It’s been a few days, so It’s past due time I checked in here. I’ve been hard at work on the new WordPress.org self hosted site. It’s getting close to finished at this point, but there are still some behind the scenes things that need to be polished and tweaked. Soon though… 🙂
Thinking over the site, and past experience here, I’ve decided that the new blog is going to focus entirely on writing. Absolutely no more social issues, political talk, personal drama (nobody cares), product reviews or even cooking posts. Just everything writing:
Vanilla Creative Writing; nothing over PG-13
Reviews of “How To” products on writing (books, videos, websites, etc..)
Critiques of movies and TV shows from a writer’s perspective; what works and what doesn’t
Erotica
Erotica and anything “Adult” related will be in a separate section of the blog, and will be behind an age verification pop-up. I’m going to do a better job than I did with this blog in terms of keeping anything NSFW behind that age check. That means NO racy pictures or backgrounds in the primary section of the blog.
Creative writing of all flavors will have separate pages, and the blog posts announcing new stories will only have links to those pages with a note regarding whether it’s NSFW or not.
Realizations
Part of the process with the new blog has been moving some of my more relevant past posts and existing stories from the two old blogs to the new. I want to rewrite damned near everything also, and already have in a couple of cases. I noticed something though as I went back through my lists of pages and posts.
I jumped around WAY too much on the focus of each blog. With the actual creative writing, it was self doubt and too much real life drama killing my mojo. The stuff I tried to do as filler too often took over though. Not only that, I jumped from idea to idea as I tried to keep things fresh and attract new readers. Even when I tried to have a structured theme for daily posts I flopped. I just need to focus on the writing and stay consistent. THAT is my pledge with the new blog.
AND that I’ll also be upping my game across the board. No more holding back on my writing.
In Other News:
This isn’t the new blog, so I can sneak in one or two QUICK personal updates here.
First, the house that we got defrauded on is back on the market, at $50,000 higher than we bought it for. All the mortgage company or listing agents did was the most basic of house flipper cosmetic repairs to hide the defects (patching the cracked mortar, fresh paint, clean the carpets, etc…). It pisses me off that somebody else is going to be put in a likely world of financial trouble as well living in a toxic house. I have precious little idea what I can do to correct the situation though. The laws in Georgia are completely corrupt and promote screwing the buyer. I could get sued for tortious interference with a contract with most options or charged with trespassing if I put up signs, try to talk to people during open houses, etc…
Most people nowadays would sadly be content to sit back and let things unfold, especially if it meant the house would sell for enough money to put them in the clear. This level of injustice literally makes my skin crawl though. Likewise, it’s not right to be made whole at the expense of an innocent party.
And lastly, I *MAY* have a new job; a real one for the first time in a decade. I had the realtor job for a while during that time, but between my health and lack of money, I was never able to really make a run of it. I’m in the final phase of the hiring process. All that remains to be seen is if they will accept the fact that I’m a virtual blank. No social media presence, no credit history now thanks to following the Dave Ramsey plan, and really no recent job history as well.
I’m just glad that the spinal decompression and physical therapy got me to the point I can work again. The prospect of being a contributing member of society has been a huge morale boost.
As promised in my last post, it’s time for a post about my experiences with Medium.com.
I’ve been curious about Medium for a long time. That curiosity has only grown as more bloggers and writers seem to migrate there. My investigation was hardly In-depth, but I managed to do enough digging to uncover the major pluses and minuses.
The Big Drawback:
I’m not one to bury the lead, so I’m going to lead with what SHOULD be the biggest drawback for creative types, and explain what it could mean.
That big drawback is that Medium claims ownership of your content from the get go, right in the Terms of Service:
Rights and Ownership
“You retain your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through the Services.
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, by submitting, posting, or displaying content on or through the Services, you grant Medium a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content in all media formats and distribution methods now known or later developed on the Services.
Medium needs this license because you own your content and Medium therefore can’t display it across its various surfaces (i.e., mobile, web) without your permission.
