ASSISTED BLOGGING: HOW TO ASK FOR HELP

If there were an assisted blogging home I’d move there tomorrow.

Would it be any different than my current digs?

More community? Big outreach? Extra reminders that ‘You’re Not Alone?’

You’d think respect for the creative process would be high.

Think about the possibilities of a writing retreat lifestyle.

How long did that take?

Reading author biographies is more telling than they should be. If you read a book and like it, do you really care about the writer?

If the waiter in a restaurant doesn’t need to know your name any more than the gas attendant filling up your car, why should you care about an author?

The writer who avoids the hard truth about their favorite authors comes with a reckoning: they might be your neighbors in the assisted blogging home.

Hemingway’s own kids said he was unavailable in the mornings while he worked, then over available in the afternoons.

No one wants an over-available Hemingway in the afternoon. It just sounds like trouble. The guy has a record of behavior that might not fit into a regimented domestic routine.

Rules would be broken and you’d never get anything done. Besides, he’d probably have rowdy visitors making noise.

Could you work in that racket?

Relaxing With An Assist

What’s the difference between an assisted blogging home, and a luxury spread at a golf resort?

Golf comes with a scorecard to verify results, and a tradition of honesty. Cheaters are not welcome.

Fiction writers have rules, but it’s still fiction. While the golf score is right there in black and white, fiction writers work in the gray areas. Believing them, or not, is up to the reader.

Think of it as a matter of taste.

Non-fiction writers also have rules, but they’ve changed over time. How else can you explain the rise of ‘creative non-fiction?’

In either case, writers work to harness their narrative drive. That’s the idea that something big is about to happen in a story, and it’s going to be important.

What might that be? Turn the page and find out.

Getting Help At Assisted Blogging

What kind of life would it be with an assist when you asked?

You’d think giving people would embrace the chance to help. But they have their own needs, their own work.

Go ahead and ask, expect to be asked, and do the right thing. If you need a difference maker, you may need to be one, too.

I know a man who I consider a visionary. 

Like Paul Newman said in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, he sees the world clearly while everyone else wear bi-focals.

This is man with a valued opinion. I’m not alone in that estimation. The guy sees things and takes action.

In other words, he’s busy, but not busy to be busy. He’s busy changing the world in a good way. My kind of guy, yours to if you knew him.

He’s one of the difference makers who change people’s opinions, but instead of shouting from a soapbox, he sets an example.

This is the neighbor you want wherever you are. Inventive, resourceful, ambitious.

My neighbors in assisted blogging would hear a familiar whine:

Younger people online may not outnumber boomers online, but they do more than share pictures of food, sunsets, pets, and reunions. More than vacation pics, party pics, and dress-up pics. 

With that in mind, what would the youths rename boomerpdx? 

Old and in the way dot com? Bored and tired dot com? Waste of time dot com? But enough about my kids, I’m aiming for the funny bone.

Please give me a few funny ideas for renaming, relaunching, re-imagining boomerpdx. By the way, along with low boomer traffic, I also strike out with Portland traffic. Tigard is my sweet spot.

What would my new neighbor Scott Fitzgerald say?

“Don’t worry, Old Sport, these things always work out. Keep focused, stay on track, and watch that green light.”