Some of the good advice appearing in the photographic press right now concerns things to do while isolated. As well as projects and photo shoots to do on your own property, many authors are advising you to start a web page or a web journal. They say it will help you photographically and commercially. Clients will flock to you...a good thing as long as they do not flock more than one at a time and no closer than 2 metres.
Well, I've been writing web journals - this column and three others - for years. This is not a web site as such, but it is occasionally a sight...and I can give some advice based on experience. Here goes...
- Do it.
- Do it right. The catch to this piece of fatuous advice is that until you do it, you won't know what actually is right. Right for you. Until you start to write, you have no idea what you can do. In my case it took a while before I could figure out what I had done. All the time this is going on, you'll be developing your style. You might do it deliberately or not, but it will be done.
- Do it regularly. If you can't post every day, post every week. That's still a considerable body of literature after a year, and the style I mentioned in (2.) above will be settling into a steady rhythm.
- Do not become anxious for readers. Be anxious to write. The readers will find you in their good time. Note: You will be offered methods of buying readers, but the contacts that someone sells will not be real or helpful.
- Never forget that you're telling a story. It can be true, false, fascinating, or boring. You craft it - you judge it - you can make it good or bad. But tell that story and someone will read it.
- Remember that whatever you write will never go away. Like glitter or herpes, it will surface for ever after - generally when it causes the most inconvenience. You are handing a stick to beat you with to your enemies - make it a small stick.
- Show pictures. After all, it is photography that possesses your soul, so use photography to show it. Show your best images, because like your worst thoughts, they will be bandied about by others forever more. Expect to have the good ones stolen occasionally and keep the metadata safe.
- Expect critics. You don't generally have to lay in wait for them behind the door with a length of two by four, but be aware that they will appear as soon as you start to publish. If you take any notice of them, do it by consoling yourself that you are judged in history by the quality of your enemies. Note that some critics are beneficial because they keep you humble - the man who rode with Julius Caesar during victory parades and reminded him that he was only human. Also remember that Brutus did so too, but in a more pointed fashion...
- Don't speak down or write down to your audience. They'll pick up on that and resent it.
- Get paid for writing. Take your pay in money, praise, companionship...whatever you can get. Do not despise home-made canned goods or pies. Rewards are fun, and you'll be getting them on top of the reward of intellectual achievement. If you start to get steamy mash letters from secret lovers cut back on the purple prose...