This type of license also is needed to distribute your content across our Services. For example, you post a story on Medium. It is reproduced as versions on both our website and app, and distributed to multiple places within Medium, such as the homepage or reading lists. A modification might be that we show a snippet of your work (and not the full post) in a preview, with attribution to you. A derivative work might be a list of top authors or quotes on Medium that uses portions of your content, again with full attribution. This license applies to our Services only, and does not grant us any permissions outside of our Services.”
On the surface, the explanation for the shared (“nonexclusive”) ownership seems reasonable enough. Especially if one considers how legally complicated the world has gotten today. People will sue over anything, and distort even legitimate business practices IF it means there’s a chance at making a fast buck.
I’m overly-suspicious after being defrauded by everyone from the moving company to our real estate agent, contractors and lawyer in the last couple of years.
Exaggeration, but it makes the point. 😀
Here’s where *I* start to get suspicious. Two paragraphs down from that quote is this:
“We may stop providing the Services or any of its features within our sole discretion. We also retain the right to create limits on use and storage and may remove or limit content distribution on the Services.”
Google at least USED TO include similar language and ownership rights in their TOS for all their online services (Gmail, Google Docs, Cloud Storage, etc…). Essentially the first part gave them permission to data mine the *bleep* out of you via going through your online work. The second part holds them harmless if they lose your stuff due to a server crash or whatever: “We said we owned it and could dispose of it as we saw fit”.
Last I looked, Google had either buried their similar TOS language even deeper or eliminated it. I”d bet on the former not the latter. The point is, I’d bet Medium has the same rights set up for similar reasons.
Data mining… It’s unavoidable. Everything you do online or near an online connected device is tracked. THAT is not an exaggeration. So, it doesn’t matter where you post whatever you do.
Data Loss & lack of responsibility for it… That’s easy also. Just cut and paste your posts to M$ Word, Libre Office, or some similar program and keep a backup copy. Given how much they hold nowadays, you can keep YEARS of posts on a single thumb drive. You SHOULD do this regardless of the platform you use.
Beyond that, there’s the POTENTIAL of what I see a greedy company with crooked lawyers being able to do with those permissions.
Yes, still trying to have a little fun there. I really can see how that “nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content in all media formats and distribution methods now known or later developed on the Services.” COULD be twisted by a halfway decent lawyer to give Medium permission to do whatever they want with your content though, right down to running it through a content spinner and / or just reselling it for their own profit.
Crazy? MAYBE. Does Lexus (as an example) need to give a TV or Radio network ownership of their cars to advertise them though? Even with the modest understanding I have of the law, the “sub-licensable” term is a wildcard for potential misconduct: “No, it wasn’t in our direct ‘services’ to sell your script for Bambi 3 to that adult film maker”, BUT it was within the range of marketing services of that company we subcontracted… and therefore within the Terms Of Service you agreed to.”.
Am I being a bit paranoid there? Yes. They’re probably not going to care much about the content posted by more people. None the less, I think the potential for abuse is clearly there.
The Positives:
First, there’s a HUGE plus to switching over to Medium.com for many writers: The amount of views and “claps” (ie Likes) you get are typically MUCH higher than on WordPress. One author I know who uses both Medium and WordPress and runs the same book ads on both sites. She gets less than a dozen views and maybe 2 likes on WP, while that same ad on Medium gets hundreds of “claps”. We’re not talking Stephen King here either. Just an average self-published author working off of Amazon, Smash Words and similar sites.
That’s a BIG difference in numbers, and people caring enough to actually give a “clap”
One former WordPress blogger also mentioned in one of her last WP posts that Medium also gives you stats on how long people are spending on your post. This can be a really helpful indicator regarding whether or not your posts are truly getting attention, or just “drive by looks”. The latter is likely to indicate you need to need to do something different than you did in that post.
Nominal Setup Required: A plus for the technology challenged, but perhaps a minus for those who really want to customize their blog or site is that Medium runs off a pretty standardized format. There’s not much website to set up beyond adding a few pictures and social media links and filling in the “about me” page, which is apparently required to help cut down on scam sites. The “about me” page can (by my limited understanding) be fairly general information however, and screen names are OK so long as they’re tied to social media accounts an “an active project domain” whatever the hell THAT is.
