile to people’s faces- I would advise you to dive in and have a go. I will definitely follow you. 🙂

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  9. I moved from Blogger , but still have an account there. So yeah, I might follow 🙂

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  10. I am the Wishy Washy blogger. I have started and deleted at least 15 blogs because I didn’t like the names. The ones I kept are BOOKS I’VE ENJOYED (And some I haven’t) which is my book reader blog. Then there’s RAINE”S RECIPES, which I kept and my new one is the one I have a problem with, I wanted a blog where I could express my curious and quirky side and not cringe too much with what I post. I used A Musing Word for a while. Then I recently switched to Raine’s Cache, which I feel good about. I may even choose a new name in the future since I didn’t want to use my real name either.

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  11. I’ll follow, its nice to have different forums to get the imagination kicking again. Hopefully you will put up the link here..

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  12. I am not liking Blogger either. I had one follower and then poof! No more. Tumblr is also not easy. I will follow you wherever you go. 😉

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  13. I came here from Blogger, I now use my Blogger as a mirror site for WP, I’ve been on Blogger for ..oohh geez at least 4 years and have just 13 followers there, I get a fair bit of anonymous comments though,I’ll follow you wherever you write, you can post a link to your blogger in gravatar ( I do this) or if you want to remain in hiding…. fire off a link in an email and I’ll follow ( ButchCountry67@gmail.com ) and yes I use ButchVountry over there too lol

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    • er country not vountry…. my bad lol

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    • Thanks, Butch. 🙂 I’ll contact you later, though unless I start getting some followers over there all of a sudden, I’ll just probably end up moving the content of the Blogger blog over here. I’ve set up a new WP account though, which I’ll post about later tonight.
      Thanks again for your interest!

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Hey Linda, I will follow you to a new blog under your new pseudonym. Hey make it a fancy one lady.

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  15. Whatever you decide. I have seen other people on WP do it. I am not overly excited to say Whoopi. I don’t see anything wrong with it.

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  16. Just voted …I’ll follow you to a fun, new blog. I’m on blogger for my fiction story, and have been for a long time…I have 2 followers…(if they are even still there…but several readers) no one ever comments. My wordpress blog is much better for interaction. I have tumblr too, but really can’t figure it out. Let us know when and where you set up a new blog!

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    • Thanks so much! I’ll be posting about my new blog later tonight – I couldn’t wait a week to start. 😛
      Tumblr is even worse for interacting than Blogger – and there are definitely crickets over there.

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  17. We all need a variety of creative outlets for this brainstuffs up in the ol’ noggin, otherwise dangerous and volatile build-up occurs! My blog is currently a reflection of my mania and “fractured personalities” so I don’t really follow a theme – unless that theme is centered on randomness, mania, psychoses, and humorous madcap insanity. I wonder if that helps or hurts achievement of my goals here?

    Anyways…I am already so very eager to see what you do with this literary fugue state. 🙂

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  18. I found it a pain logging in and out all the time so I don’t do it but if tumblir is the go and easier then try that avenue.
    Have a good day Linda

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  19. Scottishmomus is opening up a Freedom’s Place for people to post blogs that they would not ordinarily post on their own.It’s a sort of vacation layover. Contact her for details.

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    • What a great idea! Thanks for the info, Patricia. 🙂 I do plan to post a lot, so I wouldn’t want to take over someone else’s site, but I’ll keep that in mind if I ever need a place to let loose, so to speak. 🙂

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  20. I moved here from blogger. It will take you forever to build a following there. I follow another blogger here who blogs under two names. If it’s good, I’m in. And, if it’s you, I’m guessing it will be good.

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  21. What you are looking for is Tumblr actually. Tumblr is the place used exactly for what you want.

    A good way to handle multiple personas though is have two different browsers, say Chrome for one and Firefox for the other. Then you just have to open a new browser rather than logout and login under the same browser.

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  22. Sounds like a good idea 🙂

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  23. Linda, I actually do this… I created a blog with a different screen name so that I could post things that I didn’t want on my regular blog. Because they’re a little further out of my comfort zone and that I don’t know if I want them to become something I write.
    I guess also because I’m a little awkward about writing them. So I don’t mind that mine isn’t known to anyone at this point. I’d follow you. 😉

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  24. I will follow you wherever. But Linda, I don’t like Blogger. lol

    Liked by 1 person

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