Who? What? Why?

This is not exactly an “About me” section. You want to learn about me then read me. It’s all in there, some semblance of me, filtering through each article you read. Read on if you want to learn more about what’s going on here. I feel like saying, “Explain yourself young man!”

The Rebellion begins with a blueprint for failure:

This could feel like being in class, explaining my creative choices. By way of explanation I should first of all say all I want to do is write. It’s always been that way. If you read all my articles about writing you will see how I have a firm belief that any truly creative endeavour comes about because you have no choice. What you want to write is never in question. There is no explanation you can give. You didn’t think about who it’s for. You just had to write it. Your work might need shaping and organising, but you never struggle to think of what to write. You never think of where your writing belongs or how you get it read by anyone.

Recently I’ve found myself making this website. I’d not choose to. It’s not the bit that I enjoy the most, although it’s growing on me. I understand that there are certain things that people expect of a website. I understand that there are conventions and expectations. I understand that asking people to go to a site that makes claims of being a “Solid Wall of Writing” and makes reference to a famous nineteenth century Russian Novelist, as though I’m expecting everyone to have read Crime and Punishment, is a hard sell that might be aimed at a niche readership, who are in turn going to be disappointed in my lack of writing about Dostoevsky. Fyodor Dostoevsky seemed to encapsulate an idea of all things highbrow whilst Emojis seemed to be the opposite end of the scale, a dumbed down way to communicate. Neither is true and I like both.

Once you get beyond the ambiguity of the name of the site it’s all plain sailing! Except it isn’t.

The expectation is to do things a certain way. Websites are about one thing. They shouldn’t have too many words. There are ways of marketing your site and yourself. There has to be a comments section. It can’t be a collection of writing and not be called a Blog. Your goal should be to get enough hits and get sponsored and have companies pay you to slap big adverts on your site.

What happens if you don’t meet those expectations? What happens if you get it all wrong?

All of the above seems like a recipe for failure. Forget that. What I mean is: It’s a perceived recipe for failure. What we actually got here is a slightly different way of doing things. I’m set and ready to ignore a wave of, “You should do this” or “No one does that.” I’m seriously set up for it because there’s no comments section. I’m pinning everything on readers reading and enjoying. The writing always comes first. Hunter S Thompson, with his Gonzo Journalism, famously established the idea that the writer can be central to the story. His work was as much about him as it was his subject. You probably need an ego the size of a skyscraper to carry that off. I’m just happy with the idea of the words being the star of the show.

I’m even a nameless narrator up to this point. Does it matter if I’m Alasdair Chisholm? AJM Chisholm? Al Chisholm? Ally Chisholm? They’re all valid choices, although I grew up Ally Chisholm, often almost said as one word. I joke to myself that all the other names feel like a figment of my own imagination, or roles I play, with those names assigned to me. Does it matter what I look like? The pic at the top is me (On a good day. Every photo is only ever as good as the best angle you take it from):

As for the idea of “being here for the words,” I’d read a whole book on knitting if the words were right. At the core of all you’ll read on this site is the idea that we all would.

No pressure then. And if no one reads this, no one finds these words, if no algorithm predicts that anyone wants to read them, if my idea that word of mouth is still enough, if even my friends tell me there are too many words and not enough emojis, then I guess I remain true to my word and I remember how I created all of these words because I couldn’t not create them and I created this site so as to let them have a place in the world.

That’s enough Who? What? Why? Go read stuff. I now have to go and look up how to create a webpage that contains a banner, and a background that is heavy on Emojis and Dostoevsky.