A writer’s holiday from blogging

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” 

— Ernest Hemingway

There is a price to be paid for high productivity. The storm passes, the energy – seemingly boundless to begin with – recedes. Ideas continue to haunt, crashing through the plates of one’s skull and demanding to be allowed space on the paper. But fingers have turned sluggish. They wave away all hurried calls for more. Not now. Now is not the time. They are still caught in the half-dream of the morning, in the worlds that had gifted them stories without asking for anything in return. They long for the feel of freshly mowed grass, for the warmth of a steaming bun. They long for a break from the abstract and a return to the pleasures of life, as humble in their everydayness as they might be.

Today we shall have the world at our fingertips and live life so that we might glean something worth writing about.

A question to my readers

As some of you may already know: while being a writer, I am also a philosopher-in-training. Currently my philosophy project is on hold, however there are several pieces that I have written that would lend themselves well to this medium.

So here is my question to you: Do you think that philosophy posts would be a welcome addition to my current range of topics, and if so, what subjects would be of most interest to you personally?

Awaiting your replies.

With best regards,

Vic

1000 Anniversary Candles

On the 31st of July 2013, vic briggs ~ a writer adrift ~ took to the blogosphere and Shards Of Silence was born. 

Earlier today I received a message from WordPress informing me that my blog now has a following of 1000 (1011 followers to be exact).

I know that to the mega-bloggers on the internet, with tens of thousands of followers – and some of whom I follow myself  – this may appear a relatively small achievement. Nonetheless, I am also certain that they will remember their elation at first reaching this magical number. (Wish you had told me that it befuddles first!)

1,000 Followers!

Congratulations on getting 1,000 total follows on vic briggs.

I could not believe my eyes. 

Having long abandoned following the stats, and given my extended absence from the community, I expected a drop in followers rather than the reverse.

So to all of you, who have been here with me from the very beginning and to all new followers too: a very BIG thank you. 

The truth is that whether you are an active commentator and regular visitor on Shards of Silence or whether you come by rarely, or are amongst the silent number: your support is invaluable.

It helps me weather the difficult times and compels me to be creative so that every single visit would bring something of worth to your day: from humour and entertainment to poetry and art, and thinking through some difficult topics. 

I endeavour to be the best I can be in the moment, and strive – for your sake and my own – to always do better. 

So thank you for being here with me!

Warm Regards,

Vic

One Lovely Blog Award

I would like to offer my thanks to Anna Marple for her kind addition of the One Lovely Blog Award to this shardy’s accolades. Thank you for brightening the blogosphere and for inviting me along on your journey. Given that I have been away for quite a while, it is both an honour and a delight to be welcomed back with such warmth. While I feel undeserving of the spotlight, I will always aim to make your visits worthwhile.

 

Now for the award. Here are the guidelines for the One Lovely Blog Award:

• You must thank the person who nominated you for the award;
• you must add the One Lovely Blog Award logo to your post, your blog or both;
• you must share 7 facts about yourself;
• and lastly, you must nominate 15 bloggers who you admire and consider “lovely.” Let the nominees know they have been nominated by commenting on their blogs.

7 Facts about yours truly:

1. I have Mad Hatter eyes. What are those, you may ask? Take a peek at Jonny Depp’s impersonation of that character and you won’t be very far from the truth.

2. As a child I got some first-hand experience in the tobacco industry: those nimble little fingers came in handy when sewing leaves onto threads, ready to be dried.

3. To this day, I have lived in, visited or travelled around 30 countries in addition to the one where I was born.

4. At the moment I am in the US, engaged and befuddled by all things American.

5. I love theatre and have even tried my leg as an extra in a West End production (leg still intact and going strong).

6. The old and war make me melancholy. Put the two together and I am bound to tear up.

7. My blog will be celebrating its first year anniversary in a couple of days’ time. Where has the time flown?!  

My nominees for One Lovely Blog Award

(If you are not amongst their number, it is not because I do not think your blog equally lovely. It is always difficult to choose and I hope to add you to my next list of awards – I have quite a few to add to their number)

Congratulaltions to:

Is it just me? for important trivia, well crafted stories and excellent conversation.

Sugar-coating since ’91 for life experience and snippets of inspiring art.

psychologistmimi for food, road trips and everything else that travel can gift.

Ivy Mosquito | Liberating My Creative Soul for a slice of peace, nature, photography, crafts… Need I say more?

Musing Off the Mat to regain your sense of wonder and love of simplicity.

Traversing Lines for a commuter’s haven.