A Quality Editor / Interface: This next part is second hand information as I don’t have a full account on Medium, but multiple reviewers have said that Medium’s writing tools for composing a blog post are well designed, have reasonable depth and are very intuitive. I can’t remember anyone ever saying the same about WordPress. 😛 🙂
Swimming with Big Fish: Medium has CEOs, major media outlets and other “thought leaders” (as one review described them) among it’s community of writers.
Making MONEY from Your Blog: Yep, paying members have the opportunity to make money off of their blog posts. How much is determined by your view count (and probably the time per view also). I have little knowledge of the system or it’s pay rate, just that it’s there as a possibility.
Also A Joke. 😀
Social Media Tie-Ins: Maybe a negative IF you dislike social media as much as I do, but Facebook and Twitter are both tied to Medium, making it easy to promote your posts on those outlets as well as scan to see if Twitter friends are on Medium as well. By my understanding, Medium is also in the process of connecting with Mastodon in a similar manner.
The Negatives:
Cost: Medium does have a $5 a month member’s fee. This might be seen as a negative to somebody who likes their free WordPress account. I’m going to outright argue it’s a good thing though. Why? Because it’s a minimal fee and keeps out of the picture the people who blog only to collect likes or troll or scam people… err sell stuff in their blog. For less than the cost of one Starbucks cup of coffee, you’ve increased the quality of the group tenfold.
You Don’t Control the Platform: In plain English, that means that Medium.com has content moderators. If you put up something that violates the TOS, they can gank that content. The general content prohibitions are fairly standard for hosting content:
Nothing that’s a Trademark or Copyright violation. Also give credit to sources.
No Graphic Pornography, although nudes are OK. No pedophilia also, but that SHOULD be common sense.
No “Hate Speech”, and they do seem to have a pretty broad definition of the term.
Nothing “promoting” (ie even mentioning) self harm in any form. I’m NOT sure if this includes depictions of drinking or drug use, but it covers everything else from suicide to cutting and other forms of injury.
There are also rules against any kind of harassment or cyber bullying, as well as pestering people for follows and claps.
Most of this is NO big deal for me. It’s common decency, AND the same restrictions are already in place here at WordPress.com. The same is true at most any other site you could use as well. My only concern is the “hate speech” ban.
Anything perceived as a negative portrayal of a protected group can potentially fall into that definition if it’s interpreted with enough bias. There’s a HUGE difference between some racist piece of trash neckbeard saying “I hate N words” and somebody else writing a post saying that Black Lives Matters’ rhetoric MAY be too heated at times and could actually hurt their cause. Yet both could be interpreted as hate speech by somebody with a severe enough bias.
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough inside information to make a valid determination as to how balanced Medium.com’s interpretation of that rule might be.
Bottom line though; it’s really not TOO much different than WordPress.com. The enforcement of things like copyright rules may be a little more vigorous however due to Medium being a more visible target for lawsuits nowadays.
Changing Trends: This is something I saw mentioned at least once; the idea is that if Medium is no longer trendy or goes under, you’re out of luck. Reality is, that’s ANY internet site or platform that you use. Social Media startups have come and gone like crazy the last 10 years. Facebook has lost popularity, Twitter is imploding, and yes WordPress is (in my opinion) slowly dying also. It’s a danger, but you’re no more at risk using Medium than anyone else.
There’s ALOT of Competition: What I mentioned about big fish up above can also work against you. There’s alot of quality writers on Medium, so no matter how well you write, it’s going to take networking on the site to get noticed. Like most of the negatives here however, the same can be said of ANY blogging, writing or social media platform.
The difference that I see at first glance is that Medium gives me more of an impression of writers who want to engage with each other. Where WordPress has a twitter style vibe of trading likes for likes (and who cares what you actually said), Medium FEELS more like writers wanting to boost each other up. Granted, that’s only a first impression, so I may be wrong. It’s the vibe I’m going with though.
Some of WordPress’s Metrics are Better: WordPress does track more data regarding your post than Medium does. Information such as what time of the day do you typically have the most views as one example. If you’re obsessed with numbers, WP might be a better bet. In my 5 years of experience in my other blog however, quality, consistency and networking count for alot more than statistics.
