
Was watching 24 Hours in A & E
where this skater
tore down a flight of steps on his board
then crashing at the end
ending his chances of becoming
a pro
& I thought
we don’t take chances like that in our writing
not really
we don’t face broken bones, torn ligaments
or worse
we don’t face much
what’s the worst?
no one ‘likes’ our post, no one comments,
we put up a post that upsets a few people
it doesn’t get much worse than that
we don’t really risk much
but what if we did?
what would it look like?
what’s the riskiest post you’ve put up?
*pic courtesy of pinterest
Donβt really have a risky one, but if you were a writer who depended on getting paid, it could be a very risky enterprise
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that’s even more true now with Amazon entering the book market: they do not want alienated readers who are seen as consumers —
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What about once you have a public profile? Then the risks are greater. Helen Demidenko and the outcry about “The Hand that Signed the Paper”. JK Rowling making controversial statements about gender fluidity. There is the possibility of backlash, especially now with all the social media natter. But to some degree, I am risk averse even with my posting. Like in all social media, I think we try to present our best selves. But apart from that, I don’t want to offend anybody. I want people to like me even if they don’t like me writing. It’s a weakness of mine. π
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I remember the Demidenko outcry; to some extent we are shielded by our relative anonymity : I remember a bus ticket saying: ‘it’s the spouting whale that gets harpooned’; like you, I want to be liked too π
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I like that bus ticket. It’s kind of the down side of “the squeaking wheel gets the oil”.
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true; back when bus tickets came with wise sayings on the back, I wrote a poem called ‘The Getting Of Wisdom’ acquired not through books but from reading the backs of bus tickets π people used to collect them, then one day they stopped π¦
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LOL. The Aussie equivalent of fortune cookies. I wonder if it was only a South Australian thing. I haven’t heard of it before. A shame it stopped.
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‘The Aussie equivalent of fortune cookies’: I love that π another one was ‘it’s not enough to point the gun; you’ve got to pull the trigger’; maybe you’re right, maybe they’re South Australian as stobie poles or fritz π
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Kenneth Leal collated the sayings, which were printed on bus and train tickets printed by Leal’s company, later Star Printing. Dorothy O’Neil collated the sayings into a book published 1982. etc, etc., gleaned from a Google search. Ah, memory lane.
https://www.myrandomtips.com/history/1970s-sta-adelaide-bus-ticket/
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And this one, too: http://jo-stophaveachat.blogspot.com/2010/05/bus-tickets.html
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thank you; loved learning that; will check out the book; pity it stopped
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Great question. Mine is still in draft status
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good; I look forward to the post π
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I think the skater has it easy. Broken bones mend, torn ligaments generally heal fully. The act of putting out there the naked truth of yourself or a part of your soul, only to have it laughed at or worse, ignored. That’s brutal injury. I have a post like this. It’s still up, unlikable I suppose. https://khartless.com/2020/12/22/after-we-ran-away/
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ignored is one thing; laughed at is another esp if it’s not comedic; will duck across and have a look —
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That is true. I make it my goal not to view others writing and words in that way. Thanks for reading the pox marked post, no, it was very early on, but it felt a bit that way at the time.
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Jumping in – sure, naked truth is hard but it won’t literally kill you. It can be brutal, but it doesn’t require the mending of bones or muscles. I believe that there are physical feats that are harder than truly honest writing.
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If we go near politics, I think we have to take care how we write, to avoid upsetting people. This US withdrawal from Afghanistan, for example, was basically Biden following through on Trump’s “America First” rhetoric, but a lot of the Americas on here are vehemently anti-Trump, and so get riled when we say “actually the new guy is no better”.
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Biden was caught between a rock and a hard place — there’s material for a pun here — but I do avoid politics because it is so divisive, and can quickly degenerate into squabbling; and yet …. it’s tricky — there’s so much else to talk about, celebrate π
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Ah, I enjoy my political posts, just because I have an interest anyway. People don’t necessarily agree, but the numbers that do show sympathy surprise me. But the platform comes into it there – we’re most of us mature enough to disagree sensitively.
But I definitely agree that writing nothing but political is a big turn off.
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you’ve summed it up pretty well, Mister Bump —
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the riskiest post i ever put up was opining on religion and secularism which i thought would generate quite a havoc because firstly tried this for the first time. and secondly it is a such a contentious topic..
Some other posts are still in draft status as someone said..
great post malone!
~Kunjal.
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thanks; religion vs secularism will always stir the pot π
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Yeahh,we don’t really take a lot of risk..but about the part that upsets people,here’s one that I posted,but my friends advised me to delete it as it was a bit bold and felt a bit personal:
https://theforgersoffantasy.art.blog/2021/09/18/pervalerta-tribute/ π
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okay. I’m gingerly making my way towards it, putting on a brave front; here goes π
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Religion is always a subject that feels like tap dancing on eggshells to me. I have a post for tomorrow which I was having second thoughts about, but you’ve encouraged me to go for it!
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good on you, Hobbo; looking forward to reading it; we should take more risks with our writing, give our posts frisson π always we should promulgate frisson π
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Thanks. Personally, I don’t feel it is outrageous, but religion is such an emotive subject. π
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it is in the same realm as politics: murky and dangerous π
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Definitely!π
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Sometimes, it feels like everything one writes might be risky. People are so quick to take things to heart. And that itself could be a risky statement. I think falling down a few stairs might be safer. Broken bones hurt, but don’t point fingers. Yikes! π
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true: good writing can be prickly at times, without being malicious π
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All my post are a bit risky. I love puns, twisting and turning meaning of words. Risky in your native language, I do it in a foreign language.
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π you do it well, Ulle: there is always something surprising, quirky in your observations π
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