I get it — we jot down our opinions, whether they be intelligent, crass, humorous, boring or even flat-out mean, and send them out for the world to see. I can understand why you'd think we care so much about your opinions in response to ours. But here's the kicker — we don't.
We just want you to have an opinion.
In response to my latest article, whether people agreed or not, there was a lot of negative comments regarding the Odyssey and bloggers as a general group of writers. It was an uproar of people accusing me of posting purely for shares and to provoke controversy. Well here's my response to those comments: you're exactly right.
While I don't intend to create social media chaos and make those who don't agree with me angry, I'm glad I have the ability to do that. If I'm not making at least one person mad, I'm doing something wrong. I love to write. It's been a passion of mine since I could form a sentence. So if I'm being totally honest here, the fact that my words can create so much emotion from so many people is nothing but a compliment.
I don't expect everyone to love what I say and be in total compliant with everything I post. My goal isn't to please you. My goal is to create passion, emotion and urgency with my words. That's what all of our goals as writers encompass. We don't necessarily care what your opinion is, as long as we can get you to create one.
I, and I'm sure on behalf of all Odyssey creators who have posted controversial articles and received some heavy heat in response to them, want to thank you for replying with words that were probably uglier than our own. Every time you respond to one of our articles, or to someone who has re-posted our articles, you're creating exposure. That's what we want. We want to be exposed. We want the right person to notice our work. Whether you think it's worthy of exposure or not, we don't really care. As long as the words we type on this screen reach enough people, the content of your tweets and responses don't matter to us. We just want you to feel something and have the urge to voice your opinions on as many online platforms as possible.
Bottom line, we don't write for you. We write because we love to write. We love the way our thoughts sound in a fluid sentence, and we love that we can make the jumbled mess in our minds sound coherent if they're written on a sheet of paper or on a screen. We write for us. Whether or not you like what we say isn't all that relevant. As long we can draw some sort of emotion from you, whether it be happiness or anger, we have done our jobs.
So here's to all the writers out there — don't let the opinions of others stop you from sending your own into world. You want them to have an opinion, that means they cared enough to read every word on the page. You have created passion in someone you don't even know, and that's pretty amazing.