Do It Or Don’t Do It, But Stop Blaming The Universe

I have seen that it is fashionable to start articles with the phrase: “today I’m going to shit on SEO” and I also want to play. So, in this article I’m going to stop with SEO and keywords – in fact, my keyword is “do it”, so you see, this is really SEO and not whining posts that you bookmark.

In the last few weeks I have seen some articles complaining about how hard it is to write and blog following some marketing rules. How uncomfortable it is to have to do something out of obligation. How difficult it is to write about a single topic or how little it matters to sell or not to sell on a blog. I’ve participated in Twitter threads where we talked about how tough social media can be.

Let it go ahead that I understand this point of view . That I have been there and that I know how bad it is.

But in the same way that I was there, I also went out. And I came out of that state – even if I had slight relapses – because I understood that nobody forces me to do anything . I do what I want and if I don’t want to do something … Well, I don’t. Nobody forces me to do anything.

The Animals already said it: It’s my life and I’ll do what I want .

Melodrama and audiences

Do you know why soap operas work so well? Because they are pure melodrama. Actors and screenwriters exaggerate emotions and situations and push them to the limit . Do you know why those “complaint articles” work so well? Because they are pure melodrama. They are the runny mascara of the dancing queen of blog posts.

Hey, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them. In fact, whoever writes them does so with the awareness that they are going to sneak in and that they are going to get in well. It’s part of the marketing… Wait! Wasn’t marketing what they hated? Yes, but sometimes they reconcile with him. I know you are not going to like this, but the reader is a hungry hyena and those kinds of emotional articles are pure meat.

You write one of these articles of your own free will. Nobody forces you to do it. Nor does anyone force you to write articles on editorial marketing, crime fiction, or the brown Bosphorus kettle and the consequences of the Rustican light cavalry charge on their mating habits.

You do it because you want or because you like it, or because of both. And if you don’t like it, don’t do it. It is as simple as that.

Do you want to stop following a content strategy and write about what comes out of the plum tree? Then do it! Who told you that you can’t have a blog writing what comes out of the nugget? No one. You can do whatever you want, that’s the great thing about blogging.

It makes me a little angry that these types of articles are written, taking advantage of the fashion of “hitting SEO”. It makes me angry because it seems that someone is making you do it. And it is not true. It is a terrible argumentative fallacy. Nobody forces you to do anything. Nobody puts a gun to your head and says, “Create a content strategy, search your keywords or I’ll kill a puppy.”

Confessions of a writer who does not write

I can shit on a lot of things too. For example in ghost writing service. And I could shit on publishers and readers. And in the groups of writer friends who make and consume their endogamous products among themselves and whip every book that is not part of their circle, mistreating it in Amazon reviews and Goodreads.

But I do not do it. Because doing that is an excuse. It is a waste of time and strength. The problem is not others, nor is it the environment, the problem is not even gender. The problem is yourself. As simple as that.

I’m going to tell you something that bothers me a lot: I haven’t written more than two pages in a row since May. Since May! I have been 5 months in which I have not written anything. I sit down, open Scrivener, load a project that I have on my hard drive – right now I have about 15 half -, I look at the last sentences I have written and close it.

And I open another. And the process repeats itself.

I do not write and I have blamed everything. To work, to the heat, to the summer, to vacations … Excuses.

To put you in precedence: the break came when I wanted to change gender.

I read terror, I watch horror series and movies… I love it. But it also frustrates and drains me psychologically. I started to write other things, I had a couple of very good stories in mind and I started with them… But then, destiny reached me. He didn’t make me eat solvent green, but he told me the best thing to do was do my own thing. Horror is my thing, not the Chasing Amy type story I was writing.

And I got blocked. I left her. And now I don’t know where to get it.

But do you know when I will write again? Exact: when you want. Because I just have to. I just have to sit down, open the program, and type.

Although that, right now, is the most difficult thing in the world.

Because of me, because of me…

Some time ago someone told me that I must be cyclothymic. I didn’t know what it was, so I googled it. Simply put, it’s a light version of being bipolar. I’m not bipolar — at least I don’t think I am — but I couldn’t tell that person to be very wrong in judgment.

I have seasons. There are months in which writing is my life and I love it – where it says writing you can change it for: work, my blog, people, marketing … – and others in which suddenly, I don’t find meaning in anything I do and everything surpasses me.

I want to write and right now I have 4 finished works, ready to layout and publish … But then I think: what for? What good is all this going to do for me? Who is going to read me?

Then, in a month, I’ll think: I have to publish all this now. And the rush will enter me.

