"Flocking' behavior lands on social networking sites" says an article today on USA TODAY. It's talking about the social benefits of online behavior, and isn't really about blogs.
But still....
I think of my blogging and my bulletin board activities as being surprisingly social.
Writing this blog has been an unexpected pleasure. I love to write, but I've had no outlet until this came along.
The blog has been more sociable, in a strange sort of way, than I expected. "Familiarity at a distance," is the way I phrased it early on, but it's been a bit more than that. People's personalities come through surprisingly accurately on their blogs and on their comments. I really do feel like I know them.
Meanwhile....
I was reading another blog which showed pictures of 20 different S.F. writer's offices, and felt an unexpected twang. Now....I told myself when I stopped writing novels that I wouldn't second guess myself -- and I knew the day would come when I'd be tempted to second guess myself.
But I thought long and hard about it when I made the decision; and I decided it was either the store and my family or -- writing.
Those writer's dens looked kind of cool. Some were zen-like in their purity, others were big messes.
But my office would've been a golden cage, even if I been wildly successful. I would've stayed isolated my whole life.
Being in the store has been good for me. It has socialized me, opened me up. And it has also been an unexpected pleasure -- that is, here at the latter half of my career it has become less a stressful, overwhelming place and more of a relaxed, enjoyable place. I just had to survive this long.
And like I said above, I've found my social life through the business, and surprisingly, online. It's probably obvious to most young people who use the social networks, but there are opportunities online I never would've expected.
So writing fiction online -- and not getting paid for it, no longer seems like a waste to me. I'm seeing it as more and more a realistic option. Especially since the biggest hangup I had about my novels was trying to market them. I really hated the whole process.
It's just a matter of writing....
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1 comment:
"But my office would've been a golden cage, even if I been wildly successful. I would've stayed isolated my whole life."
Not necessarily. Not all writers act like J.D. Salinger; many are very sociable characters. I think if you have a sociable personality you'll be sociable no matter what your line of work is -- unless you decide to take up the profession of hermit.
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