If you haven’t ever blogged before, you might not be sure what the response might be. Usually, you just wait and wonder….
But when there is a response, and even if you haven’t written about anything controversial, be prepared for carping, quibbling, and inanity. Because the Internet has made snark as popular as The Walking Dead, and you might sometimes feel like you’re being pursued by brain eaters.
When you blog, there are certain things that will happen for sure:
Someone will pounce on any typo or spelling error and TYPE THE CORRECTION LIKE THIS SO YOU CANT MISS IT.
Someone will ignore what you wrote and talk about their own boring or weird obsession.
Someone will channel a seventh grade teacher and hector you about a grammar myth like split infinitives or ending sentences with prepositions.
Someone will tell you that you meant “nauseated” not “nauseous”–and be dead wrong.
Someone will not remotely address anything you’ve said, but just attack you personally.
Someone will accuse you of not having read the book or watched the show/movie you’re writing about if you happen to spell any character’s name incorrectly.
Someone will completely miss the point if you write satire and excoriate you.
Someone will accuse you of relying on spell-checking alone and not having bothered to really edit.
Someone will call you a hater if you dare to criticize a favorite book, movie, TV show, celebrity–or anything at all.
Someone will twist one of your points and respond with a rant that’s two or three times longer than your entire blog.
Someone will accuse you of lacking a sense of humor, or conversely attack you for not taking things seriously enough.
Someone will sneeringly call you a hack, even if you’ve never written anything before and they don’t know what the word means.
The problem is, those people are often the only ones who take the time to comment. What is everybody else doing?
Blogging, of course.
So what about you? What kinds of comments did you get on your blogs? Do the types listed above ring true? Can you add others?
Lev Raphael is the author of 25 other books in genres from memoir to mystery. You can find on Amazon here.