You see. So are my cycles. Do you hate SEO today because your blog does not work as you thought? Welcome to the club, I’ve had that feeling for 5 years.

And here I am. Working. Because this is not something you do out of obligation. You do this because you like it. And nobody forces you to do it in any concrete way. Do you want to sell through your blog? Then do it. Do you want to turn your blog into a blog? Do it! Want to be the new Hank Moody and have a badass Hell-A blog? Then do it! Nobody stops you.

Sorry. Yes there is someone who prevents you. Yourself. Because you are the only real barrier between what you want to do and what you are doing.

Write what makes it hard

I’m not Hank Moody, but I’m going to quote his first post in Hell-A and I’m going to tell you: Jaume Vicent hates you all.

You see? I wanted to do it and I have. And it’s a phrase that goes against my target readers, against SEO and against my brand… But I don’t give a shit. I wanted to say it and I have said it. And it has not been like removing a plaster, that phrase is written letter by letter.

It is liberating.

Don’t you want to write SEO on your blog? Do not do it. Write what you want. 

That is also my biggest problem. And although I know it and have it identified, I still do not write … Because many times, they expect me to write things that I do not want. I am expected to write horror or science fiction and I don’t want to… I want to write other things. As Moody tells his students: I want to write what makes me tough. Because what makes me tough will make others tough and that’s the magic of writing.

But at some point we have been wrong. We have taken the path of selling as a mantra. And it seems that all writers have understood that they “must have a writing blog. ” It’s not like that. You don’t need to have a writing blog, you need a writing blog… And not even that. You do not need anything. It serves you with your social networks. And you know what? Not even that.

You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to do.

The death of blogs and other weird things I read out there

The great experts have been predicting the death of blogs for about ten years. But here we are. Speaking of blogs.

It’s a bit like those sects that have been predicting the end of the world since the 80s … Anyway, don’t they get tired of shitting it? At this point, I would be a bit embarrassed.

It is true that blogs are not dead, but they have changed. A lot. In 2005 Google was a company that was worth about 9,000 million dollars, today it is worth five times that. It is normal that, on the way, everything has changed. Blogs are no longer a blog … and no, you’re not the star of Bocados de Realidad either, recording video blogs with a Kingsize- sized VHS camera.

The Internet has changed a lot. Blogs have changed a lot and people don’t know what they were like before. A blog, ten years ago was basically what an Instagram account is today. People uploaded photos of their day to day and little else. That’s what blogs were, that’s what real blogs were like. They weren’t your corner to cry. The Internet comes from home in tears. Because what people in your corner read will be what will identify you as a writer.

Today, blogs are visibility platforms and marketing tools for companies. And that must be understood in context.

Yes, a blog is still a personal space and you can do whatever you want with it. But one has to be consistent with the environment in which one moves. I would not like to reduce it to the ridiculous … but sometimes it seems that we want to have props for a radio program.

Do it

I do not know how many have made it here. I also don’t know how many would have done it without getting mad at me or thinking I’m a conceited asshole. I understand that few.

I have already told you, I understand the frustration that your blog causes you. I understand the desire to leave everything, to scream … I’ve been on this blog for 5 years and I’ve wanted to leave everything and close, at least once a year. And this has been no different.

Because a blog is a job. It is very demanding. Takes time. It requires an investment of money. Psychologically it is another effort, you have to put up with comments of all kinds and you have to put up with idiots of all kinds, who start to release bile and frustrations … And you, as they have repeated ad nausea, you never answer wrong … Because … Oh, God, Your brand!

Having a blog almost always sucks, yeah. But nobody forces me to be here. Nobody has forced me to write about marketing for writers. Nobody has forced me to write about terror. I have done it, because I liked it. Because I have thought that it could be good for me and to promote the books that I have been publishing.

I have made a mistake? Well of course. A lot. Many times. With many articles – this one you are reading is one of those. But the fault has not been SEO, or content marketing, or my blog. It was mine. I have decided to do so.

I understand that not everyone enjoys social media. That not everyone enjoys planning content. That we all have multiple interests and that focusing on just one thing can be suffocating … But you don’t have to either. Nobody forces you.

Do you want to have a writer’s blog? Do it. Do you want to have a blog FOR writers? Do it. Do you want to get away from social networks and blogs? Do it. Do you want to only have an account on Twitter? Do it. Do you want to leave Twitter? Do it. Do you want to disappear from the Internet and dedicate yourself to bowling in the villages in summer? Do it londonlenders.co.uk.

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