YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

I think it’s somewhat predicable (and perhaps a little self-serving) for a blogger watching a movie about another blogger to squawk “quelle horreur thiz is my life”. NO?

Of course the movie to which Imelda’s referring is Julie & Julia.

Far be it for the Despotic Queen to offer up a critique of anything other than footwear. However, I will say the film doeth touch what can often be a raw nerve for those who blog and that is the impact blogging has on those who love us.

Towards the end of the film there is a short scene that should resonate with EVERY SINGLE person who authors a blog.

It clocks in at around one and half minutes of screen time but this single scene surmises EVERYTHING there is to know about the psyche of a blogger. 

Should your amour be parked next to you on your zebra covered chaise (as Imelda’s was) this scene is guaranteed to elicit knowing glances, a belly load of laugher (for the self deprecating types) and (depending on how obsessed you are with your blog) a few snide remarks.

I mention this because the end of the scene served as a timely reminder to why I started blogging and that is because I enjoy (nah, love) writing.

But from time-to-time the simple pleasure of cobbling together a few nonsensical words and mixed metaphors has (over the past three years) turned into a big beefy monkey riding my back.

I’ve had more cyber honours bestowed on me than is befitting a small cult blog about shoes, yet why is it that I’m still paralysed by doubt and afraid to talk about it?

And I know I’m not alone.

Are we afraid any talk of doubt will reveal our soft underbelly thus rendering us defenceless to the myriad of perceived attackers?

I was.

A few years past, while we were having our two for the price of one colonic treatment, I imparted words of wisdom to my much beloved Jill of Trend de la Creme (who was also having a blog crisis), “blog for yourself and only yourself”. Of course, these weren’t Imelda’s words, I’d picked them up somewhere on the information super highway and at the time they felt appropriate.

But time and life has a way of diluting wisdom and the original joy of blogging can get swept under a pile of emails or lost in the rush to be first to publish or dented by trolls or crushed by constant comparisons to other more prolific bloggers.

Should someone ever seek my counsel I would now say don’t sit around stewing in your own filth. Ask someone to ride shotgun and if you don’t have someone then ask Imelda. If I’ve learned one thing in three years it’s that blog-related crisis’ are both alarmingly regular (read one a year) and crippling and that sometimes all y’all need is a little perspective.

I’m no blogging agony aunt, in fact I’m the poster despot for what-not-to-do but if you need an ear then email me at editor@imelda.com.au and I’ll pony up my Skype deets (down a handful of cunt-relaxants) and we yak.

If the prospect of a tête-à-tête with the Despotic Queen is enough to cause an anal prolapse then remember ‘blog for yourself and only yourself’ and get thee a copy of Julie and Julia (just trust mother Imelda on that one).

Comments

[Sister Wolf]

No doubts are allowed! Fuck everyone who doesn't love you, they are idiots.

[Sally]

You rule. And I don't just mean a small nation.

[SwanDiamondRose]

i think i have run across the blogging doubts blog entries on a lot of the bloggers i follow. i've done a share of my own. and there are the makers/designers/crafters doubts too. it's a funny line to walk. but oprah style honesty is taken more in stride these days and somewhat expected too i think. i agree, blog for yourself. i loved in Julie & Julia also, just seeing her talk about her blogging and her husband trying to relate to what the hell she was going through. when i step away from my computer i don't have a lot of people in the "real world" who do what i do. at the beginning people treated me like i was a little wacko. that's gone away now pretty much, and if they don't get it, well now i'd have to say they are the ones who are wacko. i think your blog is greatness Imelda!

[SwanDiamondRose]

you know what i wonder about. when people are nasty to you behind the scenes. do you say something about it? in your blog? i never have. but sometimes i wonder, why am i protecting this person's nastyness.