The Bohemian Rock Star’s “Untitled Project” for literary fiction and photography.

It Goes On for insights on mental health and how to keep one step ahead of the darkness.

Icezine for a meeting of English and French curiosities: dream-think-protect-live.

Business over Coffee (newly arrived) visit for a cup of coffee and words for thought.

Find Your Passion for a little inspiration and a lift.

SoulFood for recipes and life lessons.

A Bowl of Cherries for a survivor’s tale and bright photography.

From Hiding to Blogging for a journey into Xi’an and essays on the essence of life.

A glimpse of paradise for a photographer’s view of the enchanting.

 

With warm regards,

Vic 

The dog ate my post

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Having just pressed the ‘save draft’ button on a post I’ve been working on for quite a while, I was certain that I did want to “do this” i.e. save my post. So when WordPress asked me the question, I didn’t waiver. There were no alarm bells going off in the recesses of my exhausted brain. What could possibly go wrong? I hit ‘yes’ certain of the outcome. Except…

Instead of saving my post, WordPress deleted it.

Brilliant.

Clearly our blogging platform did not deem my lovingly crafted post worthy of seeing the light of day. Or night. It is forevermore lost in the virtual cemetery of other posts that have met a similar fate. I can only hope it receives a good welcome, wherever it may be. Doubtful. Very doubtful. I didn’t get the chance to teach it how to survive in the wild. Worse still, it may think that I abandoned it on purpose and with no one to reassure it of the opposite, it may loose heart and give up altogether. Is it too late to give it a fighting chance I wonder?

Dear post,

I am so sorry to have lost you. We had a good run, you and I. It is such a pity that our time together was cut short. You didn’t deserve that and I will do my utmost to put things right. While I figure out how to go about it, here are a few tips on how to survive in the blogging wilderness. I’m coming for you. Just you wait.

1. Don’t waste your energy trying to make it back to civilisation. Chances are you’ll take a wrong turn and then it will be impossible to track you down.

2. Wrap yourself up in something warm and find appropriate shelter. Failing that, build one. I’m told that lean-tos are your best option. I know you are afraid of spiders, but they won’t bite (unless you’ve made it to Australia in which case you’ll have to play it by ear).

3. Since there is no chance of me finding you tonight, you’ll have to improvise a bog-bed (it’s England, you know so it is bound to rain, although you’re better off with one even if you’re lost elsewhere).

4. Now may be a good idea to delve into that pocketful of treats you kept sneaking from my fridge and I hope you didn’t throw away your water bottle. If you’re out of both, do not despair. You can survive three days without water and three weeks without food. Let’s just hope it won’t come to that.

5. Make a fire, keep warm and wait for the rescue team to reach you.

I’m on my way!

And breathe. Relax and don’t forget to breathe. You won’t survive for long without air. Mind though, you are a blogpost… so what do I know?

 

Daily Post: The Wanderer

Who do you think you are?

Why blog? Why not keep a journal instead: a private escape for one’s thoughts, a keeper of secrets, a chalice to hold one’s innermost fears and desires. A journal will not be subjected to the scrutiny of anonymous readers. It will not open itself to judgement and criticism. Unless… it is discovered.

Like journal-writing, blogging is in many respects a private affair. We pour shards of our existence onto the page. Our words reveal as much as they conceal. A narrative develops over time and new truths are weaved into the old, at times displacing them. As for the elephant in the room? Ah yes. That small issue of it being public.

I was a child tiptoeing into adulthood when I started my first journal. Two weeks or so into the attempt I gave it up as a bad job. “Life is dull” was my swift conclusion. Or at least, this I thought of my life as it squiggled in ink on the page, and there was little fun to be had in chronicling pedestrian trials and tribulations. The following day I invented a story instead. My fictional alter-ego surpassed all expectations. There were adventures to be had, mysteries to be uncovered and unknowables to be explored. And, there was something else that appealed about this alternative: I could take others along on the journey by sharing my stories.

And this is the advantage any blog will always have over a journal: it is created to be shared, an endeavour that connects us with others and in doing so, it enriches our experience of story-telling, be that in the guise of writers, photographers, or artists.

There is a degree of danger associated with blogging: we can never be certain of our audience’s reaction. As a writer I am all too familiar with those negative voices in one’s head, the ones that whisper from the empty page, challenging: “Who do you think you are? What makes you think that you have something to say worthy of being read?” These demons do not discriminate. They haunt the greats and beginners alike.

