My favourite weekend activity for months now has been going online to see the latest word crafts from my choice bloggers. But since a dearly-followed blog went defunct and three of my favorite sites hardly release any posts, I have recently been on the hunt for new talents whose works I can subscribe to.
A blog pal made recommendations, but our age difference gets in the way of our preferences. What he finds interesting or meritorious often doesn’t strike my fancy, and vice versa. I finally decided to take in another co-blogger’s pick. This co-blogger of mine has a blog which has been frequented by some good WP scribblers. He is a first-class writer himself – so perhaps I should rely once more on his taste and take a peek on the female blogger he has openly raved about for months. Thus, I clicked open and started reading her stuff last weekend.
Let’s get to her skill first. I’m telling you, she’s slamminly good. Her first-rate writing ability is a rare find amidst the thousands of mediocre crafters (that include me) populating WordPress. She’s got the smarts. Her writing is fluid. She injects outstanding metaphors. Her stories are punchy or real funny. She provides excellent description in her narratives, too. She writes like a true pro (except for her punctuation). My co-blogger’s pick is something I concur with this time. More importantly, she’s my senior by more than a dozen years so I’m sure to learn a lot from her. She seems to be a remarkable woman I’ve become her new fan. And if she keeps bringing forth entries much like her previous ones, she has got to count me in as one of her followers.
Through the links provided by my western FB acquaintances, I also discovered the very few prose written by Charles Warnke, a writer in his 20s with a darling face that matches his exquisite talent. He penned the contemporary cult “You Should Date an Illiterate Girl.” A two-page blog post that garnered both high praises and flak from nearly a thousand commenters. His harsh (or perhaps envious) critics branded his article as a mere pretentious outpouring of words. I beg to disagree. I don’t care about the number of modifiers or mind-bending vocabulary you sprinkled all over your prose as long as the piece – from start to finish – grabs me by the neck to carry me and hurl me through the interplay of stirring expressions and stylish grandeur. It was the brief excerpt from his soon-to-be-released book titled “Last Last and Last” that did just that for me. A bit terrifying, yet powerful and heart-breaking. A bang-up masterpiece. Find out for yourself.
Bohemian Sentiments 
Oops! I best put down my camera and get back to writing… 😉
You better do, my pal. It’s about time. Let me see words pasted and some story-telling done on your site again.
Best wishes to you.
I haven’t given up entirely, but lately I’ve been consumed with project work (which, frankly, is a lot more rewarding than the crushing silence that greets most of my blog posts). I’ve had a hard time getting into writing let alone reading blogs. I’m trying to catch up a bit today! Many of the bloggers I followed when I started have moved on, and at some point I plan to set out seeking new and interesting blogs.
Readers was never the main reason I began blogging, and it won’t be the reason I keep blogging. (My life moves very slowly in some regards, but it does move, and I never forget or entirely give up.)
In fact, lately I’ve been so consumed with project/hobby work I’ve gotten to the point of beginning to see eating and sleeping as an unwelcome distraction! That’s good from the “getting interested in project work again after being burned out by work” sense, but less than ideal from the proper rest and diet sense. I need to find a better balance!
Finding real good writers who share their knowledge and meaningful experiences in life (who also suit reader’s literary taste) isn’t that easy. You may have a harder time seeking interesting blogs given your intelligence and predilection.
There’s another thing you have to know about me (I’ve shared this fact with only two blogger pals; one of them – you): I have a harder time answering comments on my blog compared to writing a post. I’m sure you’ve never felt that way. You’ve been articulate and expressive on most of your replies to comments in your site. In my case, the reason for my difficulty could be responding to another person’s thoughts is more challenging, and I get apprehensive as to how my reply will come across to the commenter. Or maybe I’m just lazy. I’m not so sure. 🙂
But I’m mighty glad you grace my blog with your presence, Wyrd. I appreciate it so.
In other words, the same problem blogging as romancing. Yeah, true dat. To be very honest, actually reading blogs is pretty far down my list (which these days tends to push it off the list). I’m much more interested in knowledge than people’s opinions or experiences, and to some extent, as an artist, actively seek to avoid it least it interfere with my own vision. In general, I’m a producer, not a consumer!
I guess I can see how being conversational with an actual someone could be harder than sending posts blindly off into the ‘web. As you might guess, in some regards I actually like the former more than the latter. At the very least, interacting with another mind sharpens and grows mine. And even greater things can grow from that. But that’s just me.
Once on a family vacation I was chatting up the limo driver on the way to the hotel. My step-daughter later said to me, “You like meeting new people, don’t you.” I hadn’t realized it until she said it, but it’s kind of true. On one level I don’t like people very much at all (I think more in reaction to their treatment of me), but on another level they fascinate me more than almost anything else!
My dad, the pastor, had the ability to talk to anyone. I always envied that ability, and it wasn’t until late adulthood that I realized that I had picked it up, at least in some measure.
I think it boils down to this: practice makes perfect. And at first one is bad at a new skill, but with practice improves. One just has to tough it out past that “awkward” stage of learning a new skill. Of course, per the old light bulb joke, you have to want to change in the first place! 🙂