A Writer's Warning to His Readers

When a person I know discovers I am a writer and informs me that they would like to read some of my stuff I am generally happy to point them in the direction of a few things I think they might find of interest. Depending on the person I may also give them one or more warnings about the content. Below you will find a list of some of those warnings and contraindications (to use drug industry parlance). I believe this may very well become the first thing I point any new reader to prior to reading anything else. It may save them and me from some serious future heartache.

1. I do not actually believe half of the things I write and publish, nor do I write and publish half of the things I actually believe

This is a hard one for many people to swallow and a big turnoff for some. The immediate question that comes to mind is, why then should I believe anything you have to say. The answer is simple, but it is also complex. The simple answer is, you should not. The more complicated answer is that it really doesn't matter what I actually believe since I do not write with the intent of telling you what I believe or convincing you that what I believe is correct. What matters is what you believe and my writing is meant to encourage you to question and challenge your own beliefs. If I think me writing something I do not actually believe will help you do that then I will write it, if not, I probably won't. The reason I do not write more about what I actually believe is quite simple. You do not actually care what I believe, nor should you. You, being you, care about what you believe. You may think or even say that you care what I believe, but you really do not. You only care in the sense of how knowing what I believe may or may not influence your own beliefs. That does not mean you are a bad person or selfish, it just means you are human and that is what humans do. Therefore I see no reason to differentiate between sharing what I actually believe and what I may say I believe, but really do not. In either case you will only use what I write to inform your own beliefs, but I will never convince you to change your beliefs, no matter what I write. And, to emphasize, that is never my goal. My goal is only to make you question and challenge your own beliefs, no matter how dearly held or deeply believed. Only you can change your beliefs, I can only show you some other options that may exist for changing them, and possible reasons why you might consider those options.

2. You will be confused/irritated/offended/made uncomfortable by something I have written or will write at some point

This is also a very difficult thing for many people to deal with and I have lost many readers because of it, some of whom purportedly were big fans of my writings until they encountered that one article which did one or more of the above things. I am always sad to lose a reader. I have so few that the loss of even one reduces my readership count by a fairly significant amount. That said, every reader I have lost, is probably a reader I never should have had in the first place. My writings are not for everyone. In fact they are for a very, very few, if you believe what I say about my readership stats, which you should, and probably would were it not for everything I said in #1 above. In any case, my writings can be difficult to follow, confusing and/or confused. In this way they are a lot like myself in actual life. My writings can also be very irritating. In fact they even irritate me on a fairly regular basis. That can definitely be offensive though I never, ever, intend to offend. That said, I find very, very few things offensive, and therefore even though the things I say are never intended to offend, and I do not believe they do or should, others sometimes disagree. Without question something you read of mine will make you a little or very uncomfortable at some point. In my opinion this is a very good thing and it is one of the overarching goals of my writings. Even though I may think this is a good thing, most people, the large majority in fact, do not like or appreciate it. Thus the reason it is called uncomfortable and not comfortable. Some people will forgive you making them uncomfortable, others will never forgive or forget and those are the people who will never read my stuff again. Those are the people who probably never should have been reading my stuff to begin with.

3. Writing me and real life me are not the same person, and yet we are the same person

This is related to point #1 but it needs to be re-emphasized. I do not act, think, believe, in real life, necessarily in any way similar to the way I suggest or imply or say I act, think, or believe in my writings. That said I do not, not necessarily act, think, or believe that way either. I may or may not act, think, believe, or be in any way similar or dissimilar to the way I act, think, believe or am in my writings. Does that make any sense? Probably not, huh? Refer to #2 above for more on this. Let me try and clarify. Writing me and real life me are two totally different people. However, we are exactly the same person also. Hopefully that cleared it up for you. It certainly did not for me, and in fact it irritated the heck out of me. Again see #2 above for more on this.