Nice Things People Say About My Writing | IWSG

Sometimes, I tell lies. You know - fibs, untruths, falsehoods, porky pies - that kind of thing. Prevarications, if you want to get fancy and are big into crossword puzzles.

I bet you do too. If you say you don't, I'll bet you a bag of chocolate chip cookies that you're lying.

I tell lies to myself - "Eating one more chocolate chip cookie won't hurt. It will just go to waste otherwise. Wasting food is bad. I should eat this cookie. It's the right thing to do." And I tell lies to others - "Sure thing, Doc, I've totally given up eating sweets, including chocolate chip cookies, and I run five miles every day now."

Ready for a confession? Here's one of the big lies I tell myself - "I don't care what anyone thinks about my writing! I started this blog for me. It's my personal creative outlet. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks I'm a rubbish writer!"

Yeah. That's not quite the truth. I do care what people think about the weird and wacky nonsense I post on this blog. I don't lose any sleep over it, but I do care. Here's how I know that I care - when someone says something nice about the blog, it brings a smile to my face. Generally, you don't smile about stuff you don't care about.

When the fine folks at the Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) announced this month's writing prompt, I took it as a sign to stop lying to myself about not caring what people think. (I still reserve the right to lie to myself about the health benefits of chocolate chip cookies.)

What's the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?

Just a couple of days later, I had another sign from the Universe when I got this comment on my blog from Alex, the founder of the IWSG.

Not into boating of course, but I did find some of that rather funny. You have a great sense of writing humor.

First of all, I was stunned he had even read my blog post. After all, it was on the exceedingly dry, dull and mind-numbing topic of safety tethers for boats. The only reason I read it was because I wrote it and even I found it boring. To have someone say that I could inject some humor into such an uninteresting topic brought a huge smile to my face.

For me, telling me that my writing is humorous is a tremendous compliment. Because I write about such an eclectic range of topics - such as boat safety equipment, traveling the States in a 13' camper, bringing moas back from the dead and washing my hair - I do wonder if people tune out when I blog about something that isn't of interest to them. One of the things I do try to do is have a sense of humor and explain things in such a way that everyone can understand and relate to what I'm talking about, even if they don't have personal experience or interest in the topic.

It might not always work, but sometimes it does. And, when it does and people tell me it does through a comment or an email, it brings a smile to my face.

What's the nicest thing people have said to you about something you do? Do you ever worry about what other people think?


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