Sigh...

Thursday, July 20th, 2006 10:12 am
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni
...started the day by locking myself out the house; which I haven't done since the new windows were installed. I can now report with accuracy that the new windows are far superior to the old, and not just in terms of keeping winter on the outside.

Several months ago, as part and parcel of the Black Dog Blues, I signed off of all my mailing lists. Around the beginning of the month, I decided to phase them back in one at a time, so as not to overload my nervous system. Alas, the single list that I added (on the basis that it's a little slow and mostly good-natured), has erupted into an argument about topic drift, what it is and what it ain't.

Now I (like some others on the list) happen to like topic drift, but I'm sort of a discursive thinker, and often answer questions by way of Robin Hood's Barn, not because it's the only road I know, but because I like the scenery.

However, there are apparently some folks who have zero tolerance for digression. They want the facts, only the facts, and in as short a paragraph as possible. This baffles me, but sobeit.

In any case, I suppose it's inevitable that the two camps will clash, but it's extremely tiresome, and more personally upsetting than it should be, which does serve as an Outcome to this particular experiment.

Guess I'll sign off and try again later...

In Other News, it's a sunny, breezy, perfectly lovely day in the neighborhood, and I have errands to run.

Date: 2006-07-20 02:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kimuro.livejournal.com
My sympathies. I suspect wandering all over the scenery and being distracted by tangential ideas is part of what makes you an excellent writer.

Date: 2006-07-20 03:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rolanni.livejournal.com
The really interesting thing about this particular tempest is that all of the list members are published writers. Funny how we all think different...

Date: 2006-07-20 03:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kimuro.livejournal.com
well, in that case, I'm plum bomstaple! Fiction authors? Speculative genres? That croggles all my prejudices about how authors create.

Date: 2006-07-20 03:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janni.livejournal.com
I already left the list once because of this issue. (The suicide of a fellow writer being considered too drift-ish to be an appropriate topic of discussion.) I have no issues with gently nudging discussion back on topic, but there are ways to do it with grace and tact, and repeatedly shouting "Topic drift will stop now or else!" is not one of those ways.

It may be time for me to give myself another time out from said list. I enjoy it, and find it useful, but once in a while it's time to back off for a while.

Date: 2006-07-20 08:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pbray.livejournal.com
I've been deleting the messages from this list rather than reading them, since I just don't have the energy for the drama. and the rush to pick sides.

Date: 2006-07-20 09:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rolanni.livejournal.com
I'm not up for much more drama than I can get from watching anime at the moment, so I'm off again for the foreseeable future. It is usually, as Janni said, a comfortable and informative list, but suffers from the definitional flexibility of the phrase "the busines of writing." The moderator's an old friend, and I feel for her; I wouldn't want to have to ride herd of that can of worms for five minutes...

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