I realize I do a lot of things in my writing that people would consider "strange." For instance, I use wordplay every goddamn chance I get. I know there are readers who dislike this, and I know I do it often in excess, but I do it intentionally, and that's all that matters to me.
If a writer does something intentionally, then I don't think it's a bad decision. I think the only bad decision in writing-- or in art in general-- is a careless decision. You can do something for consistency, you can so something to drop an anvil, you can do something to convey a tone or for the sake of the plot, as long as you do it and know you are doing it. Because, if a writer intends something, that's an important part of the work to consider. The writer honestly feels like, if they didn't do that thing, their work wouldn't come across exactly how they want it to. And that's.. pretty damn important.
Myself, I use wordplay for a wide assortment of reasons, my influences being one of the bigger ones (Peter Gabriel, Tommy Giles, and names I can never remember), as well as to sort of.. make my own 'voice.' This is my style of writing, and if people don't like it, that's okay. I'm a prog fan; I'm pretty used to people not liking the stuff I like. But I write the way I do for the people who like it. ..as obvious as that sounds, I feel it needed saying.
...ANOTHER THING I DO, though I haven't received explicit criticism for this: I don't really make many different accounts for my blogs. A lot of people might make an entirely new account for every blog, to make it really seem like a different person. Get into character, and whatnot. I don't do that; I have four separate accounts ("DJay32," "Garth," "Weathered Crashes," and "Blogger") and I intend on keeping it that way. Hell, I made the "Blogger" account (with the vague email thefearblogger at gmail) specifically so I could just make loads of blogs on that one. But again, as with the wordplay, I keep my account numbers low for a reason.
It's no secret: I'm self-conscious, and I love attention (though I try my best not to act like an attention whore! ....not all the time, at least!). When it comes to self-esteem, my writing is one of the only things I am very proud of, and honestly, I fucking need that self-esteem. So I like to keep my name on things. Hell, I made Topography Genera's Liquid Len use the "DJay32" account because I was too lazy to make a new one (actually, because I only made that blog to test the dynamic blog layout, but then somebody shared the link in public so I thought Oh screw it and made it official). And every blog I make that doesn't use this account ends up with my name in the credits, which leads me to my last "strange" thing.
Credits! Credits don't come up often in blogs, as people like to keep the medium 'realistic.' Well, personally, I take inspiration from Marble Hornets for this one; they released a credits video for Marble Hornets Part 1 after Entry 26 came out, and a lot of people bitched and whined about immersion. Immersion is a funny thing, as apparently, writing a story in blog or vlog format instantly means you have to keep a strong sense of realism up. Personally, I do that only for the duration of the story. Once the story has ended, I'd much rather give credit where credit is due, explain what ideas I ripped off, maybe put it all in a video so I can use Bound by the Moon's awesome Fear leitmotifs.
But some people disagree with that in blogs, and I can certainly respect that! Hell, I can respect all of that. I just get butthurt when people suggest I change stuff, as most of the time, I made a conscious decision to include it.
The problem with names is that people start to expect things of you. They see that name, that picture, they have an idea of who you are and what you should do. They take from what you've already done, and apply it to what you might write.
ReplyDeleteIt gets annoying, frankly. I write under different names for a reason. Because, then, you get anonymity in the strangest of places. Even when you're hiding in plain sight.
Hey, DJay, do me a favor. When you feel like talking, send me an email or something, yea?