Did you see what I did with the title? Instead of risky business, I called it risky blogging. I know you know this, but because I love the sound of my own voice (or my fingers tapping on the keyboard), but I am pretty clever when it comes to titles. Not only am I clever, but I am a very silly person—as you no doubt realized by this amazing picture of me and my shirt. Finally, if you were concerned about whether or not I am a dragon, its okay if you think I am a real dragon. Because I am a real dragon.
Earlier this week, I was questioning if my tone, style and character for Epiblogger really worked. Maybe I should shift towards being clean and precise. Something closer to say what your typical problogger would do. More upfront and in your face. I was wondering if I was too subtle. Because to be honest with you, even though I hope to provide you with unique information every day, my overall goal is to inspire you with a different style of blogging. Maybe you would call it character blogging or personal blogging, but really it’s organic blogging. A form of blogging that grows naturally. And part of being natural is displaying who you are—which, I would think, is generally risky.
Also, this week, I was thinking about how to get passed hurdles and walls. To be honest, it’s not much of a hurdle to show you how silly I am. For some people, it might be. But there is another part to all this dragon business that isn’t that silly. It comes from where that saying came from—”Its okay if you think I am a real dragon”. It’s an original Rhett Soveran saying.
I was talking to Kev yesterday on Skype (user: rhettna if you want to chat) and I admitted to him how much anxiety I have to deal with when I write. Which was a surprise to him and maybe you. Severe anxiety is my wall. And a lot of that anxiety came from my days in university when I would get locked up while attempting to write papers. And, in my infinite wisdom, I dealt with that anxiety very poorly, which is where the dragon saying came from.
I used to be a big MMORPG player. That was my escape from the anxiety. I played Ultima Online for almost three years and the saying came from that game (because it’s a fantasy game and you could ride dragons and morph into a dragon and all that nerdy stuff). Somehow I (and friends) ended up running around telling other gamers that it was okay if they thought we were dragons and we laughed. But the truth is that I wasn’t a big player, I was an addict. And for those that don’t know about addiction, general symptoms include lying to loved ones, anxiety, depression, sense of euphoria (when playing and withdrawl when your not), avoiding friends and family, and the list goes on. I exhibited all those things at that time. I got rid of everything except for the anxiety (and the addiction (arguably you have that forever)). The anxiety isn’t just from gaming, but it was certainly amplified.
Today, I won’t be too subtle. I have been sitting here for a bit wondering if I should just press and hold the delete key. It scares me to share that I, in fact, have weaknesses and problems. It’s hard to admit that I was addicted to a silly game and even worse that it affected my life so completely. But part of me is my weakness. And for me and for my definition, I have to have integrity when it comes to being an organic blogger. There is risk here for me, in being open, but there is also a challenge to myself and to, hopefully, you. I’m not saying you have divulge everything. But there is nothing better, in my opinion, than to read a human blogger and it is my argument that we should strive to bring humanity into every corner of the internet, including your blog.
This was the fourth part of a seemingly unending series ‘Being Sold (Out)’. You can also read part one, two and three.
Photo by Leah Soveran
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via Email
2 Comments
I hate it when comments start off with “great post!” (pet peeve), but I’m going to break my own rule and say great post. Great post!
My wife does most of the writing for our blog (like 98.67%), and I have to say that her most popular posts are probably the one’s she thought about deleting. I’m still going through your posts, but I have to say great writing style. Please keep your style, otherwise we all end up sounding exactly the same as all the other blogs we just read, and what’s the point of that?
I’m going to go make my way through some of your other posts, but good job.
Well, I hate it when all I have to say is thanks, but thanks for your comment. It really gave me a boost. This was a tough post for me to write personally and so I appreciate the feedback.