Less Criticisms Please…

My friend, T Banky is one of the Sages…

Most of the feedback I get hardly comes from the Comments field of my blog. Those that really care send me e-mail highlighting points that I struck squarely on the head or missed badly. Others like T Banky call me late at night to seriously discuss.

The problem with most of us Bloggers, if I get T Banky right, is that we are trying too hard. We all are striving to be too DEEP. But you can’t really blame us. With the rapid population explosion of blogville’s citizens and the even shorter time to read, comment and post, we break our literary backs probably hoping that our intellect will reflect in every sentence we put down and keep that reader coming back not only to drink deep of the well of our knowledge but to refer their friends to the fountain as well.

I came to this sudden realization when I asked my dear friend to give me her impartial criticism of my MN blog. Now I know I probably stand as Number One accused of the very same crimes which I continuously point out. My midnight calls with Banky have been a real eye-opener and taught me a few things.

First of all is the length of my MN posts. Whatever I may not possess when it comes to conversation, God made up for me when it comes to the written word. The total lack of brevity when I am writing has always been my curse. And as Banky told me, so many impatient people are going to get lost even before they get to the very end of the post. I have to learn how to be as concise as possible.

She also wasn’t too happy with the amount of sarcasm in my writing or certain instances where she says I am trying too hard to be witty. Now, that was tough coming from a friend but I had to swallow it as well. MN was created out of my frustrations with stomaching too much bad entertainment from media developers who could have just tried a little bit to inject a tiny bit of creativity into their work. A lot of the terrible stuff we are continuously bombarded with stems from this laziness on their part. Sometimes the frustrations make me just let loose of the vitriol.

Then, I know I work too hard. I’ve edited and tirelessly re-edited some posts countless times before publishing thus sacrificing the very core of my literary soul for the sake of political and grammatical correctness. Some issues I have felt strongly about have gathered dust on the shelf as I try too hard in vain to remain reasonable. The ironic fact that the N.V.N.V. piece which I slaved on draws far fewer responses than the ATM gist shows me there’s something I must be missing here.

We talked for long that night - she and I - and by the time we were through I almost wanted to turn my back permanently on blogville. I am glad I didn’t.

Now I think I finally get it. We all are citizens here for a purpose. Each blogger possesses a vision and a mission and we hope to somehow reach our respective intellectual destinations (my apologies to a certain man of God). Every blog has a reason for being.

Of course, every one of us loses the rudder once in a while. It is left for us to ride the roughs, swallow the criticisms, take them to heart and improve.

Banky has somehow shown me that if I continuously hack and hack away at the system, I would be taking everything away without putting anything back in there. I now have to learn how to criticize less and constructively criticize more.

I am also learning to consult more with the Oracles of blogville, thank God for them. When I’m drifting it’s a consolation to know that Funmi will still be fiyanda, Wole will always remain laspapi, Esquire will undoubtedly still be esquire and Woomie - loyal, unpredictable, DEEP Woomie - will still be the President of the Next Generation. We all have, and are still passing through this threshold.

Reading this, one might wonder: did I take any of Banky’s corrections at all? I can’t help it. I spent years creating this writing style and I will spend years refining it. But I am learning the constitution that governs blogville.

MN will surely still be around for some more time to come. Blogville utopia may not even be around the next corner but slowly and surely, we are getting there.

My friend, T Banky is one of the Sages… Thanks, Banky for keeping it REAL!