Page 54 | MediocreMan

Blogging Vacation · 27 August 2022

I feel like I need a vacation from blogging.

I have written a weekly blog post for many years now. Since 2007. Yes. If you look at my website, it has posts from 2006, but I did not actually create my website until 2007. Which is all just to say that I have been writing those weekly posts for a long time. I am not sure I ever missed one. Even when I have actually been on vacation. (Not bragging. Just commenting.)

I must admit that I really do enjoy blogging. Whether anybody reads or not. I do not know why. I guess I just enjoy the routine. And maybe the thought that somebody might get something from reading my words. Just maybe. Which is part of the reason I post something each week.

Oh sure. I am also a glutton for punishment. I like to write whether anybody is reading or not. Whether I hear crickets after posting my blog for the week.

Another part of my enjoyment comes from believing that God wants me to write. I am not sure why, but I do feel it. A calling. And an admonition. Do not waste the talent. Regardless of how meager that talent is.

Which brings me back to my notion. I seem to need a vacation from blogging. I feel it every once in a while. Those are the times when I cannot feel the ideas flow. Those are the times when I feel like my writing is forced. Those are the times when I just want to not write for a day or two. Those are the days when I feel like posting that proverbial “Gone Fishing” sign.

But I never do it. I never post that sign. I just keep writing. And I keep posting. Always some words. Never that sign.

In reality, writing can be a therapy for me. I write to think. I write to release. I write to complain. I write to cry. I write to laugh. I write to mourn. I write to celebrate. And sometimes I just write to write. Those sessions can be the best. When I just write and write and write. Thousands of words come flowing without effort. Of course, those words are rarely blog posts, but sometimes they are. Sometimes I write two or three posts at a time when the words are just flowing. But those are rare occasions. Once or twice in all these years.

Which brings me back to a blogging vacation.

I do not really need a vacation from blogging. I just need to write. For writing is my way of expressing myself. It is my joy and sorrow. It is my release. It is just part of who I am. And I cannot really take a vacation from myself. I do not even know what that would look like.

Well, I guess today was a bit of a therapy session. I am refreshed. I do not need to post that Gone Fishing sign on my blog post today. When it comes right down to it, I wonder if writing a blog post is not a vacation in and of itself.

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But Is It Art? · 20 August 2022

#ad

Sometimes I wonder if what I draw can really be considered art.

A friend of mine said that she missed seeing my art on Instagram lately. Apparently, I have not posted any new art there for a little while. Part of that is because I have been working on other projects. Mostly books. But the visual art that I have been doing has been book covers for those books. I suppose that I could always put those book covers on Instagram with links to those books, but I did not think about that when I was creating said art. Still, I wonder if what I have been doing lately is really art.

If you have not seen my art. If you are not a follower on Instagram. Or if you are not even on Instagram, you are not missing much. At least if you are looking at my stuff. All I have been doing is creating vector images from other people’s stuff. Mostly. What that means is that I have been using a vector drawing program (Affinity Designer) to trace art created by real artists. Or at least those who have their stuff show up on the internet – Pinterest and other places. Yes, creativity and skill are needed to create those images, but I have little of either. I am still mostly tracing and coloring. Trying to be creative and trying to develop skills. Trying to become an artist. Or something like one. Which for now, means copying others and trying to get better.

I do like art. In all of its forms. I especially like the art that I can practice myself. Drawing, writing, singing, playing musical instruments, and even making movies. It is just fun to be creative. And we all have it in our DNA to be so. We all want to create something. We just do not always know what that something is.

The thing about drawing is that everybody can do it. Even me. Not that everybody can do it well (I am a good example of that), but everybody can do it. Everybody can create a picture of some sort. Whether that picture is art, is another story. That short story says that art is in the eye of the beholder.

Think about it. The scribbling of a toddler is considered art by his or her parents. The sketchbooks and notebooks of an aspiring artist are considered art by those same parents. The canvases and murals of practicing artists are considered masterpieces by those same parents. Which is not to say that those parents are wrong. But if and when the masses (or at least the critics) decide that the artist is truly an artist, then that person is a true artist. Actually even before then. But when the critics think somebody is an artist then everybody else thinks that the mere scribble of the artist is art.

#ad

I suppose there must also be some sort of objective criteria on deciding whether something is art. I am just not sure exactly what that criteria is. All I know is that I know real art when I see it. And what I do is not art.

Well, I was really only going to try and do a little self-promotion here. (Not that I am very good at that either.) I was going to say that I have a few new books with a few new book covers. And that I do plan on putting those book covers on Instagram. After all, they are part of my art portfolio. Not that I will ever be considered an artist, but I still like to pretend that I am.

At any rate.

I am going to start practicing my art again. I am going to start drawing more and posting again on Instagram. Whether I am just tracing somebody’s beautiful art or creating my own. Or a combination of the two. And when I put out new books with new book covers, I will post those on Instagram too. After all, if one of my friends likes to see what I create, maybe others will as well. Even so, we can all still wonder whether it is art or not. (Probably not.)

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Overnight Success · 13 August 2022

I decided to be an overnight success.

It is funny. People think that overnight success is a real thing. And I suppose that for some people it is. That rare writer whose first book is a best seller. That rare singer whose first single goes platinum. That rare… Well, you get the picture. The key word is rare. Rarely do people make it to the tops of their professions overnight. Regardless of what those professions are.

Unfortunately, the other side to those rare exceptions is that they do not seem to stay at the top for very long. Those one-hit wonders come and go. Nobody remembers who sang that one song or who wrote that one book. Although they might remember that it was some one-hit wonder.

Which is why I do not want to be one of those overnight successes.

Actually, it is far too late for me to be an actual overnight success. That ship sailed long ago. I did not get a massive following when I first started blogging. Not many people read my first book. In fact, nobody noticed when I published my twentieth digital book. So I cannot be one of those rare overnight successes.

But I can be what others think are overnight successes. Those are the people who have toiled and sweated and sweated and toiled for seemingly countless years before anybody ever noticed them. They are the ones who could barely make ends meet or were working their primary job while developing their true passions. They are the ones who did not know when to quit. They are the overnight successes that I would like to be. (Except that I like my primary job.)

Which is why I said in the beginning that I have decided to be an overnight success.

I do not care how long it takes before people read my blog or my books. I do not care how long it takes before somebody decides to sing my songs. I do not care how long it takes before somebody decides to make one of my screenplays into a movie. I do not care how many hours I sit at the computer writing before anybody decides that maybe this guy can write. Maybe this MediocreMan really does have a voice.

Way back when I first started writing in earnest, I decided that blogging was a way to get a body of work out there. That was the fall of 2006. I do not believe I have missed a self-imposed weekly deadline yet. Which is not bragging. It really just shows how much of a glutton for punishment I am. All those years with a fan base of a couple people is not how I envisioned it. I imagined myself to be one of those rare overnight successes. But that is okay. I will still keep plugging away. Because all these years later, I still want to be an overnight success.

Which is the point. All these years later, I am still not an overnight success, but I plan to be. Or maybe I just hope to be. Either way, I will still keep writing. After all, I have decided to be an overnight success. And that takes a lot of work.

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