Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Redefining the Male Role in Society

Redefining the Male Role in Society

Well, yesterday "The Pageant" broke 200 views in just over two weeks….today it stood at 203. I hate to bore my readers with repetition but I am still in shock over that one. I was already in the "Don Tomas" mode when the prompt came up. The previous week I had skipped the prompt which was the near death experience one where after surviving the couple says “Goody Goody” let’s celebrate. I almost wrote one on Manny almost being killed and he is saved by the “Bunny Girl” he has been initiating (In his obnoxious and overbearing way) but I was rolling on to other things and didn’t get to do it….Then the following week I wrote the Pageant….I wonder how “Bunny Girl to the Rescue” would have fared?
If I get 5 members to write saying they want to read it then I’ll do it….That’s a safe bet….Last month I had only 7 members reading my blog….all my blog readers are non-members from who knows where?

Like I say the interest in Manny Hardin was unexpected…I expected my readers, especially females to take me to task like my wife did….She hated the guy….said he was abusive, overbearing and chauvinistic. I expected at least one or two…”How dare you’s" but nada….I got the obligatory review from Giselle the contest sponsor and I think one 5 star punch and go. I went back to working on my Novella, Don Tomas.

Still, I couldn’t get it out of my mind….my average view rate….I’m guessstimating ,for an entry in my port is about 30 with an SD of 5….Some have been collecting an accasional view since I came here a year and a half ago….Suddenly to have one in a two week span top 200 is a real head scratcher. The reason I belabor the point is because I see “Views” at writing.com as analogous to Book Sales with a publisher. I see member views as visibility from editors and others connected in the print media business and non-members as consumers. I know, I know the analogy is full of holes but I use it anyway as an indicator of how my stuff is being accepted….Thus you can see my amazement when “The Pageant” took off like it did. To me it was just another submission that wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans…and it wouldn’t have if “Reviews" had been the indicator…. As much as this site plugs reviews and as much as writers covet them I have to say they are pretty much a waste of effort and anticipation. I have an idea in my own mind of what a useful review should contain and I know from experience that if I sent one without preparing the recipient beforehand, that they would have a hissy fit…
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This is not a dig on writing come….Writers come here seeking two things….For some it is support and camaraderie and for others it’s an opportunity to grow as a writer… Most seem to think they are pretty good at the craft as much as they “poor mouth” their abilities… Writing com encourages them in this belief for the right as well as the wrong reasons. (The right being to give support and lend a helping hand and the wrong….to make money. Life is full of people doing things for the right and wrong reasons.) New members are out there wringing their hands… "Somebody please review my work and tell me how great I am…" How many times have you heard a veteran reviewer say….”This is only my opinion…take it or leave it as you choose? This is usually “Boiler Plate” pasted onto the end of the review but it has one purpose….to soften the impact of any “faint Praise.”

This brings me back to “views,” as the most valuable feedback you will get here, and begs the question what drives this statistic to suddenly spike as it did in “The Pageant?”

Here are some of the possibilities…

1. It really made a visceral connection…Readers got a tingle when they read this dark piece of prose and told their friends…

2. I marketed this one in a way that it got enough viz to spark and it contained enough combustible substance to catch fire.

3. Readers are weird and even though the subject might not be politically correct it resonated with the dark side of their characters.

4 It was the first piece of decent prose Percy has turned out…he finally got something right.

5. That we are fundamentally genetically wired to respond to a dominant male and submissive female. That it has been this way since cave man days when men were hunters and women gatherers…and regardless of efforts to redefine the male role in society we don’t get there overnight simply by carrying placards and singing “Cum-by-Yah.”

Come on somebody out there….come back to me….I know the members aren’t reading this blog…how about a non-member with enough spin and ambition to reply….Maybe someone from Britain or Australia or one of the Ex Colonies that hasn't forgotten how to speak English…Talk to me….My Email is [e-mail].