Monday, May 05, 2008

Another Post about Blogging

Thanks to Michelle over to Scribbit, I found today's subject. Her twist is better balanced and more comprehensive, but here is my take and off the subject detour.

Her post is about nasty comments and how to deal with them. As usual, she covers the subject like a research scientist and by the end of the post, all questions about how to handle nasty comments are well covered. I have not had many, if any, nasty or negative comments on my blog. At one point early on, I would have gladly accepted and been thrilled to read "Your posts suck". Like a kid craving attention even bad attention.

Then I remembered why I got into this blog thing in the first place. For myself. My life long infatuation with the written word has left a pile of disorganized journals, spiral notebooks and hard drive saved ramblings scattered around. I have lost many words I have written because of my loose dog character. So the blog offered a safe and "Mike Proof" way to keep my thoughts handy for future admiration on my part. What others thought mattered not initially.

I switched off the comments for a couple of years. I could then delude myself that the reason no one commented was because I would not let them. There must be frustrated multitudes out there just biting at the bit to have their say after reading mine.

That delusion turned to reality when I did turn the comments back on. I was just another spindly tree in a forest of giants trying to find the sunlight. But I kept and still keep keepin on. Writing is an addiction for me. Since the day I read my first words, I have been fascinated by those words. Reading ideas and thoughts laid down in ways that made me feel like I was there, or inside the author feeling the feelings at the moment they wrote them. I admire those people who can use words to paint vivid pictures in my mind.

I aspire to be like them. Yeah, everyone has a great novel in them kind of thing. But I think it is more than that for me. I just like the attempt. Whether I am successful or not is beside the point. It is the process of putting what's in my head down on paper that I love.

And every so often, I will write exactly what I mean in exactly the way I meant to write it and I will come away satisfied. This is why I blog. To occasionally write something that is not just more words trying to make sense, but my own words doing for me what other's words have done for me in the past.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

loved this post mr. macrum. i have a special place in my heart for writers, and i don't mean the ones who are successful and published and all world famous. i mean the ones who write because they love it, because they have to, because they understand that words are musical notes and they are the composers.

check out the gertrude stein quote i posted last night. that pretty much sums it up for me.

toklas23

MRMacrum said...

toklas23 - I did spot your quote and it is exactly what I talk about in my post. In a sentence or two, she has done what I used 500 words to do. And done it better.

Unknown said...

well, she *was* gertrude stein. and had a peculiar way with words. i am a big fan of hers...hence the "toklas" moniker, in honor of her long-time partner Alice B. Toklas.

anyway...i appreciated your 500 words and think you captured it just fine.

MRMacrum said...

toklas23 - Alice made an impression on me with her brownie recipe. Hers and Gertrude's realtionship also marked my first real awareness that homosexuality was not just about sex. Gays wanted the same things in Life that straights did. Love, security and safety. We are all the same. Who we sleep with is a non issue in my opinion.

Dawn Fortune said...

At the risk of intruding, I'd just like to say that these conversations make me glad I have entered the world of blogs. I had feared that I would either be a lone voice in the wilderness or else that the hordes would just tell me to shut the hell up. Never did I imagine such thoughtful exchanges happened in the ether that is this medium. Thank you both.

Annie said...

Greetings! I'm popping over from Scribbit. I had to, after all, anyone whose comment could equal War and Peace, well, a girl's just gotta check them out.

I too started blogging to "hear my own voice". Funny how there are so many of us needy writer types in the world.

Nice post sir. I'll be back.

Roadside Manners said...

I find it funny how some days the written word can come so hard, and on others it can flow so easily. Always glad to read your postings when I can find an Internet connection!

amidnightrider said...

Did you start getting all these comments when you went over to scribbit? I'm going over there.

Carlita said...

I loved reading this. I blog for the very same reason, although it's also nice to know that there are a few people out there reading what I've written.