MediocreMan

Third Time Is a Charm… Maybe · 28 September 2024

Third time’s a charm. Or so they say.

I have tried writing this week’s blog post a few times. Well, this is the third. I think. Which is, of course, how I got the title. Third time is a charm. Maybe. Hopefully. Please be the charm.

At any rate.

There are certainly times when I have a stinker of a blog post. I know because some of my faithful readers and friends have told me so. Actually, they seem to tease me when they (the blog posts) are not so smelly and never say a word when they are. So maybe I have written a bunch of stinkers lately. Hmm.

Then there are times when I have lots of things to write, but not a one of them is for my blog. Book ideas. Poems. Song lyrics. Thankfully, one of my recent poems was also a blog post. Which I enjoyed writing. And I thought was okay too. Of course, I took the idea from William. William Shakespeare, that is. And I took the rhythm or meter as well. But the notions were all mine.

When I am in those times when the creative juices are flowing toward other projects, I try to just write and write and write. On those specific projects. Then, life or my blog gets in the way. Which is actually a good thing. Getting away from a project for a short time can bring freshness to the projects when I get back to them. Or the time away can make me forget where I was going with the story. Which means that I need to read some of it. Which means that I often wonder where I was going with it. Ah well.

The other times that I am kept away from my blogging is when I have things going on in my life that I need to write about in private. Yes. That means that I keep a journal. (I had actually written that I journal, but I am not keen on verbing nouns or nouning verbs. Which is a completely different story.) These journal entries sometimes make it to my blog, but usually, they are private thoughts that will never be seen by anybody but me. Unless, of course, I become posthumously famous and somebody actually decides that a dead man’s journal is a treasure trove. Like that will ever happen.

At any rate.

It is obvious that I like to write. My blog and my Amazon page are proof that I have clogged up cyberspace with my writing. Whether it is any good or not. Which is really the point. I just write and write and write. And publish and publish and publish. Whether anybody ever reads or not.

Well, that is about it. This is the third piece I have written this week for my blog. And maybe one of them is acceptable enough to post. So maybe, hopefully, the third time really has been a charm.

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Help with Obnoxious Self-Promotion · 21 September 2024

I am not much for obnoxious self-promotion. So I am getting some help.

Self-promotion is something that I am loathe to do. It goes against my nature. Oh sure, I can do the false bravado and bragging thing with my family and friends, but for the most part, I do not like to talk about myself or think too highly of myself. After all, once I start to do that, I get knocked right back down. My family and friends see to that.

(I do wonder if I might have been somewhat of a braggart back in the day. Maybe that is why people like to pick on me even if they have only met me moments ago. I have written a time or two about that phenomenon. So it is already another story.)

The thing about self-promotion though is that it is something you need to do if you want to sell books. You need to tell people about the books that you have written and that are out there for people to buy. I am getting better at telling people about my books, but not that much better. So I thought I would bring in some expert help.

I bought a service to help me with my self-promotion. Mostly with my social media promotions. The service is called Author Social Assistant. And even though I have barely started using it at the time of this writing, it is pretty cool.

The cool thing about Author Social Assistant is that it makes social media posting easy. Oh sure, I already post on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) six days a week. I do a couple six-word stories. But that is just following a prompt. One is a picture prompt. The other (which is not every day) is usually just a word prompt. I love to do them. They are like a kick starter for my morning writing. Not that I really need to stir up the creative juices most days. But they are still fun.

Author Social Assistant is pretty simple to use. I just upload my book cover and a blurb for my book. I can also upload a logo. (The logo thing does not seem to work that well, but that is okay.) Then, I get a calendar with blog posts that I can make. It is a six day cycle of laugh, quote, laugh, quote, ask, promote. I am not sure if it will work, but I do like the notion that I do not need to promote my book(s) every day. Once every six days is plenty. Which is what the provider of my posts is saying is a good cycle. The nice thing is that they come up with the things to say and the pictures (or videos) to go with them. And I can edit those pictures and words as I see fit.

But that is just the thing. I got the service so that I do not need to think of pithy sayings or search for great memes that fit my style or my books. The service does all that. And I just paid a one-time membership fee to get help posting and promoting. Pretty cool.

The coolest thing though is not that I get the humorous sayings or the cool memes or the quotes or even the questions to ask. The coolest thing is that some of the memes and some of the pictures and videos have my book cover in them! It is the coolest thing to have my book cover in somebody’s hand or falling from the sky or somehow involved in the picture. It is subtle and sublime. Okay. Maybe not so subtle. And maybe not at all sublime. But it is so cool!

(By the way. I doubt that I will ever write a blog post or a book or compose a song that anybody would call sublime, but that is okay. I am happy to not have something cause great admiration or be awe-inspiring. Of course, I need people to enjoy my creations before anybody might even consider that they might be sublime.)

I hope that my new social media campaign works to sell a couple books here and there. After all, that is why I got the service. But it does not really matter that much. What matters is that I do not need to be too obnoxious or think too hard to get a few pictures of my books and a promotion a week out on social media. And more importantly, I do not need to get much better at obnoxious self-promotion.

[By the way, I did not get a promotion fee or anything for creating and posting this piece. But I would surely accept one.]

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To Write or Not to Write · 14 September 2024

To write or not to write. That is the question.
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The indignation of critics and their critiques
Or to lay down the pen never to write again
And end the critiques. Ah to die, to sleep
No more to write. No more to hear the critics.
No more to suffer the heartache and pain
Of deadlines and writer’s block and idealess days
But what of ideas? What of the words that lie dormant?
What of the stories that will never be told?
To be silent, to rest – ay, there’s the rub
For who will tell the stories when no one writes?
Who will speak for those who have no voice?
Who will write the words to fill up the internet?
Whether they be high-minded or mediocre or even less
Ideas must be shared. They must be given voice.
Yet who is to say that this MediocreMan must share them?
That a man of low estate can speak for any but himself?
Ay, there’s another rub. For can any speak for all?
Nay, but only for himself. But that must be the point.
We must shout for joy and cry in sadness.
We must give utterance to our deepest hopes and basest fears
To our grandest ideas and most sublime poetry
To our most glorious triumphs and most inglorious defeats.
Yet who can determine which is which?
Who but Father Time has the wisdom to judge
What thoughts, what ideas, what stories shall stand?
What rhymes and reasons shall be given heed?
And therein lies the answer. To write. To write.
For without writing, ideas disappear never to be wrought
Stories unfold without pomp, never being retold
Victories are as worthless never to be regaled.
So write the stories whether they are ever retold
Regale the victories, sing them out bright and bold
Work through the ideas until they become clear
Write on. Write on. Though no one holds your words dear.

To write or not to write? That is a silly question.

[With regards and apologies to William Shakespeare (Hamlet) and his fans.]

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