Daily Prompt – Howl At The Moon

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” — Allen Ginsberg

Do you follow Ginsberg’s advice — in your writing and/or in your everyday life?

My ‘madness’, if that’s what we’re referring to it as, is what makes me uniquely me.

4 June – Comment: DELETED

Have you ever deleted a comment? What would make you delete a comment?

 
Let’s just put this in the context of my blog only…: NO.

Apr 25 – Selective Comments

Do you think people should have the right to prune their comment section, only keeping positive comments and deleting the critical ones?

I know that I’ve seen certain people on Facebook edit their comments when they post something, and somebody says something that they don’t like.

Yes, on one side I believe that in terms of a public forum like Facebook, everybody should have the right to express their own opinions and say what they want – naturally, providing that it’s not racist or a hate-speech etc etc. However, there are people out there who are quite opinionated – and I’ll happily raise my hand and say that I’m one of them, but even I know when I am crossing a line and being too offensive, and when I do that, I edit myself and simmer down the tone somewhat.

Apr 23 – Comment: DELETED

Have you ever deleted a comment?  Tell us about it.

I’m regularly finding myself deleting comments online.

The most common reason for me doing this is because I forget to apply my filter whenever I write a comment, and instead just write whatever I’m thinking, completely disregarding how offensive or scathing it might be. Then once I’ve actually written it, I’ll stop and re-read it a few times, and realise that it could probably be worded in a much nicer way, and then I’ll go back and generally edit the comment.

Day 21 – The End??

You’re almost there! Tell us how you feel about endings.

 

Well today is the last day of the NaBloPoMo writing challenge.

I’m somewhat surprised that I managed to make it the whole month, although, admittedly, I didn’t actually post every day as I had a tendency to skip a couple of days, but then I’d catch up on a few posts all at once. I still managed to address all the prompts, it’s just that it wasn’t exactly one per day, like I was supposed to.

Is that wrong? Am I going to receive some kind of interwebs penalty?

I do feel a sense of achievement, however, it’s not really how I thought I would feel. It’s not the standing-on-top-of-a-mountain-after-hiking-for-several-days-and-nearly-losing-a-leg-but-still-surviving kind of achievement,

 

but more of a pat-yourself-on-the-back / good-for-you kind of achievement.

If anything, it’s like an anti-climax. Whether it’s because the month has just passed so quickly (it’s already been a week since my birthday!!) or because NaBloPoMo (Or NaBlahBlahBlah as I call it) was only 21 prompts, because it didn’t include weekends – it’s over.

I’m actually quite pleased with myself in that I managed to challenge myself, and actually stick to that challenge for the whole month. I’ve gotten into the bad habit of writing my posts either whilst I’m at work, or late at night after Hulk goes to bed. It makes it hard because I haven’t told him that I’ve even been writing this blog, and I’m not entirely sure if I will tell him. I’ll have to address that one at a later point.

Going into this, I really didn’t know what to expect. When I first started thinking about writing a blog, I know that I have a lot to say, I just don’t necessarily know what to write and where to start. I’ve found that having prompts has been really helpful for me to just get words flowing out of my brain. Although the frustration comes in the form of such open-ended questions, because my brain starts racing at a million-miles-an-hour thinking of at least a dozen different possible ways that I can respond. I have a tendency to get over-analytical. If anything, that has been more of a challenge – taking a dozen different answers and trying to focus purely on one response.

Evidently, some of those posts have multiple answers, or at least briefly address a few potential responses and the reasons as to why. I think I would find it much easier if the prompts were more specific. Rather than ask me something like “What is your favourite dish?”, instead try something like “What is your favourite dish that your parents used to make when you were a child”, or “what was your favourite dish that you used to eat when you were a poor student living in a share house?” and I’d be like ‘Well that’s easy, microwave cheesy-pepper rice with tinned tuna’.

I’ve reached a point where I don’t actually want this to end. This has been something that I’ve needed just for me. And I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve really missed writing. I’ve missed ranting. I’ve missed getting thoughts out of my head and clearing my mind. Before I met Hulk, I used to write a lot. Whether it was just creative writing, or writing in a journal, it was still something, but soon enough I ran out of time for it, and it was abandoned. Forgotten about. Never to be spoken of again.

Like an abandoned baby. Or an abortion. Ooh, too much.

And please, don’t fucking start with me about abortions and being insensitive. Nobody is forcing you to read this. You made a choice to do so. I’m not going to be held responsible for you finding my words on a screen offensive. I’m entitled to an opinion, just like everybody else. Which means my opinion doesn’t have to be the same as your opinion and vice-versa. So go take you two-cents and your ‘I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY’

 

and take it somewhere else.

So although NaBlahBlahBlah has drawn to an end, I think this is merely my beginning. I will be spending the next month looking for another month of prompts to continue my writing. I want to continue my writing habit. I also want to get my other blog idea up and running, but that will take some planning.

So it’s not goodbye, it’s more like ‘It’s been swell, but the swelling’s gone down’.