"I'd rather be right than popular." Somewhat the words of George W. Bush."I'd rather be alone for the right reason that with someone for the wrong reasons." -Leah Thompson's character from Some Kind of Wonderful.
I'm a people pleaser, so I want to be popular.
There, I said it. No offense to then President Bush...dude, you were president and popular enough to win the popularity contest we call POTUS while not being the crispest chip in the bag.
Certainly no offense to Ms. Thompson who was and is undeniably hot and an actress who has likely won her fair share of popularity contests.
Your question is going to be, "what's your point?" (Yeah, read your mind as easily as you read my blog)
Well, I want to be a popular blogger. I want to be read by everyone, shared by everyone, and then read by everyone else...and their friends. Heck, I even want the creepy stalkers of those friends to stalk my blog.
As a blogger, I've talked to plenty of people who write for themselves. They need an outlet for feelings or thoughts. They want an escape. Words like "cathartic" are used frequently. I frequently want an escape, but less often it is to writing. Sure, I have some random thoughts that escape my mind onto the pages of my blog here.
Popularity often comes with a cost, like making a kid dive into a quarry that is only two feet deep, oh wait that's a movie. Popularity is hard to maintain. Popularity begs questions like:
Does desiring popularity change my writing?
SHOULD it change my writing?
Should I abandon my personal persona and take on someone new?
Should I start cursing like a drunken sailor on shore leave?
I'm currently separated from the love of my life, yet I can't let that change my voice. Kicked in the crotch by love, I should be singing Soprano (the singing kind, not the TV Mafia kind) , but my writing isn't affected. Ok, that's not true. I haven't been writing
My past efforts at becoming "successful" at writing have involved entering contests. I even did the challenge where you write a post every day for a month. Talk about phoning it in with some "I did it" filler posts. After yet more random contests, I stumbled upon Yeah Write and entered their contest a few times. I finished dead last twice (out of fifty entries) and began to reconsider my writing style. I couldn't be that bad, right?
Why wasn't I better received?
Was my blog style more "been there done that" or "bazinga?"
I finally came to the "obvious" conclusion that it was a gender thing, or that's what I rationalized in my head. I couldn't compete against mom bloggers who had more material and were looking for others to sympathize with...or so I supposed.
I've learned to live with disappointment. As much as that Droopy the Dog-like statement is fun to say, it isn't true. I learned that I need to work on my writing. I need more polish (that's polish with a small 'p' which is to say I don't need sausage) after I write. I also learned that I like my star shining to help others shine brighter. I get immense satisfaction when someone accepts their win with humility and posts their (Youngman Brown created) Man Card with pride on their site. You know... that fine line between Chad 'Ochocinco' Johnson's Riverdance celebration of a touchdown and the simplicity of the "act like you've done it before and hand the ball to the ref" of Walter 'Sweetness' Payton (RIP).
What about you, has a desire for popularity changed your writing?
UPDATE! I AM Popular, now!
