“For BLOG’S Sake…”

The “Live Journal” phenomenon that has rocketed in the last five to eight years is truly an opportunity to read writers and favourite authors as they live their lives just like you and me. Living, however, sometimes comes down to basics, like paying the gas and electricity bill. Those not so well-read though have a significant underground following, can’t get by on their meagre royalties; the cost of living has sky rocketed while our overall basic wages remain the same.

I truly enjoy one particular author’s BLOG, because he is published, has an underground following; has just received a significant advance for his up and coming novel, but still, he needs to work as a waiter, a coffee server and anything else that might come his way. This author’s wife, who reads to be a special lady, somehow found him a freelance job reviewing porno on the Net. From reading his entries, he went a little back and forth on the idea, but eventually came to the conclusion that writing is writing and would press ahead. Although it has been a while since reading his BLOG, he felt to grow comfortable with the idea, and viewed the job or writing these lurid pieces as just another BLOG entry; a natural warm up to write his fiction.

Then there are those authors who have gained certain notoriety, have sold more books and are close to really making a living from the art of writing. As a struggling writer, this is a good place to be. But what I have found disturbing, in a few cases, is that these authors have a terrible snobbery, a false sense of their place, an intellectual superciliousness, really, as if they had reached the level of Joyce or Poe. In other words they hang crap on popular authors or authors that do not meet their “expectations”.

We used to call this attitude in the eighties as the “middle-management” rut: given title, perks and big wages yet these middle managers were never allowed to make a decision. This of course made them highly cynical and very critical of management and their careers in general. So they would hang crap on everybody else no matter their talent.

The same goes for these up-and-coming-authors, critical because it’s just so close before they happen to hit the big time. It is a self preservation strategy: hang crap, look better, and rise above the fray. Maybe.

Sometimes I think, no success makes you drive on, a little success even further, though more success makes you stop; living in an illusionary world of literary greatness.

Taking this even further, the truly successful authors, writing that touches a large following, a publishing agency that knows how to reveal their writer, and a writer who has a flair for publicity, “Bob’s your Uncle!” A well earned success and, for the most part, a pleasure to read. This particular author’s “live Journal” is a BLOG well worth following, watching a successful writer honestly do what he does best.

My point is that this author never ever hangs crap on other authors…never. It is an unspoken rule, obvious to some and not others, that one does not criticise one’s fellows, one’s colleagues, one’s fellow musicians. This is simply bad taste.

The Net is a wonderful instrument of research and communication. The medium has enabled connections for human beings’ around the planet.

To BLOG is to write, to communicate, to express one’s goals, fantasies and the day to day humdrum of everyday life.

‘For BLOG’S sake, relax as the next BLOGER may teach you something needed.

Until next time…