I host the Orange County Satellite for IWOSC, the Independent Writers of Southern California. As a group, we’ve been working on professionalism, taking our careers seriously and viewing our writing as just that – as a career, and not as a single writing project. And as part of that, we’ve been working on branding ourselves and figuring out how we want to present ourselves and be perceived.
So we were talking tonight about blogging, providing valuable content, and a question came up about politics: do we dare to go there?
And the answer from our PR maven was…yes. Go there. Better to be controversial – as long as it’s done in a professional way – than to go unrecognized.
I struggle with this. Ninety-five percent of the blogs I want to write, and several of the books on my writing to-do list, are political in nature. I love to challenge myself to make a logical, coherent argument. I’ve been blogging so infrequently since I started my new website because I’ve been censoring myself, afraid to ruffle feathers. I don’t like actors who blurt out political rants, so why should I tolerate it with writers?
Well…I’m a political animal. I have opinions. And since I’m a writer, I think I can at least present my thoughts logically. You might not agree with them, and that’s great – disagree away! I want to learn new things, and I want to hear the other side. Make me see the world in a different way, open my mind, and I will try to do the same for you.
So I’m going there. I hope you’ll go with me.