Once day, I forced myself to sit and keep typing till I had some kinda story out rather than keep on postponing the whole thing as I was doing so far. Ultimately, I did manage to finish and submitted it on first week of March itself, but was it the story I had originally planned? Hard to say. Was I satisfied with it? Not really. Maybe, if I had written it back in Nov, it would have shaped up much better. But now, after the initial steam had vanished, I was not so sure about the end 'product' that I created. I could only hope the publishers approved of it :-)
Moral of the story - Write down the story when the idea is still fresh, if you keep postponing the end result may not usually be the one you had initially envisioned or hoped.
Yes, it does feel good if someone comments, but I think we should not be so ever expectant and obsessed about it, that we let it rule our minds. I almost felt sorry when I read a poem, pleading readers ( read - other bloggers ) not to give short comments. Why does a blogger of that caliber need to make such post?
A blog as I know it, is an online diary of sorts where people can scribble anything they want ( thats their right ). However, to see other bloggers feeling insecure and making such blasting negative posts about other bloggers is saddening. If you want to be famous, go write a book and publish it. Its silly to want to be famous by ridiculing other bloggers and wanting them not to exist. It only speaks of narrow mindedness, insecurity, and, need I add mindless jealousy? Blogspot/Wordpress or even blogging communities thrives on these bloggers; else, they'd go bankrupt with a handful of 'I'm the best writer on this planet, hence, others donot deserve to exist' type narssicist writers. Quality matters no doubt, but what is quality? Who will decide that? What works for you, may not work for me. I may find these snobbish writers who uses all these unpronounciable words, thinking themselves as Shakespheare extremely boring. Rather, I might prefer someone who writes simple yet interesting.
Prudish writers scorn at Chetan Bhagat, ( though I'm not really his fan ) all the time, thrashing him, but whole India loves him. See, how many movies got made on his books that people enjoyed. So, think twice before you point fingers at others for mediocrity etc. Some people may not be a fan of your writings at all though you may be surrounded by some sycophants all the time. I also saw some bloggers making cartoons of other bloggers day in and day out. Why be so obsessed about what other bloggers are doing, I wonder. One may say, that this post of mine is also doing the same, i.e criticising others. Then let me clarify that, 'No', it is not. I saw too much negativity being spewed by so called popular bloggers towards others, hence I was prompted to write. Otherwise, I really couldn't care less.
People ( esp brown-Indians-wanna-be-british ) think that if someone is using words unheard of or not used regularly, they are great writers. Does simply using grand words make you a great writer, though the readers may not have understood a single word of it or is that one a writer who makes an instant connect with readers? I prefer the latter one anyday.
In some other contests like the cooking contest, I saw one food blogger who posted the maximum entries, post another one with another name via another blog. There was also one who already posted 2 entries, posted another one via new blog which funnily was created just to enter the contest. Also, some of the pictures where the image was to be put was artificially photoshopped. in same contest I also saw instances of recipes lifted from other sources. I mean, it was still 'olive' oil in the recipe entry when supposedly that person was writing for another oil brand. Was it really a human typo? Unlikely!
