Blog writing vs book writing.

I know there are people way more qualified to write this list than me. I know there are people who have been writing blogs for longer and who have so much more book experience too.

But, for what it's worth, here's where I'm at two months into this book writing caper. It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride, but something tells me it'll all be worth it when I hold my own book in my hot little hand.

1. Whenever I publish a blog that I'm not completely thrilled with, I make myself feel better by reminding myself that in a few posts time that blog will be in my archives barely ever seen or heard from again. This kinda takes the stress out of blogging for me. I like it. In books though, the words and photos are stagnant. They are there for the reader to read and reread and refer back to. Yikes!
2. Book writing is a job while blog writing is a hobby. There is no way I could ask farmer Bren to take the girls to the pool or to Ballarat for the afternoon so I could write a blog. But to write a chapter for my book? Of course!
3. My blog writing is diverse. It's sporadic. I write whatever I feel like writing whenever I feel like writing it. Book writing on the other hand is time-tabled, and check listed, and word counted, and edited, and deadlined.
4. When I tell people I write a blog often their eyes glaze over. That's nice they say. When I tell people I am writing a book, it's a completely different reaction. People are interested, they care, they ask questions.
5. In my early days of blogging, my blog used to keep me up at night writing posts in my head. But over the years it's become quiet and let me go about my own business. My book on the other hand is bossy!! It wakes me up with chapter plans and ideas and words. So many words. My book would speak its words to me underwater and sell ice to an Eskimo, if it could.
6. I am the boss of my blog. I am the only one who decides which photos I upload, what content I write and how I lay it out. I am the editor (with the occasional dad correction), I am the designer, I am the photographer and I am the publisher. It's a one woman band. Although my book will have my name on the cover, it's really a group effort. I write according to a plan I made with my publisher, my mum corrects my grammar, my editor asks for more information, changes the order around and makes it all work. And my designer makes it beautiful. Yay team!
7. Blogs are quick. I reckon a post can go from start to publish in less than half an hour if I really concentrate. Books on the other hand take forever. The book I am writing now will not be published until next August. And I've been told that's a fast turn around in publishing.
8. Whenever I spend time writing a blog instead of doing the housework or cooking, I feel guilty. Whenever I do anything else but write my book I feel guilty.
9. When I write my blog I feel like I'm part of a community. There's always lots of visiting and commenting and socialising involved. When I write my book I sometimes feel like the whole world is going out and having fun and I am stuck here, alone behind my computer.
10. A blog is a blog. But a book is a BOOK!!! I cannot even imagine the feeling of holding a book I made in my hands. A book filled with my photos and my words. I cannot imagine the feeling of seeing it on the shelves of a bookshop or in the hands of a stranger. Wow.

Have you ever bought a blogger's book?
Have you written a book, or thought about it?
Are you reading a good book?
Can someone please tell me to stop procrastinating and get back to writing mine? Thanks.

I hope the last two days of your 2012 are fabulous.

Bye!