2/17/07

Honest Assessment

I consider myself a good (if not really good) writer. I have been told by my wife and family(though they are sort of required to support me) that I have a gift and I should find a way to make use of it. Being as I am basically an office chump and part-time warehouseman, blogging is my outlet in this regard. Thus the question is: How should this look?

In an earlier post, I made a plea on behalf of Victory Caucus in which I laid out the basic argument that we must pressure our leaders to see the conflict in Iraq through to a successful conclusion. Soon after joining VC, I began to realize the power of one voice in this information age. The blogosphere has created underground celebrities out of average (though admittedly talented) Joes who take the time to comment upon current events. This is not true for people like Hugh Hewitt, Michael Yon or others who already had or would likely have achieved popularity on their own. The purveyors of blogs like Little Green Footballs or Captain's Quarters have moved from a set-up not unlike mine, to national cyber-fame. Both now have actual websites and Ed Morrissey (CQ) has jumped media into talk radio.

My dilemma is that I enjoy politics as sort of a three-piece-suit spectator sport. This is not to say that I am not passionate about it. I love to debate and my wife gets tired of me fervently lobbying her to accept a view she already holds (blogging has become an outlet for this personality quirk as well). I would like to have an informative and substantive political blog and given the opportunity, I believe I could. I have a better than average grasp of the constitution and current events coupled with a historical perspective (I guess the degree in history does have its uses). I do not, however, have the time and energy to invest into the research necessary to make a truly great political blog. Crap, I don't even have an Internet connection at my house.

People who simply talk are a-dime-a-dozen, particularly on the internet. My fear is that I will be a great writer without anything useful to say. For that, the world has The New Yorker magazine. As an added disincentive, I don't think the 4 of you that read my blog enjoy my longer, politically themed posts as much as the short, pithy cultural commentary. I seem to have fallen into the Internet version of the Daily Show niche. Thus, no matter how well done my blog is, it will still be mostly politically tainted comedy (complete with its fair share of bathroom humor). Oh well, I suppose with only 4 of you, I ought not worry too much about my internal conflict over creative control (politics vs poop jokes).

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any helpful advise.

6 comments:

  1. I suppose it's hard to get intelligent conversation going with people who are uninformed (I can speak only for myself as one of the four esteemed readers of your blog). I must say that I am interested in politics, but my ability (and willingness) to argue about such things is pretty low because while I may be passionate about some things that end up in the political arena, it's mostly academic argument for me.

    But how does one get beyond a readership of ten or less and become an "active" blog. How did homestarrunner become? I say you start anonymously recommending your blog to local political radio shows ("I was just on politico.blogspot.com and read this great article about ... that guy's brilliant") and let it go from there.

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  2. I think the anonymous radio thing is a great idea. If only I knew someone who knew a local political radio host...if only, if only.

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  3. I have to say that you are talented - after all, you smoked all of us on the SATs back in the day. I can also only speak for myself and say, somewhat ashamedly, that I have never been that interested in politics. I keep up enough to know what's going on, but I pretty much stop there. It's the introvert in me...I don't talk much, and debating (or discussing) topics (verbally or in written text) is extremely exhausting for me. It always has been...hence my flippant hippie comment on your post. There are benefits of having this type of personality, but also negatives as well. I won't go into them here as to spare you all.

    To answer your question, I think the first thing you should do is be yourself - be honest and passionate about what you believe in. If not, you will never get where you REALLY want to go - and if by some chance you do, you won't be able to maintain the position being someone you're not. So, feel free to keep posting. I would suggest setting up a separate site solely for your political or writing aspirations. I would think you would want to keep that separate from your personal site - i.e. I don't log into msn.com to see pics of the writer's kids and I don't log onto a site to view pics hoping for a political post. If you build that brand, people will frequent your site...

    Secondly, yes, you need to market or get into that market. Find other areas around town or nationally that have boards you can post on, newsgroups, etc. If you build up readers on a public site with your postings and refernce your writing blog, eventually the masses will find your material via your site.

    Thirdly, even if not successful, at least you are posting stuff for YOU, which is good enough for some people (i.e. you can say what you think and have an audience of at least a few people). It's nice to know that even a few people are reading what you are writing. It's more fun...but I would keep writing things even if no one except my Mom reads them because it's an outlet for what you believe, are fired up about, or going through at the moment.

    Sorry for the book. Hope this helps.

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  4. p.s. and if I mis-read your post about wanting to be a politcal blogger, sorry. I just know you'll always have something to say, whether it be political, personal, or whatever. I'll keep reading no matter what you post, because it's on your mind. If you want to keep the current format, that would be cool with me. If you are thinking about maybe deciding on a specific topic, see previous post. :) Or, if you want to hear ramblings, see my site. :)

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  5. I really appreciate your support guys. I don't know that I want to be a big-time blogger who goes on morning shows, cable news and talk radio. I don't know if either of you have heard about or followed the scandle with John Edwards bloggers at all, but they were doing that for a LIVING and were horrible. It was like reading Ludacris' lyrics with less f-bombs and, I think more anti-Catholic bigotry (I have no information on Ludacris' opinion of Catholics).

    Once again, I have no plans on making this silly passtime into a career, but it is obvious that there is not a glut of fantastic writers in this arena. It seems that fanaticism is the #1 characteristic followed by spare time and only distantly by writing talent.

    I thought about a politics-only blog, but I only have 3-4 readers of my actual blog(once again, counting myself) and thus have absolutely no audience for a dryer, more technical, less nice version.

    Anyway, thanks for your help guys. I wrote this post because my blog site is listed on my Victory Caucus profile so I thought I needed something to say in case someone actually visited. I didn't really expect to get a response.

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  6. Actually , I suspect that a politics-only blog would (with time) develop a stronger leadership on the quality of the writing. I find your good writing to be a bonus to reading your blog because I'm really here for the personal info and witty social satire (i.e. 50-pound cornwhole and deer-e-ere).

    Anyway, I suspect that political readers would be attracted to a blog written by a good writer because of your consistent ability to make cogent points based on passion especially compared to the highly-passionate but impenetrable writing of other bloggers (those with fanaticism and lots of spare time).

    There probably aren't shortcuts to having meaningful and widely-read political writings. I think you'll have to make a new brand of blogsite for yourself though that does not mix your personal with your politics (though the other directions is certainly fine). You could even duplicate your political posts on your personal site.

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