Note: It is my great pleasure today to welcome author J.T. Ellison as guest blogger at The Kill Zone. J.T. Ellison is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve critically acclaimed novels. Her topic today is one of my favorite subjects–the art (and future) of group blogging! ~ KL
Several years ago, the fiction world exploded with a number of group blogs. I was lucky to be a part of one of them – Murderati. Founded by Pari Taichert, the blog served as a one-stop shop for all things crime fiction. We made an early agreement to stay away from divisive issues like politics and religion, choosing to focus instead of the writing life. We started with 7 bloggers, and over the course of the blog’s life, had two dozen regular contributors. And that doesn’t include the countless guest blogs. There were births, and deaths. Triumphs and heartbreaks. Breakups and makeups. And books. So. Many. Books.
I was one of the first group of 7, and was the only one with the time (no book deal yet) and inclination to get involved in the backend of the site – the coding and hosting and all that technical stuff. And that, ultimately, was the reason I left the blog as well, but I get ahead of myself.
I grew up on Murderati. Late to writing (I started on Murderati when I was 34, published my first book when I was 37), not knowing much of what I was doing, knowing virtually nothing about the industry. The blog was both a learning experience, and a way to mark my own growth as a writer. It taught me the discipline of a deadline – for the first several years, I blogged every Friday – how important it was to think about writing, even if I wasn’t creating. In the beginning, I had to dedicate a full day to composing and editing and fretting about my blog. I ate up every ounce of advice and insight the other bloggers were sharing. I learned; we all did.
And it wasn’t just Murderati. The group blog phenomenon was everywhere. It crossed genres. There were mystery blogs and sci-fi blogs and romance blogs. There were male-centric and female-centric. We could gorge on the posts – I know the first thing I did every morning for years was get up and read everyone’s blog from all the sites. We all had communities of readers who chipped in daily with their own opinions. It was awesome.
And then we started repeating ourselves. After hundreds and thousands of entries, it was inevitable. The pressure to find a topic no one had discussed grew. People started dropping off to go work on their – you know – books. New people came in, and new life would be given. For a while.Then they too would run out of original topics, and peel away.
The decline of the group blog was gradual, but no less striking for its attrition. Facebook and Twitter gave quicker feedback, though its false intimacy at first didn’t seem to be enough to hook us all. But we began building ourselves as individuals, and boom. Talking to, instead of talking with. And like a lead singer who does a solo album, the next album had that shadow hanging over it. It was all over, though we didn’t want to admit it. We dragged on, desperately trying to keep things fresh and relevant, to work together, but all around us, the group blogs began dropping like flies, until Murderati too finally gave up the ghost.
We had a great run. Seven years of original work. Millions of words written. A built-in platform for book launches and celebrations. The respect of our peers. A community unlike any other.
Shutting down sucked.
Did the rise of “I” overcome the power of “Us”? Or did we all simply run out of things to say? I know for me, running the backend of the site was taking time away from my actual writing. I had so many deadlines that my head was spinning, and I had a massive set of personal losses that made me question the whole purpose behind the endeavor. Everything felt shallow to me – writing, blogging, reading, living – and I pulled out, knowing I wasn’t doing anyone any favors being involved anymore.
I know I missed the phenomenon that was us. But I kept telling myself it was for the best.
Oddly enough, several months later, we realized most of the Murderati folks still were blogging. Though we’d run out of things to say, and complained bitterly about the time it took away from our writing, we’d kept on blogging. We just didn’t do it on Murderati. We didn’t do it together. Together became too difficult. Too time consuming. Too much effort. But we still wanted to talk. So we did it on our own blogs. On Facebook. Alone. Built our own networks of people. Our own communities.
And damn if we didn’t miss being together.
Missed it enough to try an experiment.
With the help of Writerspace, we revamped Murderati.com. We built an archive site. Every blogger has their own pageof their old blogs. And everyone who was interested has their current blog feed automatically into the site. So we’re together, but not together. Blogging, but not on a set schedule.
I love seeing group blogs like The Kill Zone that are still going strong. I wish we could have found a way to make that happen for Murderati. Maybe someday in the future, we’ll all come together again, realizing that there is a reason animals run in packs – there’s safety and camaraderie in numbers.
What do you think? Can we ever get that heyday back again? Or have we become so divisive as a community – and we are, trust me. There’s a war going on out there – that we are better off on our own?
Thanks so much for having me today. Y’all rock!
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve critically acclaimed novels, including The Lost Keyand When Shadows Fall, and is the co-author of the Nicholas Drummond series with #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. Her work has been published in over twenty countries. Her novel The Cold Room won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original and Where All The Dead Lie was a RITA® Nominee for Best Romantic Suspense. She lives in Nashville with her husband. Visit JTEllison.com for more insight into her wicked imagination, or follow her on Twitter @Thrillerchick or Facebook.com/JTEllison14. Or, if you’re so inclined, read her blog, The Tao of JT.
Welcome, J.T.! It is so great to have you here. I have always been a huge fan of Murderati, and I’m so glad to see its rejuvenation in a new format. Your topic today is one that is very close to my heart. I’m profoundly grateful for our readers here at TKZ, and for the tireless efforts of my awesome co-bloggers. It takes a village to produce a group blog!
I can’t imagine not starting my day with TKZ. But it must feel like a chore sometimes, to find innovative ways to say the same things week after week, year after year.
I like the odd post about your dog. Or your cat. Or your first positive review, your first negative feedback, etc. Nothing too personal but travel stories are always nice to throw in once in a while.
First and foremost, though, is the writing advice. It will always be timely to someone who needs the kick in the butt. And you always want to attract new writers.
And guest blogging, as J.T. is doing, is a great idea. I know I’ll go check out Murderati this morning.
