“8 Great Storytellers” blog sprouted like a strange plant about a year ago as “Visions & Revisions,” a spin-off of eight writers from an oversized workshop. When the spin-off stopped twirling, we widened its focus to include the entire writing process from initial concept to marketing a completed novel. This is a great model for a workshop and has been very effective and a lot of fun.
Every writer, like every spider, needs a web presence. A blog. Growing and feeding a blog takes a lot more effort than most writers can provide. A co-op blog spreads content creation over more people, boosts reach by pooling our contacts, and provides synergy via the group's diverse talents. We created the 8 Great blog at our fortress in the Bavarian alps, during a thunderstorm, using miscellaneous WordPress parts, to cries of, “It's ALIVE! It's ALIVE!”
We are a varied collection of writers, with interests including puzzles, mysteries, surreal fiction, theatre, dogs that do nothing in the nighttime, graphic arts, woodworking, poetry, knitting, sewing, chess, dyslexia, Native American culture, fashion, screenwriting, memoir, peacocks, journalism, book reviews, first-person stories, cuisine, underwater bicycle racing, and ancient Egypt.
In addition to a collective “About” page, our authors each have personal pages with custom headers, photos, bios, and links to their posts and publications. Category pages are provided for anyone venturesome enough to serialize or excerptize a novel. Among us, we have a total of 44 completed books, 60 short works, 16 scripts and over 127 articles.
Our posts are mainly short fiction pieces with a light sprinkling of poems. The blog is still largely experimental, but nothing involving chemicals or cold fusion, so far. First-person articles have drawn a lot of views, propelled by Julie Brown's nudge-o-matic publicity. Book reviews perform well, too, with a little pushing, but I'm most fond of flash fiction.
Upcoming experiments will involve guest bloggers, a blog roll, more extensive graphics, custom artwork, and a few secret projects to be denounced later. You never know what we might be up to. And now I hear something yelling, “FEED ME! FEED ME!” so I'd better go see what the blog wants.
Jeff Guenther for 8 Great Storytellers
Link: http://8greatstorytellers.wordpress.com/
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