Defining what constitutes good content will always be an exercise in subjectivity. Each blogger and reader are likely to have their own view of what is “good”. My first steps into the blogosphere were digital footprints of former experiences and creative passions. In time I learnt that good writing is never self-indulgent and always aims to serve the reader rather than yours truly (the writer).

There is one stumbling block that I ought to acknowledge before I say my goodbyes. Of late my blogging and writing commitments have been vying for mastery over the most precious of all resources: Time. There is a catch to being a writer: you have to write. The same goes for blogging. I am searching for a formula that will accommodate both without damaging the quality of either. When I discover it, I will be sure to let you know. Then again, you may be “in the know” already. If so… Care to share?

 

Zero to Hero, Day One: Introduce Yourself

HarsH ReaLiTy | Re-Blog

OM has long been a one-man opinion force in the blogosphere. His great number of followers reflects his commitment to blogging and his determination to make a success of HarsH ReaLiTy.
I had the opportunity to spend some time as a guest writer on his blog, and subsequently had the keys to his lovingly built kingdom. I was amazed by the rapidity with which he was able to amass a large and diverse following, while also providing content and engaging with more bloggers than seemed humanly possible.
The statistics I got a glimpse of were truly astounding, more so because it showed the Gargantuan effort coupled with astuteness and creativity that OM dedicates daily to WordPress and HarsH ReaLiTy.
I hope that in reblogging this post, I can help someone who has dedicated so much time to helping others, to be able to earn the necessary funds that would avail him of the time required to continue this journey.
His model is very straightforward, and while it may not work for everyone, I am certain that there are many tips that would come in handy.
If anyone can make you a blogging success overnight (well… almost overnight – you will still have to do the metaphorical leg work) then I’m certain that OM is your man.

Let’s Talk Opinion | Wanders with Werewolves

“You write well when you’re angry, Vic.”

This was the express conclusion of a friend who had taken the time to read a couple of my Let’s Talk Opinion posts. I was surprised to hear it.

I could not recall an instance when that particular emotion had prompted me to write, at least not opinion pieces. It is true that some subjects I feel strongly about and treading on egg-shells is not my strongest suit. But anger brings to mind a flaring face, augmented to the size of a Halloween pumpkin and gradually acquiring the hue of a ready-to-explode blueberry Willy Wonka style.

My posts I hope are never dispassionate, but I did not believe them to ever be guided by a sense of annoyance or downright hostility.

Pondering with some degree of perplexity on the matter, in re-reading the posts the aforementioned friend referred to, I came to a conclusion of my own. It was my propinquity proclivity to use irony and dark humour as rhetorical devices that must have come across as written in anger.  I do this intuitively, without forethought, and like any writing that gets submitted to public scrutiny, it may at times appear to linger on the threshold of sarcasm, if not crossing it altogether.

The reader is always a better judge than I could ever be of whether that is the case or not, so I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. For now, I will keep the promise of yesterday’s Let’s Talk Opinion | Lunchtime Edition and add the remaining favourites of the series for a complete top ten:

 

#6 Clichés | Avoid them like the plague! Laughter is contagious, and having just about managed to pick myself off the floor where I lay in stitches for a while after reading Michael Alexander Chaney‘s “cliché” misadventure, I decided to repay him in kind. This is one of those rare instances (for me at least) where humour went hand in hand with utility.

 

#7 Consent is Sexy When it comes to the issue of tacit consent it is difficult to disagree with Queer Guess Code: traditional media continue to portray romantic encounters as the prerogative of silence. If the other’s advances are unwelcome, we are expected to say “no”, but are women given enough opportunities to say “yes”?

 

#8 Danger Blogging explores the dangers bloggers expose themselves to on a daily basis, and offers a few tips on how to avoid them. I have fallen foul of a couple of these myself and the effects were immediate and lasting so beware. In conversation with Idiot Writing.

 

#9 Child Pornography and The Sexualisation of Children “Do child pornography websites lead to acts of unimaginable evil?” asks Giorge Thomas in the wake of Ian Watkins – the lead singer of Lostprophets – being convicted of child pornography charges. With this question in mind I consider the impact of the sexualisation of children perpetrated by popular media today. Some readers found the accompanying images disturbing, so please tread with care.

 

#10 Some are more equal than others In hindsight I wish I had named this article “Wanders with Werewolves”.  If you are familiar with this piece then you will know why. If not: then take a peek and let me know if you think a title change is in order. I believe this is the opinion piece that my friend referred to when she said “You write well when you’re angry, Vic.” Well… angry perhaps not, but a little wolfish, certainly.

