Writing is one of those things that has many facets. The blog-city world is but a microcosm of the world at large but it is a useful example to take for comparison. You have people who want to write who don’t get round to doing it that often, others who find they write all the time. There are those who are very good at writing who write seldom and there are those who write a lot but it’s hardly scintillating stuff. Blogging seems to be one of those activities which has thrown together a group of people all carrying out the same function for vastly different reasons. Just because you write does not mean you are any good. Likewise just because you have difficulty writing does not mean that what you do write isn’t of high quality. There are of course people who write a lot and it is usually of high quality, in my experience I find someone like Edstrongin that frame and that kind of prolific high-intensity writing inspires my admiration. OK it helps that his politics are somewhat similar to mine but I think his meticulous research speaks for itself. I always feel a littel victory when I see edstrong top of the blogs on the blog-city homepage above all the neo-lib/cons, it means the 2000 a day I hit his site go to good use!

Anyway why do I write, well, it started out properly when I was unemployed after University, actually in school I’d been quite good at creative writing and during my degree the ability to write an entire essay based around one plaguerised paragraph got me out of many a scrape! I did the old College newspaper bit and we were a fairly small band so there was plenty of work for us. After college I had some unemployed time on my hands to reset things as it were. I lived largely based on my own timetable and found after the initial couple of weeks that I was quite happy to regulate when I got out of bed provided it wasn’t before 10.30am. I’d do normal stuff during the day, you know breakfast, lunch, Neighbours at 1.30! At around 7 my then partner would come home and I’d have cooked dinner (I’m quite a good cook if I do say so myself, I just haven’t figured out how to make a basic meal in under 3 hours!) Partner would go to bed around 10.30 and then my creative day would start and I’d write until about 2-3am. It felt great, I would go to bed with a real sense of acheivement and quite often I’d be lying in bed and I’d have to get up again to write down what was going thru’ my head. I also got shortlisted for a couple of high profile interviews that I’d found in the Media Guardian, I was quite surprised about this because I felt ‘what can I offer as opposed to all the other people who are reading this nationally?’ The first interview turned me down because I didn’t have the professional writing experience but the guy told me that it was clear I could write and this was a source of great comfort to me because this was a person in the field and therefore his opinion meant a lot to me. The second interview I had was at Chemical Weekly and after having to write an article based n some rough info they’d given us I got as far as second interview stage when the MD actually came over from New York, so again I had to have something to offset the lack of professional experience. Those 2 interviews were the catalyst to me actually having some confidence in my writing and I really don’t know where I’d be now were it not for retaining this intrinsic belief that I at least had something that I could do even if it was just a very small amount of latent talent. I felt alive at that time and all the shite going on around me was just far less important. Unfortunately one thing that it didn’t do was pay the bills and I was forced after 3 months to get a job and back to the old capitalist rat race again and thus I had to regulate my day and staying up until 3 was no longer an option. I had real problems with routine and lethargy after that for a long time, so I’ve got quite a few bits and pieces on my computer some pages here some paragraphs there but in fact the blogging is the first thing that has got me back into the routine side of sitting down for a couple of hours late at night and writing. I certainly prefer to write at night, I have trouble during the day keeping my train of thought on track whereas at night especially 11-2 it seems to flow much better. Well it’s easier to write for me, whether it’s easier to read you’ll have to decide. I don’t believe I’m any literary talent, I don’t have the creativity nor the originality to ever be so. But I enjoy writing because of the need to communicate all the time, and I like to make people laugh, so that’s it really that’s why I do it. Sorry it’s mostly for self-gratification and not a more altruistic purpose but that’s where my politics comes in.

BTW Today is the first day I topped 200 hits for the day (258 in the end -chuffed Baron), this is due in no small part to whoever was up at 8am BST -I had 124 hits between 8 & 9 so either someone was up at Stupid o’clock or hadn’t gone to bed yet. Thank you anyway your insomnia is appreciated. I have also topped 3000 hits but no-one left a comment to say it was them altho’ I know Kate was 3002. Trust me Natalie you are not the only one who can’t keep their eyes off the stats every now and again!

I’m not sure whether to be proud or not that as soon as I stear clear of the politics my hits double! Perhaps people just see Kylie in the title! Hmm might be a strategy there!

Make sure you check out Political Compass
If you’re interested I am:
Economic Left/Right: -8.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.23
Which means I’m a Leftie loon, as if that’s a shocker! You can see Kate’s result here

Original Comments:


Katie made this comment,
hey babe got James waiting in my bedroom so only a quick one, my alternatve email address is the same but @warpmail.net rather than lycos.co.uk. Catch you soon. Kate xxx
comment added :: {ts ‘2004-05-29 02:37:36’} GMT+01

Jimmy Sunshine made this comment,
keep writing fella, but don’t give up the political rants just for hits. that’s what tony did, and look at the state of the nation now…
Visit me @ http://jimmysunshine.blog-city.com/

[Redbaron responds – Me…give up substance politics…..on my blog….with my reputation! Have no fear James my old son, this leftie is not for turning! I have a couple of normal political service resumption blogs lined up -I was just thinking of putting the word Kylie in the title, you know the old spoonful of sugar helps the medicin go down?! No you’re quite right it’s a slippery slope and before I know it I’ll have employed the blog-city version of Alistair Campbell, I take your point.]

comment added :: {ts ‘2004-05-29 12:14:46’} GMT+01

ryan made this comment,
hmmm, on that Political Compass I got:
Economic Left/Right: -1.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.97
That makes me a mild version of the pope, urgg, letme take that test again
Visit me @ http://themeaningoflifeishere.blog-city.com/

comment added :: {ts ‘2004-05-30 02:08:34’} GMT+01

Jimmy Sunshine made this comment,
Economic Left/Right: -8.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.64
comment added :: {ts ‘2004-05-31 00:05:29’} GMT+01

A visitor made this comment,
Economic Left/Right: -4.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.26
that makes me gandhi and hte dalai lama rolled into one. the perfect peace sandwich, i’m sure you will agree. (if you don’t mind all the sand of course).

Leah

comment added :: {ts ‘2004-05-31 00:47:07’} GMT+01