Saturday, November 10, 2012

Why Blog If Nobody Out There Cares About What You Have To Say??

Let me ask a serious question to all Bloggers out there, do you really think people care what you have to say?  

Obviously the answer is a BIG FAT YES, or Blogging would be as far gone as Betamax Machines from the eighties.      

So am I living in a dreamworld thinking that there are people out there that actually want to hear from me?  

ME

Erin Melissa Apelu. 
Thirty-seven-years old. 

Former Ballerina turned overweight, over opinionated, wishful Author.  Yeah, I think I'm over-reaching drastically! 

Strangely enough, I really don't care if anyone out there reads my blog, because I've decided to write for me. 

ME!

When I started this blog (and the two others I have) I was writing to be like everyone else--a cookie cutter blogger. Back in May of 2011, I attended the LDStorymakers for the first time.  Literary Agent, Sara Megibow basically implied that if you want to be a successful author then you must blog!! Makes sense, right? Right! It does make sense. Even I'm smart enough to know that. 

At Storymakers I met a lot, I mean a crazy lot, of awesome writers. I was as giddy as a child in Disneyland except this was for a want-to-be author. And I was surrounded by so many talented published, and un-published, writers. The desire to be just like all of them surged like Diet Coke mixed with Mentos through my veins.--exploding everywhere.  

I would be successful, and popular like them. 

Four perfect days. Then reality set in when I came home and started a blog. Very few people cared what I had to say, and even fewer cared to comment on any of my posts. To make matters worse, I looked through the blogs of my new-found-friends,  like Erin Summerhill, Jessie Humphries, Peggy Eddleman, Taffy Lovell, and Julie Donaldson to name a few. I soon discovered what a real loser I was.  
I only hoped to be as interesting as them, and others that I met. They were all so beautiful, smart, and talent writers, who had so much to say. I was totally new that this. I didn't even finish college, and was known for being the 'dumb blonde' with crappy grammer.  How could I be a writer. 

Shortly after, Peggy signed with an AMAZING Agent, and this year Jessie did also. I however, after being rejected by my favorite agent, didn't follow through with my submission plans (and I had 3 request fulls). My worst fears were confirmed--I was a loser! 

Losers don't blog.

Honestly, I wasn't as commit to writing on my blog as they were, but I really did give it a chance to see if anyone besides them would comment or keep interest in me. They didn't. Unfortunately, I let this knowledge get the better of me and did what I knew best--STOP DOING IT! 

This past May at Storymakers I found myself almost depressed.  If it hadn't been for the awesome Julie Donaldson hanging out with me, and discovering that we had more in common than I'd ever imagined, it would have been an utter disappointment. I found myself distant from the other friends I'd made the previous year--and that is NOT like me!  They were popular, and really moving up in the writing world. Why would they notice me & care what I had to say? So I stayed away, went to bed early, and even left the conference before it was completely over (it was my dad's 80th birthday party at our house). On the other hand, had I not, I would never have gotten to know Julie--and we really did have a great time (especially watching video clips of the handsome, William Levy, on my laptop!!) 

It's taken many, many months of humble contemplation to realize it was totally my fault. I wanted to be them. I even found a pit in my stomach when I would see their blogs, or posts on Facebook of something fun they did together. I was use to being the center of attention, and with them I wasn't. I wasn't sure if I even existed in their minds. For me, it was Jr. High all over again, and for them they were just being, well--them! And I was jealous that I couldn't just realax and be me. Hey, If I did, maybe they'd like me! 

After a long eighteen-months of letting politics completely take over my life, I've decided I owe it to myself to be me again.  You see, I've never had a hard time making friends. On the contrary, people somehow are drawn to me--maybe because I'm like car crash in motion. :) So it's high time I stop trying to be like someone else and enjoy my own talents.  

If you've followed me through this disastrous post of rambling, I want you to know. I don't care if you read the things I have to say. I don't even care if you comment. Because I've realized that blogging doesn't need me (what do I know anyway?), but I need blogging. 

And to my awesome, talented, beautimous friends from Storymakers, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE YOU!  You inspire me. You give me something positive to strive for!! And I'm done being jealous!  And I'm sorry if I've ever done or said anything to offend you.

I'm just going to write about me! 




4 comments:

  1. You're awesome, Erin! You saved me from a completely boring Storymakers conference! I left early too, so there's nothing to feel bad about. And I think blogging is great, if it's what you want to do, but if it's not, don't sweat it! Spend your time writing what YOU want to write, and this writing gig will become very fulfilling to you. I'm not a huge blogger. I post maybe twice a month. And it's no big deal. I'm not going to lose my agent over it. My publisher isn't going to cancel my contract. Write what's important to you, and ignore half of everything you hear at writers' conferences. :) And keep dreaming big.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good for you, Erin! Being yourself is the best person you can be. :) You definitely owe it to yourself to be you.

    And as far as blogging, I say do what makes you happy! It definitely has its plusses and drawbacks. It became my full-time job for many months! (Not kidding.) It still requires a huge amount of time to post and comment as much as possible on my commentor's blogs. And do you know what I found out? My agent doesn't care if I blog. My publisher doesn't care if I blog. If I hadn't had a blog, it wouldn't have made the slightest difference to either of them on whether or not they signed me. Sure, some (like Sara Megibow) do care, but most(!) don't. So do it if it makes YOU happy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peggy & Julie--A BIG THANKS!!! Yeah, I'm so over Sara (hehe). I am excited to just do write what I want to write and not worry about if everything is grammatically correct, or even makes sense (I have total ADD). I'm just going to enjoy saying what I want to say!!!

    And I am excited for Storymakers this year, because I am TOTALLY going to hang out with you guys!

    ReplyDelete