This next negative, I’m quoting directly from an article at elevenwriting.com:
You (Probably) Won’t Earn a Fortune: Although you may welcome the opportunity to earn a little extra income, it’s important to be realistic about your potential earnings even if your content is of an extremely high standard. According to data released by the company in September 2020, the highest sum earned by a writer in the previous month was $49,581.31, with 6.2% of its active writers earning more than $100 per month. Flip this around, and it also means that almost 94% of the platform’s writers make less than $100 per month.
What that author didn’t consider is that 100% of WordPress.com authors are absolutely ZERO directly from their blog content… barring Ko-fe or some similar tipping service. Medium has similar tipping and donation options by the way.
I’d LOVE to know who made almost $50k on their writing that month by the way, LOL.
Lack of Advanced, Code Based Options: Typically a concern for advanced writers with at least some coding background. There’s no A/B testing options, tracking pixels or custom code allowed with Medium. Options there are pretty limited on WordPress.com as well however, and you typically will need a more independent WordPress.org account to get all those technical options.
“Curation” is a Mixed Bag: Curation is a feature on Medium where the editors pick content they like and (theoretically) find exceptional, and feature it around Medium, and even in their newsletter. It’s great promotion IF you can get it. Reality is it’s fellow human beings with their own personal biases making largely subjective decisions about “best” content. Keep in mind my previous remarks about stiff competition as well.
Tracking and SEO: I’ve read that being under the umbrella of Medium’s vast array of content and writers mean that it’s hard to get noticed by search engines. In theory, the same should be true of WordPress.com, yet my sites both have turned up in searches without too much trouble. The reviews I’ve read on this are a couple years old, and Medium has supposedly been working to improve this problem for members. Realistically, I don’t know enough to comment here intelligently. My advice, consider it a possible issue, but keep a healthy skepticism.
Final Thoughts:
Personally, I’m a little uneasy about a few of the concerns I listed. Content ownership being the first one. I’ve seen a few articles that quote Medium as saying (much like Google eventually did) that “your content is yours and you own it forever”. The thing is, even if they really did say that in the company blog at some point, the Terms of Service carry far more legal weight, and the “we co-own everything with you” clause is still there on the web page.
POSSIBLE censorship is something else I worry about… a little anyway. Not so much about sex or copyrights, etc… I get the potential legal complications there. It’s the “hate speech” clauses in their TOS that bother me. The terms are broad enough that anything that offends anyone, no matter how sensitive they might be, can potentially be pulled. All I can say there is that I’m glad I’m not doing a political or social issues blog.
So is it worth it? I lean towards the advice I saw in another review of Medium: Use it as a secondary or mirror platform to increase your exposure. At the very least, it’ll give you an opportunity to judge for yourself how valid the pros and cons listed above are. If it turns out not to be for you, Medium advertises a “cancel any time” policy on their $5 a month membership fee.
Ok, so I paid my fees of $22 USD to maintain the blog’s old name, but really wasn’t willing to drop almost $100 to keep the premium status on the blog. Eliminating the ads would be nice, but the price is insane!
Anyway, for a week I was fine. WP unlocked the blog again and I could function. I come back late last night and find out it’s ALL been derailed. SilkCords.blog is now silkserotica.wordpress.com and ALL my site formatting is completely lost. The place is set up like some Yoga site now.
Yes, I’m pissed.
It took me going into the ‘Manage Domains’ tab to find out WP was happy to take my money, BUT won’t let the PAID FOR domain name be the actual primary domain unless I pay for a premium plan. Of course they didn’t mention this while holding this blog hostage for a week before I paid the $22 for the domain name. Then, on top of everything else, WP trashes the blog’s format completely?!?
At this point, WP can kiss my arse. They won’t get another dime out of me.
I’ve been working hard on background notes and story outlines to try to avoid getting derailed again, and was getting set to post a few character renders, and now I have to spend half the night trying to fix the blog’s formatting.
Between the world’s crappiest editor / post formatter and customer service like this, is it any wonder so many bloggers are up in arms? This is what happens when you allow a company to get too big a share of the market. Just like Amazon and MicroSoft, WordPress doesn’t give a damned about individual customers.
