To Curse or Not to Curse

You may have noticed my new warning flag in the left sidebar.  Yesterday I was part of an interesting dialogue concerning freedom of speech and writer's rights. 

We who blog put forth our words for free in the hopes that they will make people we don't know snort Diet Coke out of their noses, or for cathartic purposes, or maybe even because we don't have anyone else to talk to at that exact point of the day.  That said, we still don't want anyone else to take our words and mess with them, even if it's done in the name of new and delicious traffic for us.

Hence the age-old question - which is better, fame or fortune?  Is it better to have additional traffic and become more well-known even if people do not pay you for your writing?  Or is it better to retain the movie rights for your story about your Nuvaring?  I'm being a little tongue-and-cheek here, but it is an important question to ask, and one that is coming to the forefront as mainstream media starts looking to bloggers for material.

The other side of this conversation, and the one that the flag addresses, is the idea of self-censorship in order to appeal more to mainstream media.  For instance, I doubt highly mainstream media would appreciate my frequent use of the f-bomb.  It's not so appropriate when you're owned by a conglomerate.  It's not really appropriate in the workplace, either, and that's why I channel all of my hostility and repressed curse words into my blog...it's the one place I can swear like a sailor and not fear the judgment of the daycare workers or the vice president of my department.  My blog is my house, and I'll do whatever I want in my house.  Even walk around naked.

But yet...I want the traffic.  I want to be heard.  I want my words to be in the world.  I'll admit...I even want to be famous.  I think every writer does - otherwise why would we be vain enough to think that other people care what we have to say? So yes, I do want the syndication. I do want the traffic. I just have to ask myself at what price will I get it.  That's a hard question, and I admit one I've never really thought about before, chiefly because these opportunities for normal people to get significant readership have only come about since the advent of the Internet.  And until blogs, most web pages were more about cool design (which I don't know how to do) than they were about writing. My blog, in some way, has been a dream come true - an opportunity to get people in North Carolina (yeah, I saw you in my statcounter, dawg) that I don't even know to read about the little angel's adventures in Toddler High.  Or my own fears about reproduction.  Or my thoughts on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, or our president, or the mental state of my composition students.  I suddenly can have an active dialogue with fifteen women from all over the country that I've never physically met about the word "fuck."

And that, Internet, is what it's all about.  Opening up the dialogue.  Expanding your social circle. 

Feeling heard.

*****Updated to add...

For more on this topic, check out Jenn Satterwhite's post on BlogHer.