My village boasts a few claims to fame, unfortunately most of them are pretty unpleasant. Not only has it been host to two very unpleasant murders in the last twelve months, but it is was also the location used for the ITV pile of pants ongoing drama Where The Heart Is.
So given that the village has such a horrendous record, why on earth do people choose to keep living here? Why because it is home to two of the worlds most illustrious bloggers of course. Rol of Sunset over Slawit is one of them, and modesty forbids me to mention the name of the other one.
(it’s me)
I’ve yet to meet Rol in person, but it’s probably only a matter of time before we bump into each other in the Co-op . That will probably be the point that he stops reading this blog, and very likely immediately moves to the other side of York in order to avoid further encounters in the future.
Still, I’ll always have this guest post
Blogger Obsessive Disorder
Oh, the tremendous responsibility of it all!
Ever since Dan asked me to write him a guest post, I’ve been wracked with anxiety. After all, Dan’s blog has readers! Just look at all those comments! It’s all very well using my own little blog to witter on about my inability to get a haircut, the furore over Morrissey’s arse, how I’ve had another bloody rejection letter, or how Audi drivers are the scum of the earth (all for the benefit of my three regular readers, one of whom is a goose fetishist), but if I’m going to play with the big boys – I need to raise my game.
The problem is, whenever I start thinking about writing for an audience, I just freeze up and go to pieces. (No, that’s not a mixed metaphor. Haven’t you ever read a comic where the villain freezes up a cop or innocent bystander or somebody with his ice gun / stone hands / glass ray, then shatters said victim into a thousand pieces? No? You need to read more comics.) I had this brought home to me recently when I was given the dubious honour of being made Blog Of The Week by a best-left-unmentioned national newspaper. Eek – new readers – I better start behaving myself! Stop swearing – stop slagging off the advertising industry – suck in that gut, soldier! Start thinking up clever things to write that might interest them (how about a nice cookery slot?) rather than just ranting on about whatever the hell is bugging me today or blatantly self-promoting my ever-expanding girth of web-published short stories.
The strange thing is, I’ve been writing fiction long enough to know that a writer’s best work always comes when you write for yourself – the sort of story you want to read. The second you start trying to tailor your work to an imagined audience (or worse still, your own stupid perception of whatever’s hot in the marketplace right now), that’s when the old creativity, individuality, and originality begins to suffer. Still, everybody wants to be read, and when you’re given the chance to set up your stall in front of a whole new audience like this… it’s so, so tempting to put on some kind of epic performance to try and reel you all in.
Really though, that’s not what blogging’s all about, is it? ‘Comment Envy’ is one kind of Blog Obsessive Disorder I’m sure we’ve all suffered at one time or another, especially when you’re starting out, but there’s nothing worse than a blogger who’s trying too hard to be liked. You end up looking like the wacky kid in the back of the class, cracking jokes and doing impressions, always first to butt into the conversation, never knowing when to shut up. In hated that kid, didn’t you. (And in my worst moments, I was that kid. But I did try to keep him in check.)
Blogging should be, more than any other kind of writing, almost 100% selfish. The awful film I saw last night, the great book I just finished reading, the latest music on my Zen Jukebox (I don’t do iPod). If today I feeling like writing about why paper cuts bleed more than knife wounds, how daffodils give me the heebie-jeebies when they gang up on the side of the road, or how myspace has gone to the dogs… I should just bloody well do it, and not worry about whether anyone else is interested or not. (Actually, no, I shouldn’t do it. Because I did it last Tuesday.) And if Dan invites me over to guestblog, I shouldn’t get all precious or polite or performance-arty in the hope that a few of his generous, gorgeous, and intellectually-superior readers might add Sunset Over Slawit to their Google Reader… I should instead just waste the post wittering on pointlessly about Rol’s Philosophy of Blogging, bore the arse off every one of you, and go for Dan’s Lowest Comment Count EVER!
Mission complete, then. My work here is done.
Related posts:
Is it that Dan has readers? Or does he simply have a really big family?
Anyway, I’ll start off the comments in this post with the hopes that it shatters all previous comment records on All That Comes With It.
As I always end up coming out of the Co-op in a worse mood than I went in, through a) their never having what I want; and b) there only being one sullen person on the checkout and a queue stretching half the way to Marsden, it’s to be hoped I never do bump into you in there.
Besides, you’ve been reading my blog long enough to know what an antisocial git I am.
Thanks for the brief moment in the limelight, I’ll treasure it always.
Rol’s last blog post..Any Place I Hang Myself, That’s My Home
Well, I’m not going to comment just to keep the numbers up!
…
Damn.
“how daffodils give me the heebie-jeebies when they gang up on the side of the road” this line made me snort tea, that’s never a good look really.
Always happy to find another antisocial Brit blogger – I’ll check your place out too!
Penelope’s last blog post..What’s in a name?
I didn’t think it was trivial at all.
It does always seem an odd thing to blog about blogging but then again it is a subject that everyone who reads has some experience and thoughts on.
Recently I have been suffering mild (sometimes wild) blogger unease. I am not too sure why exactly but some of it is down to the points you raise in this post:
1. Because I have been writing request posts and have in a sense lost my own voice and also because I am writing on request I have been thinking rather too much about what my readers think, rather than just writing. I do, as you say, write much better when I do so for myself and I have not been doing that.
2. Comments. I have come to care just a little too much about my comment quota. I could of course switch my comments off for a while but then again people might feel offended. I love to get comments but I don’t want what I write to be influenced by commentability or my perceptions of what others think. I am also prone to making smartarse comments in other peoples boxes! Just can’t help myself sometimes!!
Anyway, what you wrote today gave me a little clarity about what I had been thinking and I am going to try really really hard just to write for myself from now on. Well, as soon as I have written my final request post which I will do today or tomorrow.
Reluctant Blogger’s last blog post..Cool Book Meme
“a writer’s best work always comes when you write for yourself”
AMEN!
Xbox4NappyRash’s last blog post..Ellie
Honestly, if you’re going to go to all that effort to write a guest post, you’d think you check it through for typos before sending it off…
Rol’s last blog post..Moonlighting
you are one hell of a tricky person. Not only did you trick me into commenting here, you also made me check out your blog..and probably will trick me into adding it to my feed list.
Comments are nice, but I sure as hell blog because I like to blog :)
Arjan’s last blog post..Sunset taken from the Saffierflat 13-04-2008
Writing for yourself is paramount. Very cool post Rol. Nice to meet you.
I gotta say, I liked it.
Ed (zoesdad)’s last blog post..It’ll Be Earth Day Tomorrow, Too
We must shop in the Co-op at different times, I rarely encounter a queue and the ladies are always helpful and only get uppity if there has been some bloke in before me moaning about the lack of stock and the wait to be served. I’m off to check out your blog now too.
Thank you all, I promise to do my best to make any new readers lose interest as fast as I can. (Another post about Spider-Man should do that.)
Grandma – you obviously never find yourself with a desperate need for Clingfilm at half past 8 on a Saturday night. I’ll try not to delay you again in future.
Rol’s last blog post..Moonlighting
Exactly… when you write for yourself, your style clearly shines through. And I love your style.
So now I am off to read your blog too.
From one of the “generous, gorgeous, and intellectually-superior readers” here who still suffers from CE, but is trying to get well.
I love your style as well, I am going to go read some more!