I decided to nix my post on how various sources out there are manipulating the messages we receive via TV, the internet, etc… I got a couple of likes, one intelligent comment and a whole lot of looks but nothing else. Between that last fact and losing one follower after I published… Well, message received.
I get it a little. I re-read it and was frustrated that I rambled a bit and drifted between a couple of supporting points or arguments. To do it right would require an entire series articles on the general patterns of manipulation that are used to play communication games. Here, I’d have to leave political and social references out too. People just don’t want to hear that the environmental movement is a great thing, BUT that they’re hurting their own cause with distorted facts. They’re hardly the only cause like that too. News lies are always only the other side too… *le sigh*
Soooo… Getting back to the regrouping part… Not only have I decided to set that stuff aside, I have been working on Witchfire’s material also. Mainly re-reading and seeing where I’ve gone wrong, mapping the new story, discussing plot ideas and character developments with Deanna Troi and Comixfana, etc…
I’m realizing how dialog tag heavy the stories are thus far as one needed fix. Probably some of my other erotica could use that fix also.
Deanna Troi has been insistent that I’ve been too vague in my revelations about the greater evil lurking behind the villains, so I’m working on how to change that without giving away the whole farm in chapter one. 🙂
I think I’ve been a bit inconsistent with my portrayal of Krystal / Witchfire also. Sometimes she acts the part of a vixen, sometimes she’s come across as if she was 15 and unsure of herself and what she wants. I think I would have gotten called on that more if so much of her behavior couldn’t be explained away by her world being turned upside down.
There will probably be a few minor “RetCon”s also as I change a few small facts here and there to fit how she’s currently envisioned and the new direction the stories will take.
The biggest lesson I’ve learn though is to follow the rules for writing about sitting down, focusing and working without distractions. No pressure to meet artificial deadlines either. Relax, focus, get it done and get it done right. When it’s quality, then I’ll release it. Stress kills my creativity faster than anything.
Lastly, just as Witchfire is going to start being truer to herself, I’m going to be doing the same. Her stories were meant to be kinky, and it’s time I stopped worrying about if I might offend somebody.
THAT said, I will still keep ALL my stories and any related digital art off my main page. I *do* respect that a few of you come here for the other posts, and that others just may not want to worry about a NSFW email notification. That much is courtesy to readers and as much of an attempt as I can make within the bounds of WP’s system to keep within laws regarding risque material.
I’m trying to play catch up with real life and get myself back on something resembling a normal sleep schedule after that all night ordeal with the thief camped out across the street and no police response. I still plan on a couple of posts later tonight though. I guess it’s true what they say about writing; it’s something that’s just stuck in your blood. The writing bug is hitting me hard again at any rate. I have ideas for that Witchfire revamp that I’ve mentioned a few times and dozens of other stories floating around in my head.
Interestingly enough, my “Burnt Out” post has gotten the most likes of anything I’ve written in ages, and is still getting more views than anything before or after it. Maybe there’s an audience for a sane middle ground voice after all. I’m still a bit doubtful an aspiring erotica author is that flag bearer though.
Beyond what I plan to put in my other posts tonight, there’s not much going on though. We’re redoubling our efforts to get the house ready to list so we can get the hell out of this insane state.
Yep, despite my off and on posting, and wandering all over the place topics wise…
Miracles happen, LOL.
I’m grateful for everyone that has decided to follow me also. Thank you all. 🙂
Related to all of this, I have been reflecting on the blog and my writing since getting back from Hawai’i. Aside from the lessons I’ve mentioned in past posts, I’ve realized that I need to get my life better organized. I also need to re-focus on my actual writing instead of dancing around it like I have been the last few months.
Being in Hawai’i and having life on hold for a week, and then coming home, I realized just how spread thin I’ve felt (hell, actually been). Worse, it’s led to a sort of analysis paralysis. Trying to juggle priorities and adapt to a steady stream of changes has resulted in me just outright shutting down at times. That, of course, only makes things worse, because it allows things to backlog even further. If I’m going to regain control of my life and work on my writing, the pattern needs to change.
