Online communities, blogs, and journals are one of the most popular ways for people to reach out to one another across the web. In this online community toolkit, you can read more articles about how to take advantage of this social networking opportunity for this list of social networking sites.

The nice thing about building an online blog, is that it’s a way to utilize journal writing exercises.

Here are some ideas to utilize your online journal as a way to write more prolifically.

• Metered Poetry: The cool thing about poetry, is that you have the opportunity to work within tight constraints. Reconstructing sonnets, haikus, or even limericks can provide you with some ideas. Another thing that this exercise can do is to give you other structures to use and integrate within your fiction writing. Choose from several different types of poetry to write what you’re the most comfortable with, and then pick any theme.
• Meme: Whether someone tags you to write a meme or you pick one from The Daily Meme, you’ll have the opportunity to write about yourself and socially connect. The nice thing about memes is that you’re writing without even thinking about it.
• Write in Character: If you’re writing a story or novel, sometimes you need to go a little deeper and get in your character’s mindset. Why not write a post from your character’s point-of-view? The easiest way to do that is to pick an emotion, one that you haven’t explored before, to see how your character might react. The hidden benefit of doing this also allows you to subtly promote your work.
• Promote yourself: Whether you talk about the process of your work or something that you had published, blogs are a great way to promote yourself. Keep in mind, though, that self-promotion needs to happen elsewhere, offline, as well. A good way to talk about self-promotion is to keep the facts short and sweet; talking about he process could take a little longer.

Whatever (or however) you decide to use your blog, keep in mind that it shouldn’t be a burden–it should be fun. If you spend more time blogging and posting than you do writing, then I suggest revisiting your schedule to see why you’re writing less and socializing more. If you’re working a day job, chances are you won’t have much time or energy left over to write. Online communities are a great way to reconnect, but don’t let it stop or prevent you from writing.