Bad Blogging Habits

Hello Lovelies,

First and foremost, let me say thank you regarding your commentary on the 'Book Reviews?' post. It actually proved a great deal more insightful than I was expecting and helped me solidify how I felt a little bit more. In short, this is not and will not be a 'review' site, however I will probably throw snippets in here and there regarding stuff I read that really grabs me in one direction or another. It's kind of why I did the initial two and, I think, I the reason I'll turn to in the future.

Now, to get serious, this bit is not going to be me providing you a list of what to do and what not to do. Unless of course you think REALLY hard about what I'm saying and discern your own list. In that case, it's not my fault. It's yours.

Weirdo.

Instead, I wanted to address a few things that I've personally noticed I've done wrong as time has gone on that I've tried to react to. I've found that putting my own faults on display not only helps other writers who might run into the same pitfalls, but it's also wonderfully humbling to put up a mirror to my own failures.

To start: I had a very bad concept as to what I wanted this site to be when I started. When I started, and let's be honest here, I began with the concept of generating foot traffic. Nothing more. I wouldn't go so far as saying 'I wanted to create ClickBait', but I had this idealized image in my head of somehow creating a site where I just had ad revenue rolling in. While embarrassing to admit, it didn't take me long to recognize the fault in that belief. Instead, I found new meaning in the ability to share my writing (for better or worse) with others.

The next problem I've run into isn't necessarily regarding writing itself as much as it is personal life. In short, as many have said, life sucks. There are many, many things that consistently make demands on your time. Some are normal, like work. Some are not, like health. Some are bad, like exhaustion or writer's block, and some are good, like a surprise party or vacation. There's lot of demands on your time and accepting that is the best way to get around it.

This brings me nicely to the next point, proper scheduling and forethought. I can't count how many times I've tried to 'make a writing schedule' only to find myself canceling it or just staring at a blank page for an hour because nothing comes to mind. Instead, what I've only recently discovered, is the usage of Scheduling your writing. This can be something as simple as using the 'schedule' button in blogger, but is can also be as simple as saving your work to post later. I can only imagine how much more I might have made if I had let myself write when I had the inspiration to. If I had let myself create when I had the time versus when I stuck myself to a 'specific schedule'.

Learn from my mistake, kids: write when you want and build up a buffer. It'll help you proceed.

Last, but certainly not least, is my terrible incapability of interacting with the blogging community. While it's a nice belief that writing will make others come to you just through the usage of tags and such, the truth is that you have to network. You have to give and take, eb and flow; interact with other writers present within your community and on blogger.

I. Am. Terrible. About. This.

Building into the original problem of not having enough time to ever do anything I want to do, this is one that can't be scheduled as much and more needs to become a regular thing. Reach out to your fellow bloggers. See what they're saying. Respond to their comments. Talk with them. Originally, I would always build this into my blog posts (checking what everyone was doing), but I'm realizing it's a lot cleaner and easier to just check things here and there. This is doubly intensified when I have scheduled content because, whenever that item hits, I'm not thinking about checking other blogs...I'm likely at work or the gym or making dinner.

So, if we were making the list, here are the points: Recognize why you're blogging (because you're likely not going to get rich doing it). Recognize your own limitations in life and capability. Schedule posts based on what and when you want to write versus holding yourself to a standard. And interact with people.

Sound good? Good.

With that said, I hope you all are doing well and will join us again on Monday.

- RB

Looking at it from Both Sides

"Ha ha ha!" laughed the villain. "My recipe calls for only the finest baby unicorn penguins! Even though eating one will literally cause thirty atomic bombs to go off around the world, I must sate my hunger!"

Sound familiar? How about this?

"It's truly incredible." said the side character in awe. "Now that you've thrown off the shackles of eating any kind of meat, you are clearly the best of us all. Our one true God has granted you the ability to smite all of the redneck gun owners who would do nothing but overthrow society with the desire to eat all that they see because clearly they have no morals or wills of their own outside of an insatiable desire for blood!"

How about this?

Honestly, I hope not. Because if it does you very well might be reading some serious garbage.

Now, before I receive another angry e-mail claiming I am supporting some weird nuclear-penguin eating agenda, let me just say this: this was the first random example of a terrible villain and hero that came to mind. Overly psychotic, blood-thirsty monster and exemplary, pure, perfect, holy hero who could never harm another soul. With that said, do you see the problem with these examples?

In short: these characters aren't even black and white. They're at best white or black in their design. That said: let's talk characters!

What makes a good hero AND villain really interesting is their relatability. While you might be inclined to make a villain truly monstrous or a hero a shining beacon of light, I would discourage you from such writing tropes. They're rarely done right and doing so makes them confusingly evil or unattainably good. Instead, look at it from both sides. Why is the hero good? Why is the villain evil? Where did they really come from that makes them who they are?

While I'm pretty sure I've used this line before, it's still one of my favorites and is definitely worth repeating.

 "No one thinks that they're the bad guy."

With that said, consider that from the perspective of the villain. Most real people aren't going to actively make choices that are just outright evil. Example given, eating the one, lone unicorn penguin AND destroying the world via nukes linked to said unicorn penguin seems a liiiiiiiiiiittle out of realistic trains of thought for any given individual. Instead, consider the choices that got them there. Consider where they are coming from but also where are they going. There's a reason antagonists are called antagonists versus fucking-evil-bad-guys. It's because they are working opposite to protagonists. And that doesn't mean evil...just opposed.

But hey, let's apply that same logic to the heroes. Surely you've heard the 'misunderstood villain' shtick before, but what about the fact that the hero doesn't think they're the bad guy either! They're not the bad guy. Right? Riiiiight? There's no way that this guy whose a shit driver and cuts people off in traffic is bad. Or the guy who doesn't tip is bad. How about that hero who kind of hates black people. He's the good guy right? Well...he's the protagonist. And just as the villain isn't necessarily evil, the hero isn't necessarily good.

In fact, they're all just human.

Unless they're aliens.

Then fuck those guys, am I right?

PS: Sorry to all of my alien readers. I love you and couldn't help myself.

So going forward, I would encourage you to consider your heroes and villains both not as tropes, i.e. good and bad, but as people. People working towards opposite ends in opposing ways. People with goals that they want to fulfill for some reason or another. The thief who needs money. The fighter whose been misled. The princess with an addiction. The man with a mission. None of these are necessarily good or bad...it's just how you use them.