Writelife

You know, much as I enjoy Seth’s blog, sometimes I hate it – especially when he ends a post by asking a question that makes me squirm.

His post Great writing, unfiltered is essentially about how technology, the Internet, Web 2.0 – whatever you want to call it – has changed marketing and, specifically, writing. Actually, while it’s about writing it’s really more about the job of writing.

And the squirm factor comes in when he gets around to this: not so long ago, as frustrating as the job of writing was when you had people above you and/or clients approving/disapproving your copy, or editing it and otherwise changing what you had put together, there was always the benefit of being able to say, “Oh, the bastards changed my words. The original was a lot better.”

While there is still a great deal of that in some of the work I do – writing material I know is a waste of time, editing crap so it’s less apparently crappy – with my blogs, and whatever else I can put online, the only person I can blame is me.

As Seth puts it:

The thing most people miss most is that they no longer have an excuse. Without a publisher/editor/boss to blame, your writing is your writing. Your followup is your followup. That means some people become trains without tracks. They just sit there.

The barriers are gone, the costs are zero. The question is: what are you going to do with your writing?

And what are you going to do? More importantly, from my perspective, what am I going to do?

Speaking only for myself here, my blogs are doing what I want them to do – at least to a degree. Since I do have an income, at least for now, I’ve no great need or desire to develop a huge audience so I can start pushing a product, even me as a product/service, though there is the ego factor. I think just about anyone would like a huge audience so they can take a moment to preen a bit. But in the Myers-Briggs world I’m an INFP so my goals aren’t necessarily monetary – though they can be.

My blogs reflect my passions – good writing, good movies (both of which intersect when I realize that what I really love is great storytelling). Ergo, Writelife and Piddleville.

My biggest complaint about my blogs is with the editor. He does a terrible job of proofing. There are typos and spelling mistakes and gibberish sentences peppering the posts. These mistakes are a reflection of me! I’d fire the guy but he’s me.

As usual, I seem to have wandered and lost my point. I believe it’s this: blogs are the best place to present your writing. That’s the upside. The down? You’re responsible for it, no one else.

Repeating Seth’s question, and addressing it to myself as much as anyone else: What are you going to do with your writing?

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