Tue 9 Feb 2010
on honest writing
Posted by liz under Good quotes, Inspiration, Writing
[13] Comments
best hair ever, originally uploaded by …the who cares girl….
“Honest writing always makes people nervous, and they’ll think of all kinds of ways to make your life hell. One day a long time from now you’ll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That’s when you’ll finally produce the work you’re capable of”.
From: “The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers“, an excellent book about writing/publishing that I’m currently reading.
The above quote is dedicated to Raymi (and all bloggers who dare to bare) (anything at all!).
Because if you blog for your mom, or your friends, or your love interest, or your ex, or your ex’s mother (hi Janey!), or worst of all, for the “general public” (ugh!), you’ll quickly realize that YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE.
You can even try to please everyone for a little while, but that’s when your writing starts sucking. And it gets boring.
I pose this question: if you aren’t writing to please yourself, what in the hell are you writing for?
Or who?
I put it this way:
If you put yourself out there and you bare your soul or whatever it is that you put into your writing, then you have to be strong enough to deal with the criticism or what it is that people might say. If you have a forum where it can be seen by the world where you go out of the way to court attention and promote yourself, then you need to accept the fact that there will be people out there who may not like what you write, or you as a person and you need to just buck up and deal with it. It is the internet for fucks’ sake, and that is the risk that you took for making yourself as available as you are. If you have dozens of followers and readers and you are part of blogger groups, blogger sites that list your page and so on, then you need to be prepared that sometimes there are people out there who are just not going to like what it is you have to say. Complaining about it later if you have done nothing but selfless and shameless self promotion because there are supposed mean people out there with an axe to grind comes with the territory, and makes me cock an eyebrow because the attention that a writer may so crave, may not be a response that they can control. Again, if you have made it a public access then you have to deal with it, you made that choice. I think it would be very stupid for any writer or blogger to bitch about what they have been honest about and put out there for the world to see and a reaction was something that was out of their control. I mean, who really gives a shit? I am not for censorship at all, in the slightest. But I stand my ground when other people have bitched to me an said “Why aren’t you writing about me…” or this, or that or blah blah blah blah. I hate it when people complain because they personally do not like the fact that I may have written something about them or haven’t written anything about them. Don’t dictate what I write, and if you don’t like what it is I have to say, then don’t come by my page. Obviously there are people out there just looking for something to get bent out of shape over, and you are right…you cannot please everyone.
Point is, I shouldn’t have to censor myself or not write what is on my mind if I am unable to later deal with the consequences…if it gets out of hand I would just say “I am allowed to write as I feel and that moment.” Plain and simple.
If your whole life revolves around responses to your writing, your blog, your newspaper articles, your public declarations, and you feed off of it, well…then you have gotten exactly what you wished for and deserve so it is pretty stupid to complain about it later. If you have these deep and dark and private feelings you need to get out, then don’t be stupid when you know that there could be a possibility of people you know reading it that could start trouble, write it someplace else so no one can see it. I think that is almost a very simple solution, but then again that is just me.
I write, because I have been blogging since 2002 and I do not intend to give up. I could really give a shit or a flying fuck if I have zero responses or a million to what it is I write.
I am not
I do it for myself, and for no one else. I know I have written things that upset people and I have gotten complaints but I refuse to back down in the sense that I have made the choice to be as blunt in my writing as I am in real life. I obviously have a very weak filter (at times) of what flies out of my mouth, why should my blog be any different? People know that. Love me or hate me, I could really give a shit what you think, I stand by what I said. And if I know you and I say something on my page you do not like, well take it that it is in writing and know I would have NO problem saying it directly to your face.
Quite honestly I think the blog world out there and these stupid little high school cliques of grown adults, need to know that the bell rang a LONG time ago and it is time to go home and deal with LIFE. If you cannot, well…I’m sorry…I really don’t want to listen to you bitch.
No one ever said I was eloquent.
Aaaaay-men!
As RuPaul says in the second episode of Drag Race 2:
“Sharpen your claws, baby, it’s a jungle out there.”
I always like to read your blog….I admire your bravery and honesty (not to mention that I really care about you and it’s a great way to keep up with your goings on).
aw, thanks Janey.
writing is never about pleasing other people. Ive always believed its the most perfectly selfish thing one can do for themselves.
I’d say that ‘reproducing’ is the most selfish thingy to do.
Stay on groovin’ safari,
Tor
funny, I was going to write a post similar to this a couple of days ago…I was basically going to say that I felt I couldn’t consider myself a writer until I could write anything and everything without worrying about reaction.
It’s a tough thing to do and I suppose human nature to care. I’m about 3/4 of the way there I think…
What a kick ass quote to go along with what we we talking about yesterday! Hell yes!
And then to top it off, what Kissyfur was saying in the 2nd comment. Perfect! I just got up, rolled out of bed not feeling so well and I get 2 quotes that help strengthen me and harden my resolve. What a gift. Thanks to you both.
Ok. I’m going to out myself. My day isn’t complete until I’ve read your blog.
OH MY GOD! That just made my day!
Dammit I love it when it gets real around here.