Great Expectations
March 25, 2011 2 Comments
If you have been a regular reader of my blog(which I don’t think you are), you may have noticed the dry patch it is going through. It is not that there has been a dearth of topics to write upon. Made up news to compilation of substandard tweets from yours truly to random bull crap that used to be written long long ago, crossed my mind. But then, the weight of expectation pulled me back.
Once in a while, this blog gets a bit of traffic. And a few days back, it was getting more traffic than ever before(it could still compete with number of Mercedes Benz cars passing through Attappadi) thanks to a guest post and a flash in the pan Sreesanth based post. A few praises came. I thought that I had to live up to their expectations every time I wrote something. It became something like playing to the gallery.
Which is when I realized the magnitude of pressure that expectations put on you. In music, be it Metallica, be it Opeth, be it Porcupine Tree. In sports, be it Manchester United, be it the South African cricket team, be it FC Barcelona. In movies be it Quentin Tarantino, heck, be it Rajinikanth.
The ones who consistently deliver become stars, immortals, legends. The other ones, like this level headed idiot, become the also rans. Forgotten. xyz-who?
And when there is no pressure of expectation, they perform well. So who is to blame? The performers for not living up to the expectations of the connoisseurs or the connoisseurs for the levels of expectation they set?
About V
A Level Headed Idiot's Blog 
Nice thought, one that’s crossed my mind many times.
If you want hits to the blog / website / news site / fanpage, etc – you have to play to the gallery. Sad, but true. It all depends on what you want, innit? Think music – if you’re happy playing a genre that all of 100 people get, then continue playing it. But if you want like 10000000 fans on your FB page, you’re gonna have to go C Am F G once in a while. Moreso when it becomes your livelihood and commercial compulsions get in.
There are certain posts that give *you* satisfaction from having written them. Diary posts. Not too many else are likely to ‘get’ them. Others, you just play to the masses.
My advice? Forget about hits and stuff. Develop a voice, and if it works, audiences will come in on their own. Regardless whether you’re a blogger, musician or anyone else.
Developing a voice is easier said than done. At least in my case. Many attempts have been made at that. It’s somehow really difficult to stick to one thing. Experimentations happen. Failed ones. The ones that will take place in future will fail too.
This project was never started to play to the masses. It was just an attempt at finding out whether I could write. But when the positive criticism comes in, one starts thinking about doing it better. Ego massage, if you may.
Thanks for the comment. 🙂