How Much Time Do You Spend Blogging?

I’m a sloooowww writer.  Like super-uber slow. Sometimes I’ll write a paragraph (or a sentence) four times before I’m happy enough to move on…and then I’ll usually come back and stare at it later. So a regular blog post will sometimes take an hour to write, proof and post.  That’s an hour I could have spent working on my book.

I’m trying to devise a system that will make blogging less time-consuming while still creating valuable/readable/entertaining posts.  Here’s what I’ve come up with so far: 
  1. Recurring features:  For a month, I did debut author interviews once each week.  I created a pretty standard set of questions, sent them out, and then asked a few follow-up questions depending on the authors answers.  I’d love to do more of these, but my well of debut authors has sort of dried up.  I know, I know…I just need to email some more, but sometimes I feel a little shy. 
  2. Book reviews:  You all know that I’m hesitant to review novels.  But if I just stick to books I really, really loved then I won’t hurt feelings and should be able to whip up a post fairly quickly.
  3. Guest posts: I haven’t asked anyone to write a post for my blog yet. I feel like I should find an expert-expert on some subject for one of those.  Anyone have anything you want to read about?
  4. Stuff I know about writing/business:  This one is hard…I’m pretty sure everyone is smarter and more savvy than I am, but the lessons I’ve learned along the way are valuable. 
  5. Critiques:  This is an area I’d love to do more of.  Would anyone be interested in a bi-monthly query or first page crit? 
  6. Blurbs from my work: I wish I was brave.  Like really, really brave.  I’ve posted the first page of one of my books and one kissing scene.  If I wasn’t so terrified of sucking, I’d do a little more of this.
  7. Character interaction: Do you ever think what would my MC do in this situation?  I do it all the time, and sometimes I write it down.  It’s fun to take your character out of context and see what they’d do at say…Disney World.  I think this works really well for authors who are, you know, actually published. 
What kind of features make blogs interesting to you? What do you do to make blogging fun and interesting while not being a time vaccuum? 

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