Question time, class.

I originally started this whole blogging thing because, a) I was out of work and had time on my hands, and b) I thought it would work as a writing exercise, getting me back into the habit of writing regularly.

Well, it's been over three years and while I've blogged several hundred thousand words worth of nonsense, I'm not sure it's working as a writing exercise. I'm thinking...maybe I need to stop letting myself just do a brain-dump every day. Maybe I need to shut off the computer, drag out the writing books, and do proper "writing exercises" or something. And start, you know, re-reading and editing stuff. 98% of the time I don't even spell-check blog entries (and I'm sure it shows).

At some point I have to figure out if I'm ever going to write again. And if I am going to, or if I want to, what the best path is to get me writing again.

I mean...writing writing, you know? I type incessantly. Sometimes I start a new blog entry ten seconds after finishing the last one. But it's not writing, is it?

Also? Why have I had 700+ "unique" visitors so far this month? As far as that goes, why do I get hundreds and hundreds of "unique" visitors every month? Who are these people who don't even know me and how are they unlucky enough to find themselves here?

Are any of you in fandom, do/did any of you write, and are you on LJ yourselves? And do you feel that the time and energy you spend chatting or writing entries in LJ sucks away creativity you might have spent writing stories?

Do you find yourself coming up with story ideas, sharing them on-line, giggling over them with friends and discussing what might happen in the story, and then moving on to something new without writing the story itself?