Writer's (Starting) Block

Thar she blows ! I mean, there goes another blog. Add one more to the multitude of new blogs. And with it goes another First Post!

There is something special about the First Post. Akin to the first drive of the new car from the showroom, if you ask some; and akin to the first time you drive a car all alone, if you ask others. The former – let’s call them newcars – are those who have written before – a blog here, a set of reviews there, an article somewhere else. The latter – these would be newdrivers – are those who have never written before and look at this as an experimental venture.

If you’ve browsed enough blogs in your day – which I assume you would have, since you’re here – you would notice typical trends in either case.

Newcars know exactly what’s needed – a big bang. Something politically correct, popular, appealing to a majority of regular readers. Maybe a topical issue. Something in the news lately. Better still, maybe something with universal appeal, across time and mood. Maybe an erstwhile unpublished work the newcar takes particular pride in. Notwithstanding all the above, if the newcar fancied himself or herself as a dabbler in humour, you can bet your posterior the First Post would find a surfeit of it.

Newdrivers tread with caution. They write about their fears on starting out with a new venture like this, their motivations, their expectations. There would be an overt attempt at humility. Some of these newbies try and beseech the reader to return and check for new posts often – perhaps being totally ignorant of conveniences like RSS and Atom Feed. This kind of First Post usually concludes with any of a thousand variations of ‘let us see where this goes from here’.

And then there are those smart-alecs who, in their presumably misguided attempt to appear different from the others, sit and pontificate on others’ First Posts and go for the avuncular and – dare I say – condescending masterstroke of beginning with a commentary on First Posts!