Monday, August 2, 2010

"Nobody wants to hear that!"

For those who don't know, my mom is a huge fan of Southern Gospel music, especially that of the Gaithers. She has a bunch of their albums--mostly on CD--and even a few of their videos and DVDs. I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of the music, but the comedy bits are hilarious. Although Mark Lowry may be the best known comedian from those albums/videos, there are others, like Taylor Mason. One scene from the Australian Homecoming DVD had the Gaither Vocal Band--minus Mark Lowry, who had left the GVB at that point, but has since returned--up there talking, and Bill Gaither mentions that then-fellow GVB members Guy Penrod and Russ Taff have six kids and five Grammys, respectively. David Phelps, another GVB member, starts mocking Bill--in a joking fashion, of course--saying, "Russ has got five Grammys. Guy's got six kids," two or three times, and then says, "Nobody wants to hear that!"
The comedy went on from there, but, that's not my point. Lately, I've been wondering about the things I say, whether it be in Facebook statuses or notes, on this blog, or even in person, and whether anyone wants to hear them. When thinking of things I've posted in the past, sometimes I hear David Phelps' voice in my head saying, "Nobody wants to hear that!" I have heard of at least one case where someone went on and on about essentially nothing. Some people in my old youth group mentioned a guy who was part of another youth group that went on a mission trip with them--I didn't get to go, but we don't need to get into why--who did just that. My fellow youth group members were quite bothered by him, as you'd expect.
Truth be told, whenever I write a note, blog post, or message, I have a topic in mind. Sometimes, though, after posting/sending it, I wonder whether or not anyone really cared, even if people commented. Seriously, who wants to read about my fascination with a name that some people can't even pronounce? Why would anyone care if Anne Hathaway thinks of herself as "not very pretty"? What's the point of writing a song (that is, a parody) about some failed friendship with a girl I barely knew but wanted to date anyway?
I may be wrong, but, if I were to guess, I would say the majority of my 360+ Facebook friends have hidden my feed. I can't say I blame them; I've hidden other people's feeds because of the things they talked about, sometimes for no other reason than that what they said just never interested me. Even some people who do comment on some things I post won't even read others. For example, one friend who comments quite regularly on my book reviews using the LivingSocial application on Facebook openly admits that she's never read my parodies. It's not anything against me; it may be that she might not even know the original songs, which probably doesn't make my parodies very fun to read. There are plenty of things on Facebook that I don't really pay attention to, either.
So, here's what I want to know: How can I make my writings--particularly my statuses, blog posts, and occasional notes--more interesting? I have the grammar, spelling and punctuation down pat, so all I need is something worthwhile to write about. Any suggestions?

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