What Should I know about you as an Author?
Firstly, your personal likes and dislikes are your business, not mine.
A young author I follow doesn’t hesitate to share her opinions on social media. In her latest rant, she defends the government spending billions on 87k more IRS agents. Her argument is that they need the money to automate the IRS.
They are hiring 87 thousand more IRS agents trained to use guns and be prepared to shoot citizens. They are trained to do the dirty work. If there is an uprising, they will be on the front lines.
That’s not automation; that’s an army paid for by your tax dollars to go after the middle class who cannot afford expensive CPAs and Tax specialists.
Her rant is not formulated around the facts. Her rant is a concoction of half-truths created to sell the plan to the American people. (the check is in the mail…)
Your predilection regarding political affiliations is, again, your business. Again, how you feel about court rulings and specific candidates is your business, not mine.
- What genre do you write?
- Have you won any awards?
- What other books come close to your style?
You often see tweets or rants from authors who have no problem telling you that you should feel the way they do. I am reminded of schoolyard bullies poking each other in the chest while saying stupid shit like, ’it takes one to know one.’
Here is my free advice. Before you post a rant, challenge yourself to take the other side and do your best to defend it.
If you consider that the media’s job is no longer to inform but to drive ratings or clicks, you will quickly see that they use emotional triggers to accomplish that goal. Journalism is dead. Stories must drive ratings even if they are fake news.
Money is the driving force. We will miss the larger picture if we are at each other’s throats over men in girl’s showers. The political class is raping the country, selling it bits and pieces at a time to the highest bidder.
If a story about men in the girl’s locker room is broadcast, men with daughters will go ape shit. You don’t mess with daddy’s girl. The distraction will take several news cycles, and politicians will have buried the proverbial body by the time the dust settles.
Most of the things people will burn a city down for are fake news ginned up by the media for ratings. Ratings equal advertising dollars. I worked in the industry for years; trust me on this one grasshopper.
A perfect example of this is the current war. The Russians have the same DNA as the Ukrainians. They are most likely related in many ways. Now, you have some megalomaniac shell a girl’s dormitory, and you no longer have logical thinking humankind on the battlefield. What you have created is chaos on a massive scale, with each side only ‘feeling’ hate for the other. The rage over war atrocities will drive the very worst in mankind to sideline their humanity over their animalistic tendencies toward violence. Putin and other world leaders know this and use it.
We are so desensitized to man’s inhumanity that they just possibly should torture puppies. I would bet that act would cause kids to pick up arms and fight to the death.
This is how our media controls you. “Democrats are for killing babies! Republicans want to keep all women in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant!”
Neither is true, but if you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it. If they buy the lie, they will vote to put the devil in office, even if he promises to kill you. Yes, hate is much stronger than logic. The media has been successful in destroying Trump. If Biden or Trump were to tour the country handing out $100 bills to people for their vote, how many would not take the money? How many would take the money and lie to them and vote for the other guy anyway?
Ruminate on that last paragraph for a while. How many do you think will look in the mirror and question what kind of person they are? How many would care?
Politicians want to keep their power, which makes no difference if they are an R or a D.
If you, as an author, take a side, you chance losing half your potential audience.
That, my friends, is why I suggest before you get worked up about an issue, dig deep and make an honest effort to argue the other side.
If you are forced to argue for something you oppose, you must learn the other side. Once open to the idea that you could be mistaken or your previous arguments came from a news report and not from facts, you will see how we can be divided as a people.
A substantial glaring example is race. I know well over 600 people, personally, as in I have shaken their hands, had dinner with them, etc. Out of all those folks, I know nobody who judges people by their skin color.
We are simply not a racist country. Yes, there are knuckle-dragging inbred monsters out there, but they are in the minority of mankind.
Those who willingly use the R-word are probably the ones who should look into the mirror.
Riddle me this… What would the world be like if we just shut off the cable news, the TV news, and so on? What if there were only news feeds that were not designed to trigger people?
‘Arizona is going to be wet for a few days. Heavy rainfall expected.’
What if opinion programs designed to stir up your emotions were canceled?
What if calling someone a racist was tantamount to screaming fire in a theatre?
As a writer, it is easy to write dystopian novels. Why? We are living in one right now. It’s all about money and power. Those at that level only care about their portfolio, not you or me.
My latest novel is on hold because today’s events interfere with my natural writing style. Yes, you can isolate yourself, but eventually, you will be exposed to the stupidness in the world. That ignorance will drive you to blog about it rather than write your novel.
The last advice I would offer aspiring writers or even established authors is this, get rid of the distractions. Take the smart speaker off your desk. Leave your phone in another room.
Think back to how some of the authors of years ago might have accomplished their novels. One author had a shack in the woods. I was thinking about creating a giant tree house with a ladder that I could pull up to stop all intruders.
In truth, I am considering building a cabin on some property I have that is relatively remote. Cell phone coverage is spotty, so that would do away with intrusions by smart speakers, spam calls, and of course, those attempting to sell me an extended warranty.
Now, what do you know about me?
- I am dedicated to the craft of writing.
- I go out of my way to assist other writers or authors.
- I stay informed, I vote, and then I let it go.
- I do not form opinions by what I hear or see from the media.
- I do my own fact-checking. Most online fact-checkers are an opinion of biased individuals.
- Where politicians are concerned, I never vote straight ticket.
- My personal feelings about someone do not predicate how I will vote; their actions do. What are their policies? How do they see Americans vs. the rest of the world?
We all have biases. Once you accept that truth, you can begin to see why the ‘other side feels the way they do. How they think does not make them right or wrong, it is just how they feel.
There is no such thing as your or my truth; there is only ‘the truth.’ Some will go to war over nothing more than a half-truth or how they feel.
If you choose to pontificate on social media, be ready to fight with those that follow you and be prepared to lose potential customers. Arguing with idiots is a waste of time.
There was a meme with some milk advertisement regarding the names of the cows from which the milk came. Some fuck wit posted the following. “I couldn’t help but notice that all those names are girls’ names. Misogyny is alive and well at this company.”
Since I don’t argue with unwise people, why should I spend my time attempting to tell her that milking a bull might get you a BFF? It is almost as if people are looking for a fight.
I often feel like starting a group on social media… “What offended you today?” the world is changing and not for the better.
A man attacked a lady in plain sight of several people. Instead of stopping the attack, the bystanders pulled out their phones and attempted to capture the whole fight on video. Once the video is captured, the first to upload it wins. Is that the game? Is that the brave new world we are living in?
Think before you speak. Read history before you espouse your feelings. If you take the time to attempt to argue their point, that puts you way ahead of the rest. Distinguish the facts from more than the TV or Radio. Knowing the difference between a cow and a bull is also good.
As always, Happy writing!
-TW
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