WIP

Don't Bug Me....

... because my hands are tied.

I thought I'd mention this, more as a reminder to myself to BAH-HAVE. This also has a lot to do with a mix of blogs and websites that have recently focused on what people don't want to see in an author website. And while the focus was on aspiring/published author websites, I think this applies to all mediums of communication (like Twitter, Facebook, Writer Forums), not just blogs.

As a reader, it really is disheartening and annoying to discover that this author that I felt this psychic connection with...

[Backpedals, because that sounded ooky and stalkerish]

...It's disheartening to click into a blog expecting to be entertained and instead discover that the author (who I really love) is ripping into people who have moral and political views like me. Literally poking fun of them. Deliberately picking out items from the news or even just pictures so they can twist around to make them look or sound like freaks.

In a symbolic sense, it's like discovering your best friends have been slandering you to the entire school on facebook.

These authors assume that the people they are attacking aren't members of their audience, so they feel like they are free to say what they want. They don't stop to think that a portion of the people they are ripping into are actually people who are buying their books.

It doesn't matter which side they dance their little happy dance on. Right or left, there are still good honest people who are forced into a position where they want to defend themselves and their way of life without speaking out and getting into a fight about it with somebody they used to respect.

The same is true when you are an aspiring writer writing stuff on your personal blog. Whether it's agents/publishers or prospective readers looking you up, you do not want to be too controversial. Unless somebody asks you a controversial question, and then maybe figure out how to phrase your words so they are tactful and considerate, and do not generalize.

Unless, of course, those political issues are your platform. Then the odds are the people looking you up won't be too surprised by your opinions, and are in fact following you BECAUSE of those opinions. Two examples would be Michael Moore and Ann Coulter.

On that note, you wouldn't believe how I've had to keep my fingers in check when it comes to issues. When it comes to publishing though... just like in the job world, your online-reputation can make or break your resume.

So the main things that I don't really want to put on my blog, and I wish other people would follow suit:

*Politics
*Religion

And views and stances thereof.

I do promise I won't be going in that territory if I can help it.