Last week I got into a small pissing contest with a so called major blogger about content, quality and how we should be blogging. If you are among the 17 long time readers you have seen me wade into these silly melees with reckless abandon.
Some of those were worth the price of admission and some were nothing more than three or four men trying to prove whose dick was bigger than the others. Not really something to be proud or nor something that I teach my children to do but sometimes we fathers like to advise the kids to do as we say and not as we do.
Anyway, I am not impressed by how many followers you get, how many comments you receive or most of the standard metrics people use to gauge their self worth. Nor am I bothered by the efforts of lackeys, groupies and minions to chastise me for disagreeing with their hero. Sorry fellas, if you stick it in my mouth I simply won’t swallow and most likely I’ll chew.
I am funny like that.
If you haven’t noticed I am in a droll sort of mood. You can blame it upon my candy corn addiction (please don’t send me anymore I can’t stop eating them) or you can just say that Jack is a grumpy Taurus. It might all be true.
What is also true is that I don’t see blogging as being an obligation. I am not obligated to provide you with scintillating content that stimulates you mentally, emotionally and or sexually. I write for me first and then for you. It is part of why you’ll find posts where I complain about bloggers who insist on posting about their cats and kittens. Not interested. When I see that crap I point, click and surf elsewhere.
You Can Do It Too
You can do the same. If you don’t like reading my words than don’t read. If you don’t like reading someone else, don’t read it. If you refuse to click away than you deserve to be irritated and should be punished for your stupidity.
You can do it too is a line that I keep reading in some email newsletters I receive. It makes me shake my head because I don’t believe that the author means it. I don’t think that they want that at all and I am sure that they hope that it doesn’t happen.
Why? Well their newsletter is designed to teach others how to become a competitor of the author and I don’t think that they really want that, at least not on a large scale. Maybe I am wrong, but I just don’t think so.
Feed The Beast
If you are going to be a blogger than you need to feed the beast. You have to update your blog on a regular basis not because of the readers but because you have an obligation to yourself to try to become better. You have an obligation to work on your skills as a writer and the only way that you can do so is by writing.
I’ll share more about this in an upcoming post. In in the interim, tell me what you think in the comments.
I love your “feed the beast” paragraph. That is the exact reason I blog.
The hard part is that nothing ever fills the belly of that beast. It is insatiable.
I’m 2 pill a day anxiety disorder dude yet nnot even I handwring iover my blog the way some do.
Nanowrimo is coming up and every other post from peopel is how they cand’t handle the stress of blogging.
I write because I love it. I’m getting rejected for publishing left and write yet I still keep writing. Writing isn’t an obligation, it’spart of who I am
Writing isn’t an obligation, it’spart of who I am
That sums it up for me. Take away my words and I am less than who I am.
I deny that you have any obligation to get better at writing.
Are there obligations you don’t deny? For example I deny having to leave a 20% tip for bad service. Just can’t do it.
I agree with you, but with a condition.
Yes. You need to write for you. Totally agree.
But blogging is a public act. I think you do have an obligation to your audience. To write well. To consider their reading experience. To want to say something that affects them.
Otherwise, you aren’t writing. You’re masturbating. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)
Some people find public masturbation to be questionable- clearly they have never been to some of the Open Mike nights that I have.
Anyhoo, I can get behind trying to write something that impacts the reader. It is one of the metrics that I use to measure the quality of my writing.
I think I always keep a ruler in my back pocket for those arguments….:)
I like reading your post because it’s like watching a car wreck; you see it happening and you can’t do anything about it. It gets me good and pissed off so I can just sit there and scream at you while I’m reading. And now that we Google chat it has allowed me to carry the screaming over to a face to face encounter. But social is quirky like that…..
I will say, it takes a second to adjust to your new site because I was so used to the other one. I have to look around for a minute to make sure I am at the right place…..
Like you said, if you don’t like it just move on. This is definitely not one size fits all…..
Bill,
It is the same sort of silliness that exists in the “real world.” I often wonder about people who try to get television/radio shows canceled. You can always change the channel or turn it off.
Jack, you captured my sentiments exactly, which is why I enjoy your work. You tell it like it is! I would say more but i’m to write my post about my kiitty-hope you’ll read…
Hi Jared,
If this weren’t a family blog I’d say that you need to stop writing about…. 😉
“You can do it, too” is usually but not always a lie. You may find that some critical element to success “somehow” got left out, or the slicker the package, the worse the deal. Sometimes, they mean it, but watch out when you get BIGGER than they are. Occasionally, people really do want to provide a service and see their clients succeed. I do it for that reason – but I can’t train everyone to be a psychic, can I? So I wouldn’t ever say, come be me, because they can’t. They can be themselves and maybe I can help them on their way.
Blogging (to me) seems more like Work – in the sense that the players are just like the people in the office. Some are the salesmen, some are management, and the rest are worker bees of one kind or another. Watch out for Management, and the salesmen…well, you already made the dick reference.
As to quality, content, and frequency, who died and made him The Boss? There are no rules. You make up your own. Just like you blog for your own reasons. Anyone who tries to tell you what to do can go pound sand. And, probably sees you as a threat, sad to say. Keep on doing what you’re doing the way you want to do it…not that I need to tell you that, because you already know.
Blogging is where you find a potpourri of people. The people are part of what I find so interesting.
Overall I find most of the people I interact with and encounter to be quite nice and helpful. But it is like anywhere else and there are those who prefer to tear others down.
The best way to survive long term here is to be ourselves. It makes a significant difference.