There is a general consensus that a writer must have a blog, something I’ve wilfully resisted for as long as I can remember. Of course it makes sense, a writer writes and therefore a blog is a perfectly reasonable place to publish such writings. But the blog, as a form, feels so casual, almost throwaway, and reminds me of how I felt about journalism, and felt about the first and only news story, about an electrocuted squirrel, that I ever sold to The Scottish Sun. It was great the day it was published, but the next day, and the day after that, my squirrel story was just spent newsprint.
This is where, I feel, the internet poses a problem. It’s so easy to say something that it becomes difficult to say nothing at all. Whether poetry, fiction or journalism, I like words that last, leave an impression, and maybe even haunt you a little. So when I do write in this space, I’m making a commitment to myself to only do so when I have something to say.
In the mean time, please feel free to look around. You’ll find some of my poetry and short stories by following the links at the top of the page, as well as some information about me and where you can find my writing.
Duncan Stewart Muir 
Dear Duncan
The blog space is good if, say, facebook doesn’t give you quite the space you need to talk about general stuff more broadly and deeper – and at length. It is ok to post a new poem or story on fb, but perhaps because of the mix of people one has on facebook, I use it like an address book and and on a jingle-jangle tip when feeling like saying hi to pals. It is good though because as i am moving to new tools, i am able to tell my facebook friends where they can find me doing what it is they all know i do: write! Friends, family, pals met on travels… facebook is good to be chatty. And so i think that makes it a more throwaway medium than the blogsite.
On the blogsite you have creative control. It is helping me find my AUTHORitive voice that is not fiction – the voice that can shape an argument or a commentary. The act of publishing a post gives me a little bit of stage-fight, but that keeps me sharp. Darlings.
It is a different writing again to writing in a journal (which is truly intimately and exclusively between you and the page). As i said in a post on my site, it is writing – with its best coat on. It is me with my best coat on. I am doing the talking, I’ve locked the characters in an ottoman!
I would love to read more of you in this way. I just read the first short story you have here and the poem that is spaced out in an unusual way…
So that is not throwaway writing, as you talk about in your post above. It is denser, it asks more of the reader. it is crafted and resonant. It is art. And that is all groovy, but i also know you personally and the way you speak when chatting on anything is also very ‘kin interesting.
Especially as you are in China writing your debut novel.
You know Duncan, finding the readers started ages ago.
You found one in me.
And, the writing that you do on your site does not have to be throwaway in that people can find what you wrote today in years time. you can save your writing as a collection for you to use in the future – articles, ideas…
and, it can help build a greater network as you follow others and linkylinklink-hunter-gather
This is my sheeeeeer enthusiasm to be an emerging novelist in a brand new age where technology enables me to get behind my own career in a way previously difficult for unknown authors.
I hope i have infected you too!!
Find me here, we have work to do…