Dancing around my writing… That, I believe, is a combination of time issues and some lingering doubts about writing erotica. Instead of actually doing writing, I’m writing about everything else.
Granted, I also don’t want to blog work that I can potentially publish and sell. I can write about writing rules, philosophy and strategy as well as come up with stories that are “Fan Fiction” or such and therefore can’t be published for profit without a licensing agreement. Nothing wrong with other material also, so long as it’s not the bulk of my writing here. It’s all about balance. A writing blog has to be about writing though.
I teased this a couple of posts ago, and I suppose its time to pay it off. I’m not getting any sleep tonight either with a pack of teenage hooligans roaming the neighborhood on foot for since 1:30am
So long story short, I’ve spent my down time trying to figure out why I was feeling so frustrated, (and thus burnt out) with my writing before my long break. I came to a couple of conclusions: I wasn’t writing for me, I was overly concerned about offending people, and I’m still trying to find my exact niche on writing.
The not writing for me thing is ironic, since during my time on twitter, I was constantly encouraging people and telling them that if THEY don’t enjoy what they’re writing, it will show through in their writing and it won’t be their best work. I’ve studied public speaking and communication, and let myself get too wrapped up in the admonitions to tailor your communication to your audience. That’s fine if you have a specific audience you’re reaching out to. When you’re trying to write something that will appeal to wider demographics though, you have to set those admonitions aside to a degree and be true to yourself. Otherwise your writing or words won’t be genuine. People pick up on that too, at least on a subconscious level.
Twitter was a horrible experience for me in terms of creating that worry about offending people. Despite all the talk about how great the writing community is, I saw alot of clique behavior. Erotica authors aren’t real writers. If you do this in your erotica (such as mentioning bra sizes), you’re a crappy writer and I won’t read you, etc…
The main gaggle of female erotica authors would even ghost you if you didn’t support their beliefs that women shouldn’t be held to any conduct, dress, etc… standards and similar extreme SJW ideas. heaven help you if you supported a male erotica author also. Kind of sad really.
I could (and maybe will do) a whole separate post on my thoughts there. It does impact my writing after all. LONG story short however, suffice it to say I do believe in women’s sexual empowerment, but I also believe in common sense limits on everything. Wear a short, tight dress and flaunt what you’ve got for example. Just don’t get mad if you’re dressing sexy and guys (or other women) flirt with you or check you out. You have EVERY right to be completely safe dressed like that. No should always mean no as well. How you dress does nothing to change that. Getting bitchy when you get harmless attention when you’re dressing to get attention is immature at best though.
As much as I love sex and sensuality, I also believe some things belong behind closed doors. That’s another thing that seems to set me apart at least from some of the younger erotica authors. I’m libertarian enough to believe anything kinky you want to do behind closed doors is fine. Common decency and general self respect dictate some things should stay private, not flaunted in public though. Bottom line, I’ve learned to stop caring what the twitter crowd thinks. Shame since Twitter could be a good marketing tool.
Then there’s the whole finding my niche thing. My Witchfire stories have been an attempt to see if I could combine superheroes and erotica in a real way. The trouble with that specific genre is that the internet is loaded with sites catering to pubescent boys and outright misogynists, that glorify raping superheroines and “putting them in their place”.  They completely dehumanize woman, and mock strong, capable women. That’s the last thing I want to contribute to.
At the same time, you have women fighting the worst elements of humanity in these stories, so there’s a question realism with never having it happen. My original thinking was to keep it rare, not glorify it, and also have the heroine(s) escape / turn the tables, or at least get back at their attackers later. Avoiding it entirely would be easy if I was only writing a sexy story. I have been trying to spin a real, ongoing story between the sex scenes though. Intrigue, personality conflicts, human problems, etc…
Part of the problem with Witchfire was that I was rushing the content also. I think it made the story chapters far more sloppy than they should have been, and took a few aspects of the stories in directions I didn’t intend to go also. If I pick up work there again, I’m likely to start over from scratch and treat the existing content thus far as rough drafts.
