Bottled Candor

I was going to write something tonight about some basic criteria for judging comic book stories — stories presented in any medium, really — but today was not a good day.

It’s still not. Words are tripping all over each other in my head. For a writer that’s the worst kind of torture. For this writer, anyway.

Sometimes I slip too easily into the role of entertainer. I find I’m doing that with this blog and, as a result, subverting its original purpose. When I started it a few months ago, my mission was simply to write *something* every day. More recently, I’ve avoided posting unless I had *something interesting* to say. And I’ve been holding back the darker stuff that runs through my mind, because I haven’t wanted to subject you to that — or scare you — or worry you — or indulge the depression.

Maybe, for my own sake, I need to concern myself less with entertainment here and more with candor. We’ll see.

9 Responses to “Bottled Candor”

  1. Rachel I. Says:

    Perhaps you need a personal blog and a professional blog? Less pressure for you to cater to an audience…

  2. Brian Spence Says:

    Just write it! The good thing with a blog is you’ll know from our comments whether it’s too much or whatever.

    Are there any blogs out there that you want to emulate?

  3. David Medinnus Says:

    Actually, I am grateful for your “every day” post, since I made a silent plea to keep up with you – and its made my blog more productive and a more thoughtful place to be.

    Whether or not you are trying to be interesting or not, I usually very much enjoy reading what you write.

    So having said that… write on, man!

  4. Skott De Medeiros Says:

    At the risk of coming off like the “Ra-Ra” Cheerleader, the posts that professionally off-topic are still informative because and serve to give us plebeian’s a window into where your writing comes from. If nothing else, at least we can delude ourselves into thinking that we think similarly to, but not quite exactly like, the masters of the written word we so admire.

  5. Jason Sacks Says:

    Steve, definitely post whatever is on your mind. Whether it’s a complaint about the weather in Las Vegas, a coversation about depression, the latest Bush administration outrage, or your latest comic news, it’s all relevant to you. Part of the point of a blog is to be entertaining or informative, but part of it is also to express whatever you happen to think about. You mentioned that the point of the blog was to write every day and you gave yourself no restrictions beyond that. If that’s your plan, then do it. Write what you want to write about. The blog is for you first and your readers second. Offer no apologies for off-topic posts; yours is a free-form blog and not one centered on comics or any other topics.

    What I’m saying, I guess, is just make yourself happy. Chances are, you’ll make your readers happy at the same time.

  6. Bart Lidofsky Says:

    A couple of quotes:

    Waiting for the break of day
    Searching for something to say
    Dancing lights againnst the sky
    Giving up I close my eyes
    Sitting cross-legged on the floor
    25 or 6 to 4

    and…

    So true
    Funny how it seems
    Always in time, but never in line for dreams
    Head over heels,when toe to toe
    This is the sound of my soul
    This is the sound
    I bought a ticket to the world
    But now I’ve come back again
    Why do I find it hard to write the next line
    When I want the truth to be said

    (let’s hope the html tags worked right…

  7. Bob Kennedy Says:

    Ultimately, this blog is here for you, not us. Having said that…

    I only know you as a writer, and I love your writing. So when you post something that’s little more than a link and a “Hmmm…”, I feel a bit shortchanged (Ironic, since I’m not paying for any of this).

  8. Tom Peyer Says:

    Speaking as a blogger who reveals virtually nothing about himself, I encourage you to reveal as much as you want.

    One of the reasons you’re a favorite of mine, Steve, is that you’ve never seemed fake, or made any discernible effort to place yourself above your readers. And your candor has a lot to do with it, whether it’s coming directly from you or through your characters. When I read you, I feel like I’m in the presence of a human being, which is the best thing a writer can give; we read not to be alone, after all.

    But it’s your blog and your time and you you should handle it any way that pleases you.

  9. Roger Green Says:

    After I started my blog on 2 May, I was inspired by something you wrote early in your blog about writing every day. In fact, about the third week, what you wrote was ALL I wrote in my blog to fit my daily “quota”.
    All to say, and it’s been said before: write what you WANT. I’ve seen bloggers differentiate among topics (Comics, Personal) in the header. Or as someone suggested, two or more blogs, one professional, one personal. But, for a good writer (as I believe you are), the personal IS the professional.