November 30, 2009

Word Count, Rude People and Leaving Comments

My word count is doing great. I only need to write about 800 words today and I’ll be at my 50,000 mark. The story is going well although it hasn’t turned out exactly like I had in mind. That often happens when you are writing at a break neck pace and don’t pause to think too much.

It was supposed to be a romantic comedy but there are no funny parts. That is unusual for me and I realize it’s partly because I am trying to write in a different region than I am used to so in the rewrite my California family is going to move to Texas. Towards the end my characters developed southern accents anyway and that is what I feel more comfortable with. Write what you know. That’s what all the great teachers tell you and there is a lot of truth in that.

The holidays are a stressful time and I’ve noticed during this time of year people become more cranky online. In the stores everyone is all happy and saying Merry Christmas but online they put their smile in a box and their ugly comes out. They take their frustrations out on other people who they think will never know who they are so it doesn’t really matter.

Unfortunately moods are contagious. When you say nasty things to someone and hurt their feelings they turn around and pass that rude behavior on to the next person until it’s like a disease that is eating away at the good qi in the world. Karma has a way of coming back around and biting you on the ass.

What are you spreading?





It may not look like many people read my blogs due to the shortage of comments left but how many times have you read an article or blog and not left any feedback? Often I’m sure. If you’ll scroll down to the bottom of my Blogger account you will see an icon for Stat Counter. That little gadget tells me how many views I’ve had to my site. Believe it or not there are over a hundred people that look at my blog each week.

On MySpace I am often on the top blog list. Some of you joined me by finding me there. I have about the same number of readers there. So in actuality I have over two hundred people that read my junk a week. That’s pretty impressive.

If you do decide to leave a comment that is great, I love to hear from my readers. I only have a couple of rules and they are pretty simple.

First, try to keep it within the spirit of the blog. I don’t expect you to talk about exactly what was in the story but if it’s an article on a child’s toy and you decide to discuss sex it would be embarrassing for a child to google that subject and read about a penis. (Yes my blogs and name come up when googled) My Wednesday blogs, or Humpday Happenings are just for that type of venue and anything goes there. I have many different types of people reading with very different taste in what they choose to read about. For that reason I chose one day a week to go buck wild and talk about sex while Monday and Friday are set aside for calmer clothed subjects.

Second rule, I will remove any comments that are of a racial nature, or what I deem rude and crude. I have many friends and family of various nationalities. I have often told people to be careful who you make fun of because they might be related to me. I don’t find Asian or Mexican jokes funny at all. I know it has been accepted by many major networks and some think it’s amusing but it just makes me angry and believe me it’s not easy to piss me off. It will be removed in a heartbeat.

In closing I’d like to say that while many think it’s easy to keep a blog and don’t think of it as a real job it’s not quite as easy as it looks and yes it is work. Oddly enough you can also get paid to do it although not enough to live on unless you live in a cardboard box. Luckily, I have other investments, side vocations and a husband with a good job so I won’t starve.