I admit, I’ve also felt dirty at times writing erotica. My sexy, passionate side is balanced by a fairly strong religious and spiritual side as well. To thine own self be true however. I can’t pretend the sexy side doesn’t exist. I have a real talent for smut also, lol. I know ultimately I’d like to evolve into more of a mainstream fiction writer who includes some very racy scenes. Yes, the unicorn known as porn with a plot for you cynical people, LOL. Getting there means accepting all of me though, and seeing what that allows me to grow into.
And there you have it. My continuing path to self-realization thus far as a would be author.
Wow… Two and a half days off and I had over 500 notification emails. That was insane. It took almost 4 hours to go through them, and that was deleting a quarter of them without reading the associated post.
I made a post weeks back about needing to limit the number of posts per person per day that I respond to. I haven’t followed through on it thus far because I don’t want to miss good content, and I want to support the bloggers I’m following. I *do* actually read, not just flip through posts hitting like. I know some people do that too. I see it when I get 10 likes from the same person in two minutes, LOL. Getting back on track, I think I’m going to have to start following through on that though.
Some of you make a dozen or more posts a day. As I mentioned that last time, I won’t discourage it. It’s therapy for some of you. I understand that. It’s just alot to keep up with for the average human being.
I’ve also realized the last couple of days that my writer’s block and other issues really have their core at my fear of success. I’ve always hated that label, it’s really a fear of failing after you start to succeed, making the crashing failure that much more traumatic in the person’s imagination.
It’s been REALLY frustrating too. I’ve thought I’ve at least started to work past this garbage a few times in the past. It keeps rearing its ugly head every time I start to get something good going. Self doubt is the worst.
It’s amazing how many ways it’ll find to mess with me also. Erotica is immoral and I should be writing something different. Nobody takes superheroes seriously. You can’t write anything else. You don’t have the money for professional editing and cover design. You can’t do show don’t tell worth a damned. You’ve failed at everything else you’ve done and now you’re just broken down, stuck at home and fooling yourself…
Yeah… I’ve got some work to do, heh. The crazy(?) thing is the only real, lasting fix is success. Years ago, I read practically everything out there on self improvement. Need an answer to a personal problem, I likely know the theoretical answer. For example, I know that in NLP or hypnosis, the common answer to my specific issue would be to anchor a point in the person’s past where they did feel successful and powerful. Then they focus on that state and moment, making it easier to move forward. Everything I’ve tried in life, I’ve either been mediocre at best at, or had the rug pulled out from me and been sabotaged. I have no happy thought so the pixie dust will let me fly. :
Back among the living yet again. 🙂  MOST of my absence was just that my schedule got crazy all of the sudden.
I did find myself having to work through a few old issues from popping back into Champions Online. I’ve talked a little bit about my past gaming experiences. Long story short when you play online games in-character with others, it’s alot like collaborating on writing a book with several other people, or having a whole improv troop on stage all trying to do their own thing at the same time. At best, it can get dramatic.
The trouble is, MMO games tend to attract people with low self esteem and other psychological issues. LONG LONG story, they can get hurtful and manipulative when they don’t get their way (putting it kindly). Last time I was playing, I got caught in a shitstorm of that drama also. The thing is, decent people tend to wonder what they could have done different & how they added to a problem.
So, I did reach out and try to talk to a couple of former acquaintances there. It went about as well as expected, LOL. It was good though, because it helped weep away any doubt in my mind that these people are indeed toxic. I got some closure.
So, I’m back. I still have a bit of a crazy schedule for the immediate future, so I’m not sure how much I’ll have to post each day, but I’ll do my best. As for all the notifications I’ve gotten the last few days. Well 354 in the last two days is just too much to deal with. I had to just delete them. I’ll keep up with new ones as best I can.
Well, 4pm local time has rolled around, and the blog’s daily stats have reset. Odd time for it, and the spiritual blog resets at a different time. I *think* it’s the hour your blog first goes live that determines it’s reset.
Anyway…Â I did NOT break that viewing record yesterday, BUT we crashed both the daily views and likes today:
148 views today. Previous best was 118
94 likes today. Previous best was 68
I tied my best day for unique visitors at 69
Oh, and I passed the 1000 likes mark today also.   *happy dance*
Silk's Erotica 