Blogs, Bloggers and Blog Interpreters

Writing a blog is just like writing a novel – there is a dateline to keep to although it is not explicitly stated. Once a blogger starts, he or she will have to keep writing no matter what – it is a responsibility they hold not only towards their writing but also to their readers. It is to ascertain that the blog is active; it is to ensure that their string of readers is loyal. Making a mark is one thing but maintaining the reputation it has gained the bloggers is another. The latter is the most difficult because flow of thoughts are as unpredictable as the weather (am not using the phrase with ‘woman’ in it less I cause another riot online!). Ideas and thoughts do not come when we want them to but when we least expect them. It is at this point we have to make a mental note as to what should be noted down to paper later on or if possible right there and then. I suppose the most idealistic thing is to keep a pen and paper at hand, or even a mobile phone because as it is we have mobile novels these days so a mobile phone would be just as useful in this current age.

I realize thoughts and insights come in many forms. Anything and anyone can be a subject for a piece of writing, for everything is like literature – they are all down to our interpretation. One thing which may be common in one’s writing is the form ideas and thoughts take, in other words - a common theme. There maybe one theme which one may have passion about and will use in almost all their writings. This may be the one theme that one uses to start off one’s writing and it may be the very theme which may attract readers. Readers, on the other hand, will expect this same theme to occur in this entire one writer’s writings, which may be a good but also a negative point mostly where readers are concerned. This is due to the most constant thing in life - change. One cannot run away from it. So, one should expect a writer to fail in being constant with their writings; a writer will indefinitely have a change in opinions and points of views. The writer will fail almost indefinitely because times change, ideas change, and so will the method of looking at a particular subject matter. There may be different subject matters treated under the light of different themes. However, there is the possibility that a particular subject matter, which has already been written based on one theme, will be revisited under a different point of view and a different theme. These are the changes readers should be expecting from writers especially the bloggers. Ideas will remain ideas and they will never die neither will they change even when they are reformed. The only ones changing are the ones who created those ideas and they are humans who are true to the nature they exist in and regardless of what they do, they will change one way or the other. Therefore, to take action upon the ideas and thoughts one holds onto is to act now while it is still fresh and active, for the longer one waits, the less the idea would appeal. And eventually, nothing will be done to make a difference in this life we currently live in. ‘Nothing will come out of nothing’ – so the time to act is now; the time when one gets an idea and writes it down. Hereafter, all one has to do is to contradict one’s self to either dispute the original idea or refine it further.

Where ideas are concerned it is quite disappointing to know the futility of humans in actually thinking them up, for although most of us know sooner or later we will rethink them and possibly even ruthlessly discard them, we still want to have ideas and opinions because that is the nature of humans: curious, intrigued and above all, thinking all the time. And, at the end of the day, we then commit the very vile mistake of actually writing them down and later on contradicting them one way or another. One of the reasons for this is the fact we are interacting with different people everyday, reading up on different things every minute daily ( well teachers and students alike mainly), and we are faced by the tide of change in the very society we live in as well as the personal experiences we deal with.

‘Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so’ is the best phrase to describe what we write here on the blogs. Nothing we write can be substantiated because they are merely views and opinions. We are living in a world where everyone has the divine right to voice their points of view on anything, regardless how little it matters to them. No institution or even constitution can snatch that right from us. We may have rules and regulations or some sort of obstacle stopping us from demonstrating what we want to voice but nothing can stop us from thinking. Our mind is our own and no one can take that away from us. We can write (because the pen is sharper than the sword) what we want in whatever way we want but who is to say we should or should not write about something? Of course we as writers have the responsibility to know how to word what we want to voice so as to not be misconstrued but then again, like everything else, like literature, it is all down to interpretation. We as writers can always twist our words and defend our true intentions in our writings. Readers can read what they read but whatever they deem they have understood is down to their interpretation of our texts. And the most crucial mistake most people make is to take an excerpt or a phrase and use it for other purposes, in which case the writer cannot be held accountable for what that phrase or excerpt has been used for or interpreted as such. The phrase or the excerpt only means something when used in its original text. On a lighter note, all these seem to make writing and reading a lot more like a game and definitely more fun.

Blogs may seem a casual tool to reach to the masses, and yes to a certain extent it is but it is also a tool which actually teaches us our rights to exercise our freedom of thoughts and speech. It teaches us the responsibility we undertake as readers as well as writers; it teaches us the humility to be humans in exercising our divine right in thinking and voicing our opinions.