Friday, May 26, 2006

Climbing back out of the wreckage

I guess a couple of things have conspired to interrupt my blog posting recently.

The first, and most trivial, reason was that real life - which isn't very real at all but which at the moment has me tightly by the balls - has demanded my undivided attention. Sometimes the issues that confront you when you're running a business take over completely. If you ever want to be free again you simply have to address them. And I want to be free.

The other, more important issue for me though, was the growing realisation that writing my blog had degenerated into a bad ego trip, a platform to show-off, to pontificate, to seek attention.

I need to get back to basics. I want to be a writer. That's all I want to be.

As a consequence, I believe this blog should only have two functions. Firstly, to promote my novel A Half Life of One. Secondly, to examine those issues that every writer grapples with; to share insights; and to solicit advice from those who have gone before me. Everything else is irrelevent.

If you see me straying off the tracks again - slap me. Hard.

So. I'm going to tiptoe back into the blogosphere under cover of night. Low key. Modest. A little shamefaced.

And this time I promise I'll whisper, not shout.

8 comments:

  1. "Whooooo-hooooo! You're back!!!"
    - runs into arms of dear, long lost friend and gives him big smacker on the cheek.

    jta (my prize banter buddy) said I had to keep the faith but I thought you had gone and I'm so pleased that I'm jumping up and down.
    He also told me that you'd gone to hide in the attic because I'd called you 'Liversausage'- but I didn't believe him and I told everyone that you had been stolen by the oil sheiks.

    I'll be good, I promise. I'll talk about writerish things and everything, and I promise faithfully that I won't litter your blog with my daft comments!!

    Now, let's have a drink!

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  2. Anonymous2:16 pm

    Welcome back, Bill. And you don't have to be too strict an editor, actually. I mean, look at Minx--awash in the sauce and the drugs, muttering about her viral shoulders, or something. A likely story. Point is, the concerns are there, facing all of us. Just write about fuck-all and fuck-any and the important stuff will surely come out.

    Sorry about the incoherence of this comment, but I'm sitting here (like Minx)with a little too much last night sititng on the front of my brain like a sweaty old fat auntie.

    But welcome back--I raise my glass to you--it's juice to chase the aspirins, but it'll have to do for now.

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  3. Oh dear, you guys...what are you like. It was all going to be different this time too, but here we are back on the booze already!

    Still, it's good to be back. More soon, once the hangover clears.

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  4. I shall ignore that comment jta, at least I haven't got a perspiring relative sitting on my head. And don't think you won that last spat!!

    Was it that bad Pundy? Do I now leave you on your own in Sensible City when there are so many new and exciting people to meet?
    Skinty, the late night hovis eater, Debi (holidaying in Italy)- a proper published person, Verilion - new on the blog with lots to say.
    I loved your blog, I love it now, and I patrolled nearly every day while you were gone.
    Jta is right on one thing - just write and the rest will come and for goodness sake get a happier photo then at least you'll look pleased to see us even if you're not!!

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  5. Hello, it is Maxine again, I made one comment on your blog before, but then you vanished. (Since then I have also moved Petrona, but am still around on a different web hoster, so please come over any time to http://petrona.typepad.com).
    I came to your blog via Minx, and I feel quite intimidated by the witty repartee of her, jta and co as I haven't a clue what it all means. But that's my problem not yours, just to say, welcome back. I read your post on what you use (or will use) your blog for with interest. I have found blogging to be a very powerful positive influence on me since I started doing it last December. It has been an outlet for what passes as creativity in my soul, and further I have met a very nice (small) group of like-minded people with whom I enjoy interacting. But mainly it is excellent (and free) psychotherapy and just helps me deal with my non-life.
    Ramble, ramble. What am I saying? Basically, I hope it works for you, I hope your blog helps you to
    "be free" as you put it, and helps you to achieve your goals rather than distracts from them.
    all best
    Maxine.

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  6. Anonymous10:47 pm

    I like the picture...

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  7. Sorry Maxine, thought that you two already knew each other - you're right, a month is a long time in blog land.
    Pundy, Maxine is a dear friend who is like a living, breathing oracle. She finds all the really relevent stuff for writers and readers and links us all up. Maxine also whispers in the ear of Frank Wilson of Books Inq and then you find your stuff flying all over the America.
    I'm sorry about the photo comment, was probably still diazapammed!!!

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  8. A month! A day and you are out of date in blogland....
    Pundy, I defy you to have that expression when reading one of Minx's comments;-)

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