For the most part barring the 'hero of the day' series, this blog is a work of fiction. It is not pure fiction, because I do not think such a thing exists. If a writer (and I use that term very loosely when applying it to myself) writes something, anything, it is (in my opinion) very difficult to check all of their experiences on the right side of the page. The ability to leave out all of the experiences that have led me to the place that I currently occupy in my 'life story' is something that I struggle with mightily. That struggle is sometimes captured on these pages, and I can only hope that it is for the better not the worse. One cannot fill a blank page with blank words, but neither should one use words as weapons in wars that are better fought (if at all) in person.
However, I attempt to make this blog as fictional as possible. I have been accused (if that is the correct word) by more than one person of writing about them. My reply, when I bother to reply, is that if multiple people can read the same story, and find parts of them in that story, then perhaps I am doing a good job. It would be much more difficult to claim the story is a work of my over active imagination if just one person could see themselves in the story. Even someone with the very limited skills at writing that I possess should be able to write stories that more than one person can identify with. They should also be able to write sentences that do not end with prepositions, but clearly I have not yet mastered that ability.
If you find a place in this blog where you are certain I am using either you, part of your personality, or an experience that we shared, then I either apologize, or thank you for the material. If that story upsets you, or makes you want to never read me again, then I understand. I do not apologize for all of my failures. If I did, I would just have to issue blanket apologizes to the world at large from the time I woke up in the morning until the time I went to bed at night. I do not have the time for all of that, and even if I did, I suspect that it would be a very fruitless endeavor. Fruitless endeavors, while they may sidetrack us from actual positive progress, can still teach us things that we need to know. I have not had very many raging successes in my life, but the few that I have authored taught me very little, the failures on the other hand gave me a wealth of knowledge that could fill volumes, an encyclopedia of failure as it were.
The small bit of me that occupies the position of storyteller does need some source material, and some times that source material is provided by the people around me. I do try to make it vague enough not to offend (too) many people, and I do not resort to the trick of giving actual people in my life 'nicknames' on the pages of this blog. I find that practice to be quite annoying, and pointless, after all what nickname could I give you that you wouldn't be able to figure out? I would rather challenge your imagination than to insult your intelligence.
Still the fictional part of this blog is the important part, the part that I have to get out of my system like cocaine before a drug test. Something that if I don't attempt to put onto 'paper' will be lost to the fogs of history, blurred by my lack of memory, and killed off by my overwhelming laziness. That poor memory, and overwhelming laziness are also, at times, the culprits that allow 'real' people and my interactions with them to seep into this blog. I do not live in a vacuum, and neither does anyone else I know, therefore it is damn nigh impossible for some of my experiences in the 'real' world not to creep into my writing. In fact, the 'real' world generally acts as an impediment to my writing. I have to pay the bulldog as it were, and that requires my time, attention, and energy (all of which are very limited much like my intelligence). The demands of the day to day have an unfortunate tendency to snowball, and quickly overcome my (limited) resistance. Those day to day things that we all have to do just to be able to keep body and soul together, have a negative affect on my time and imagination. Therefore, sometimes it is just easier to 'steal' on of my friends, and plant them in a blog post than to attempt to create someone out of whole cloth.
It is a lazy man's defense, and not a particularly good defense at that. I have had several 'fictional' ideas of late, I have just been too damn lazy to write them down. Oddly enough it has taken my stumbling upon a very poorly written blog to spur me into action. The blog (which I shall not name or even give you a clue about) is a shambles, and it reminds me that reading bad writing is not something that a lot of people care to do. Not that I am any great shakes at this writing gig, but I know that can and do write better than the person on that blog. Sometimes it takes the oddest thing to jolt one (back) into action, I can only hope that my (vast) readership is still with me. I hope you are, and promise not to use you (too much) in any future blog posts.
