As I sat in Descartes coffee shop on Michigan Avenue yesterday, sipping a spicy coffee drink that comes in a soup mug, I saw flower boxes, huge urns of flowers, and a collection of shrubs and flowers in the middle of the street. I overheard someone at World Con say, “In Chicago, I recognize where I am not by the buildings, but by the collections of flowers adorning the streets.”
Not a bad view to have of the city.
Before I started this blog site, I read a number of blogs and discussion about blogs and discovered that female bloggers are often trashed. Even ones who blog about knitting. So I decided to moderate all comments.
I’m glad I did.
I’m getting blog comments that are done just to link to another blog. Some of them sound like a real person. But I can’t imagine anyone recommending my blog to their cousin, who then comments, “I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my problem. You’re incredible! Thanks!”
The post was titled ‘conflict’ but it was about conflict for characters, versus conflict with a writing partner. Can’t see how that could be someone’s secret problem.
Makes me glad I’m not advertising the blog much since it makes it easier to tell that these aren’t real comments. I sometimes think that 90% of what is on the internet is being written by automatic programs looking to boost people’s rankings. But that could be just another reason for me not to do marketing. I’m rather creative at avoiding things that I don’t want to do.
Another comment had, “We’re seeking for both blogs and forums giving independent, sensible comments at all of concerns and / or blogs and forums which have an important generous and / or left-wing leaning. Appreciate it.. “
Wonder what word triggered that since I’m not writing about politics.
All of which makes me wonder if my adventure into blogging will last very long. It does help me clarify what I’m thinking and feeling about things, which is good in life, and especially good in a writer. Which may be reason enough to continue.
And, if you’re actually reading the blog, feel free to comment.
Critique Circle (an on-line critiquing system) had a ‘Hook’ weekend, where people post up to a thousand words anonymously and people critique them anonymously by reading until they lost interest, then telling the author why.
I submitted the beginning of Sticky Note Empire. Glad that I critiqued a couple before looking at my own since it’s darn easy to click and be done after only a paragraph or two. It depends on how much I’m acting like a real editor. I learned a lot about openings by reading and clicking when I lost interest as well as how to make my entry better by people’s comments. Over twenty people read at least part of mine, with half a dozen making it to the end. It was also useful to look at the critiques that everyone else wrote on ones that I critiqued.
Critique Circle does this once a month and I’m looking forward to the next one. May buff to a high gloss what I submit since people were very picky. I think instead of looking at it like a swamped editor, though, we should be examining them like a busy editor who recently let a best-seller slip through.
Here’s the opening (revised with feedback gained from this exercise) to Sticky Note Empire–a mainstream novel about corporate America.
When I said that I wished I was in the middle of half a dozen knitting projects like my daughter always is, she handed me one, saying it was boring. Ten more inches of just knitting, nothing fancy or complicated. I like simple knitting.
I don’t know what I’m making. I thought it was a sweater, but she said not exactly. She was willing to tell me what I’m helping on, but I realized I preferred not to know. There are times when it’s nice to just knit and not worry about what it’s going to be at the end. Especially when the yarn is soft.