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Let’sTalk Opinion posts engage with issues that are important to other bloggers, connecting with others on matters close to their heart. If you like a topic and would like to contribute, please feel free to add to the comment box, reblog, share, email or message me on Twitter @shardsofsilence.

Or if you happen to be a fellow Hogwartsian send me a letter by owl. 

January’s Jousters

This is the magic of the written word. A simile has the power to transform an otherwise pedestrian (?) post into a knight, and since we had quite a number of those tricksters this month, it’s a tournament to boot. Look at them take to the field, determined to unhorse each other with their blunted lances. Although I have it on good authority that one or two of them have managed to sneak through with rather sharp tips. Or was it tongues? I forget.

So, let’s get to it. Who made it to the top and whose helmet got the better of them this January? Here is our line-up complete with coats of arms.

At number ten enters Apocalypse. This tale is a sorrowful one, where foresight is both a gift and a curse. This is what fellow bard Chris Nelson had to say: “This is a powerful poem – almost a commentary on the agony of immortality. It’s scary enough how we become desensitised to tragedy by age without the prospect of seeing out millennia. If there were immortal beings looking down on us would they, after all this time, empathise with our plight?”

Just ahead in ninth place we have cheeky entry that offers the audience a the quickest way to find out the answer to the following question: Are you a Feminist? “Thanks for the gem!!! It has brought me and several others big smiles,” said cakeleevannila. Let’s hope it can do the same for you.

The eighth contender comes curtesy of the Let’s Talk Opinion series in conversation with thedailygrime and ventures into Arthur Connan Doyle territory: That’s Elementary, my dear Watson. No. Wait. It’s Sherlock!

“A great, great post for the super busy blogger. Thanks for sharing” says prolific writer and blogger Erik Lehman of our next January jouster Danger Blogging: a Let’s Talk Opinion post exploring the dangers bloggers expose themselves to on a daily basis. We have our knight for the seventh place. 

 

In a surprising turn of events, we have a second Sherlock contender for the top ten jousters this month. A review of The Empty Hearse takes sixth place. I stand by it: “I blame the hype as well as the extended wait. Two years is a long time for a build up. Perhaps I expected too much and was bound to be  #Disappointed” 

Now for the top five! The Wolf of Wall Street comes fifth after a somewhat raunchy introduction on the BBC Breakfast show. Unexpected unmentionables at 9am will certainly make for a different kind of cereal and it also prompted some strong reactions both in favour and against.

Although Rape | A World Pandemic comes forth in terms of views this month, it takes first place for the discussion it engendered. Iceman named it A “Must Read” today. Another reader scottishmomus shared it and commented: “I have no words for what is here. Please read.”

Is it possible for a full month to pass without a certain Mr Cumberbatch making an appearance in yet another Vic Briggs dreamscape? Perhaps it is, but we’ll have to wait it out. For this January sees the alienesque knight and his steely steed return to your screens in The #BenedictCumberbatch | An Unexpected Meeting. He takes third place, and readers have already requested a sequel. Let’s hope he’ll oblige.

 

The runner-up this January, taking home the jousting silver, is a classic battle of the sexes. In Men vs Women | Crossing the Divide yours truly crosses the proverbial lance with none other than OM. Here is what Winifred M. Reilly had to say: “This post was just what I needed. Hilarious. I didn’t resonate much with OM’s complaints, tho amusing to hear him gripe. Your wit is priceless. Loved the weight lifting bit.”

 

And for the gold? We have been told repeatedly that the general public is apathetic when it comes to politics. That may be so, yet it would seem that we still want politicians to be held to account, especially when they are in charge of the country. Xenophobic Tory MP Nadine Dorries blames immigrants for recent UK floods is our jouster of the month.

This is all from the Top Ten Shards this January. If I got you in the mood for a little jousting, remember: you receive one point for breaking your lance on your opponent’s chest, two points for breaking it on their helmet, and three points for an unhorsing. Farewell!

Fellow Blogger – Vic Briggs from Shards of Silence

Suzy has kindly included Shards of Silence in her current series of interviews with fellow bloggers. Thank you, Suzy both for inviting me to take part and for sharing with us the blogs you love.

Her questions were fun and some delved deeper than expected. It gave me an opportunity to think through what writing in this medium means to me and I found it a great way to discover what makes other bloggers tick too.

Please follow the link below for her interview with yours truly.

Fellow Blogger – Vic Briggs from Shards of Silence.

If you are on the lookout for new blogs, Suzy’s interviews are a very good place to start.