Welcome JT! It can be hard trying to come up with new topics and sometimes I’m sure we all feel like we’re repeating ourselves (my kids complain I do this all the time at home anyway:)) I remember being surprised how many group writing blogs were folding so it’s great to hear Murderati is back, albeit in a sightly different way! Like Kathryn, I’m grateful TKZ is still going strong!
I think people got lured away from group blogs to the drive-by style and instant gratification of other social media. I value blogs because they provide more of a two-way conversation. I also think of TKZ as a virtual water cooler–it’s where we check in to see what are peeps are up to, without the noise (And rants! And ads! Grr…) of Facebook.
Murderati was one of my morning stops way back when. There were certain blogs — many solo efforts — that were always worth a visit. But I think we all got burned out there for a while. (I had a solo blog for 3 years). It’s hard to keep it fresh and yeah, you run the risk of repeating yourself or just flapping your lips to keep the momentum going. Remember Miss Snark? She was the best, but she burned herself out and had to retire.
I think TKZ works because we tend to focus pretty tightly on the craft and biz sides of things. And the advent of self-pubbing has perhaps spawned a new audience or widened the old one. It’s hard to find good solid advice about the publishing world these days. Who do you trust? Where do you go?
Back in my newspaper days, for a while I wrote a weekly column. It about killed me trying to keep it funny and fresh. (Elaine Viets, you should weigh in on this one!) But here at TKZ, surrounded by support, I don’t feel the pressure. In fact, writing a blog sort of jump-starts my book-writing muscles. And reading the responses and discussions of our folks here really makes my day.
Miss Snark is still around. I just got a post from her today.
J.T., thanks for dropping by TKZ. I’m glad to hear that Murderati has been reprised, even if it is in a different format. You guys have so much talent, it was sad to see the blog fade away. I know what you mean by staying fresh and original. Maybe if we were talking string theory and quantum mechanics rather than books, there might be a wider area for new topics. But you never know who might be reading TKZ for the first time and receive value from a repeated topic. Best of luck with Murderati 2.0. Come back soon.
BTW, congrats on THE LOST KEY.
Before Blogging and Forums were the things for my reading and writing endeavors, there was Usenet. 🙂
The same happened in Usenet. I had my favorite topics I’d visit each day. My favorite posters I’d bookmark and follow because the flame wars they blazed across Usenet were fun to watch for this shy lurker.
Then one day, there were fewer and fewer posts by my favorites and people began chatting rather than making meaningful, thought-provoking rants and queries. I missed my favorites and so I stopped visiting.
Those were the days! *sigh*
Flame wars? That’d really perk us all up, Diane! 😉
Welcome to TKZ, J.T.! I was a founding member of Crime Fiction Collective blog, which lasted from April 2011 to April 2014, with some changes in regular contributors. I really enjoyed my three years with that blog, which also gradually ran out of steam as everyone got busier, with more and more demands on our time. I was lucky enough to join The Kill Zone at about the time Crime Fiction Collective was starting to wind down, and am loving being part of this vibrant community of talented, dedicated bloggers and intelligent, faithful followers! I know a lot of writers and aspiring authors look forward to our posts here at this award-winning blog, so here’s to a lasting team effort!
I was honored to be invited to participate at TKZ. I learn so much from my fellow bloggers as well as from the comments. We can talk about any writing related topic and get a response. Sometimes it is hard to come up with a topic, but other times a subject pops into my mind. The only pressure that I might feel is to sound intelligent, provoke discussions and present useful material or insights. Or we can simply raise questions about the multitude of publishing choices we have now. It’s a great place to come for guidance and friendship.
I absolutely agree with everything Nancy said just above. The TKZ community rocks, and I’m thrilled to be part of it! 🙂
JT, thanks for the post. You show us how fortunate those of us are who read TKZ posts every day. We are truly blessed with a talented and faithful group of bloggers.
And it doesn’t hurt us to hear a topic repeated once in awhile.
Thanks everyone!
Steve, I truly appreciate this community of bloggers, writers, and readers, too, and love how our faithful followers like you always add so much value to every discussion!
You know the old saw – you can give ten writers a single line and they’ll cook up ten totally different stories – that’s why repeated topics works.
I just don’t know what I would do if TKZ went away. I have learned so much here. And it is a great hangout as well. Thanks to you all for your great input. I keep sending people over here, but most are incognito.
Cheers!
Technical gremlins have kept JT’s comments from appearing, but she wanted to let you all know how much she appreciates your comments! We’ll try to fix the gremlins asap. Cheers!
OK, I”m going to try again – I apologize – I left several comments yesterday and none of them showed up. I have ghosts in my machines this week – or shall we blame Mercury and its accursed insistence on going into retrograde?
OK! So… thank you so much for all the comments and kind words about Murderati (And, Joe, THE LOST KEY)
This is absolutely the time to have a group blog. With so many changes in the industry, so many of us struggling to decided what path to take, we need to come together and bolster each other like we used to. It was such an honor to be asked to post here (yesterday), because I’ve followed TKZ for years, and y’all have done such an exemplary job of staying to the mission of the blog. So here’s to you!
Thank you JT, and thanks for being our guest! TKZ has been my one constant during several years of breathtaking changes in the publishing world, and my own sense of place in the universe. I rely on our little village in the cybersphere, couldn’t live without it! 🙂
Hmmm … I just wrote a response and it’s not here … Basically, I miss Murderati too but too many things pulling on my attention forced me to give it up. Murder She Writes disbanded last year. Individual blogging is a little freer because I don’t have a set schedule and don’t feel guilty if I don’t blog. If we try to do everything, everything suffers — and writing must come first.
That’s it exactly, Allison – the scheduling became such an issue — with so many deadlines and books and everything, the blog became a drag on time. Which was a shame, for all of us.