Peculiar Blog Ficiton How-To Article

I found a peculiar how-to article on Blog Fiction. It gives 5 steps on how to start your own blog fiction. It wasn't peculiar in that there was anything wrong with each step. What was peculiar was the order it had those steps. Summarized, here are the steps:

1. Find yourself a blog-hosting site.
2. Choose a fictional world that will appeal to you and that you won't lose interest in.
3. Choose the right character.
   
4. Write out a story arc.
5. Find your market.
   

Do you see something wrong here? If not, let me rewrite the article as a how-to for writing a book.

1. Find yourself a publisher.
2. Choose a fictional world that will appeal to you and that you won't lose interest in.
3. Choose the right character(s).
   
4. Write out a story arc.
5. Find your market.

Or, how about if you're creating a broadway play.

1. Find yourself a stage.
2. Choose a fictional world that will appeal to you and that you won't lose interest in.
3. Choose the right character(s).
   
4. Write out a story arc.
5. Find your market.

Or how about, creating a movie.

1. Find yourself a video camera.
2. Choose a fictional world that will appeal to you and that you won't lose interest in.
3. Choose the right character(s).
   
4. Write out a story arc.
5. Find your market.

Do you see it yet? The first step listed is most certainly not your first step. Also, if you have any intention of attracting readers, the last step listed, is most certainly not the last thing you should consider. What would be the better order to start a blog fiction? How about this:

1. Choose a fictional world that will appeal to you and that you won't lose interest in.
2. Verify a market exists for it and Find it.
   
3. Choose the right character.
   
4. Write out a story arc.
5. Find yourself a blog-hosting site.

There are 2 advantages to using this order instead of the original. The first advantage is that if there is no market for your story you won't find out after it's too late. You won't invest countless hours in creating a blog fiction for the 'smoking man' from the X-Files to only find out that no one really cares about the X-Files anymore.

The second advantage is that it keeps you focused on the important part of writing blog fiction - the writing. You create the world, choose the characters, and write out a plot before doing anything on the internet. Then you can decide what tools you need to write the blog fiction and then figure out which blogging platform best provides those features.

When starting a blog fiction-or any blog for that matter-I can understand why someone would think that the first thing to do is create a blog. It's the first concrete visible step you take; however, if you do it that way your blog will likely fail from a lack of planning. If you don't plan ahead a zillion things can go wrong. You might pick the wrong blogging platform. You may start writing before you're ready. People might find your site before you're ready and ignore it due to lack of content and activity. All of these things you want to avoid.

It is like the ancient advice of SunTsu, "Victorious writers write first and then publish their blog fiction, while defeated writers publish first and then seek to write". Or at least I think he said something like that.