Is blogging...

[Justin]

...good for writing practice or yet another distraction that takes away from "real" writing. What's your opinion?

[DanielScocco]

Good for writing practice.

Once you get in, you get addicted. As a result, you will be writing a lot more, and with people commenting on it.

If I take a look at the first blog posts I did some 3 years ago I get the impression someone else wrote them.

[Justin]

Okay, well, based on that inspiration, I finally had the nerve to give it a try again. (I thought about it briefly years ago.)

www.observeandexpound.blogspot.com

[Ali]

It's great for writing practice -- make sure you stick with it regularly. Don't dash off posts in ten minutes when you're bored/drunk (I know that's what I did when I started blogging, years ago!), but try to set aside thirty to sixty minutes a couple of times a week to plan and write a thoughtful post.

If you're looking towards the more "professional" than "personal" side of blogging, I strongly recommend Darren Rowse's Problogger site - http://www.problogger.net

And if you still need some reasons to blog (though it looks like you're pretty convinced), you might want to read my Five Reasons Why Blogging Improves Your Writing: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/five-reasons-why-blogging-improves-your-writing/

Good luck with your blogging! :-)

Ali

[susabelle]

...good for writing practice or yet another distraction that takes away from "real" writing. What's your opinion?

For me, it's both. It is great for writing practice and I do it a LOT. I have several blogs and each has a purpose, plus there are two professional blogs I am a contributing editor for. That keeps me busy...

...and thus, away from my novel writing.

I like to blog, but I also like to work on my novels, and there's not enough time for everything. I'm finding myself less and less motivated to write in my novel, and I don't see that as a good thing. I obviously have NO self-control.

I actually started a new blog last night, if you can believe that. As if all the other ones weren't enough...sheesh

[alex.peterson]

Hello friend,
Well I have learned few thing about writing. And i am here to find about the first book of "Jhon Keats" whose famous quotation is "Thing of a Beauty is a joy for ever"

[Maeve]

Hello friend,
Well I have learned few thing about writing. And i am here to find about the first book of "Jhon Keats" whose famous quotation is "Thing of a Beauty is a joy for ever"

John Keats didn't actually write any books. He was an English poet who died at the age of 26, but left behind some beautiful poems and some letters in which he expressed his views on literary criticism.

The quotation you admire is from his long poem Endymion (http://www.readprint.com/work-889/John-Keats)

You may also enjoy Ode on a Grecian Urn (http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odeonagrecianurn.html), one of my favorites of his shorter poems.