Very Short Post With A Very Deep Blog Experiment . . .

Every so often I do a very short post with deep implications…

Back in June of 2011 I wrote Where Do The Words Come From . . . ?

Two days ago Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote Where Do Sentences Come From?

The experiment is seeing how many folks read those two posts and leave me a comment about them, whether your comment is short, long, happy, sad, critical, or humorous :-)
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For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com
* Google Author Page

Empty Pages And Full Minds

There aren’t many things stranger for a blogger than facing the computer with no idea of what to write.

Bloggers are, by nature, folks who like to spill the beans, regularly and in easy-to-digest portions.

Personally, I rarely have a day when I can’t immediately get into the blog post at hand—I do keep my InternetRadar turned on for probable topics…

So, today, I looked over the possible options on my ToBlog List and nothing grabbed me.

Being, by nature, a writer, I noticed that peculiar condition that feels like a balloon, full-to-bursting with air, having more air added…

These words are my controlled attempt to let some of the gaseous substance escape before I blow a mental gasket.

Creative writers are, by nature, strange people.

For instance, as I gave free reign to my urge to write about not knowing what to write in this blog, I used the phrase, “by nature”, three times (four, now) and don’t know why consciously but trust that my feeling of its rightness for this post will reveal itself…

Another strange aspect of the creative writer’s life is the nature of words themselves.

So, let me recap and attempt to explicate a rationale for this post:

* I perused my list of possible blog topics and found it boring.

* I decided to write about not knowing what to write about.

* I used the phrase, “by nature”, four times to emphasis the inevitability of a desire to wrangle words being, at times, nearly impossible to explain.

* I reached the recap-phase and realized I was creating a word-mirror—a post I could contemplate as an effort to remain connected with my readers while showing them the under-belly of the commitment to creating five blog posts a week during the ramp-up to writing a companion volume for my novel, Notes from An Alien.

Perhaps this off-the-cuff post, written with my faith in my Muse to the fore, will reveal to any potential bloggers that commitment to the regularity of blog-life can create a semi-meaningful product that self-referentially justifies its own existence…
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Blogging Rule #1,207

 I’ve already admitted I’m a maverick. I’ve already posted about how I’ve disengaged from “social networking”. {Edit: a little over 8 years later—I’m finally happily engaging on Twitter…}

Now, I want to admit that I’m human and often feel like not writing my self-imposed five blog posts a week.

Last night, I got into a new space trading/colony-building game and stayed up till the wee hours. I work hard on this blog and on Book Island and I need something to do periodically that doesn’t “matter”—something that relaxes and lets my unconscious slow boil my next creative burst…

Thing is, when I stay up till four in the morning and don’t set an alarm clock, I tend to get up at around Noon.

Did that today. When my brain made full-engagement with reality, it thought, “Damn, it’s too late to write a post today.”

My mind (which is different from my brain) said: “Who the hell imposes the rule that your post must be done before Noon? And, why would you want to deprive yourself of an activity you love?!”

So, I knew I’d write a post anyway. >>> What to write? >>> Check the email >>> Ah, new post from C. M. >>> Oh, my God!  Synchronicity!!

For those not familiar with that last term, checkout this link to the Psychology Wiki…

After I’d clicked-through my email link to C. M. Marcum‘s blog, I found her post entitled, Reality Bites.

OK, so here I was barely properly connected to reality, hazy still from an argument between my brain and my mind, and that post title floats into my consciousness—something was up, the universe was speaking to me…

If you read the whole post, you’ll see how “spookily” I was being given a reason to write the post you’re reading now.

And, for those who never click-through on links in blog posts, and who also may want their own excuse to go ahead and write a blog post anyway, in spite of certain realities, or time conflicts, or emotional distress, or Brain/Mind Wars, I give you C. M.’s latest advice for writers:

1.  move away from that mountain of work.

2.  short and easy, kick the formality to the curb, but try to be aware of the rules that you are breaking.

3.  tight formation.  (less is more)

4.  honesty is the best way to avoid clichés.

5.  don’t be coy, be provocative.

6.  you’re looking for that tiny flicker that crosses the reader’s face, not necessarily a big chuckle or handkerchief full of tears. 

7.  educational and humorous pieces always get an A+ from me.

8.  try to follow grammatical rules, but don’t turn it into a task.  (As my son once told me:  Gee Mom, lighten up.  We’re only chatting here.)

OK, it’s now 1:30pm, I’ve nearly written the post I thought I wasn’t going to write, I’ve linked to a friend’s blog, and sprinkled a couple other useful links into the blogosphere…

My work is done here—till tomorrow.
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For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Top 15 Posts ~ Reading, Writing, Publishing

Delaying a really cool post till tomorrow because things can change Fast  in the BloggingWorld.

The top “visits”, all-time, to this blog are “HomePage” (meaning they hit whatever post was current that day), the AboutPage for me, and the AboutPage for my book, Notes from An Alien. After those came these individual posts:

Writing Challenge ~ Use The 1200 Most Common Words To Write A Story…		240
Author Interview ~ Maria Savva		136
Author Interview ~ Karla Telega		115
Author Interview ~ Joel Blaine Kirkpatrick		102
A Virtual Memorial That Brings Real Tears…		82
In Memorium, for Jamie…		82
What Is A Genre & Should You Try To Write In One?		78
Who The Heck Knows The “Right” Price for An Ebook?		77
Invitation To The Madhouse ~ Report On Self-Publishing		77
Self-Publishing Can Be Just As Creative As Writing		75
Author Interview ~ Simone Benedict		74
Author Interview ~ Stacy Juba		69
This Is The Way It Must Be Done!		67
Where Do Writers Find Their Ideas? ~ Revisited…		63
Blogging ~ Can It Really Fulfill The Writer’s Dictum: “Write Every Day!”?		62

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Who Should Deal With All The Crap ?

Our last post looked into the claim that self-publishing produces crap. I urge you to scroll down and read it…

There were a good number of comments and one of them said that another of them should be boosted up to a post.

Here’s that comment :-)

“Crap is everywhere. Always has been; always will be. Sorting threw the crap is what takes me so long in the bookstore, the clothing store and the grocery store. To me, Mickey-D is crap, yet the business thrives. Nine-hundred-ninety-nine men out of a thousand should be thrown back into the lake, yet most of them eventually find a wife. Nearly 100 percent of all children are brats, yet their parents love them.

“On the weekends, my husband will rent several movies. It’s not unusual for use to watch each one for 15 minutes, before rejecting them all, yet some of them are blockbusters. That can add up to a whole hour of crap. Go figure.

“Recently, I told my TV company to go take a hike. Ninety bucks a month for a load of crap. I don’t think so. Here’s my reality: shove it.

“Why do some people settle for crappy food, crappy clothes, crappy husbands, crappy kids, crappy programming and crappy books? I don’t know, I really don’t know. Why do some people, who haven’t studied, bother to write down a load of crap, when some part of them has to know that it’s crap? I don’t know. It’s a lot of work for a load of BS.

“Why do we keep our mouths shut when be stumble across crap? It’s easier, I guess. We want someone else to take out the crap.”
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