I had always written only humor and thought that the only sort of writing I could do decently was humor. Apart from having published A Bungled Romance way back in history in Femina, I had achieved nothing much in humor-writing. (Ah! If you feel the irresistible urge to say, "The only thing humorous about his writing is the fact that he thinks it is humorous", please resist it!)
It is not that I have not written humor in my blog - even humor stories. The ones that I considered the best in humor fiction-writing by me like Romance on a Diet and Desi Wild Hogs practically sank without a trace. 'A Season of Hope, A season of Despair', however, won for me a consolation prize in the Lakme contest. This is the closest I got to getting any recognition for a humor post by me, though it was more of a zany post than a humor post.
I have been attempting the Blogaton four times in a row. My first entry 'Once Again', was again a humor post and got nowhere. My second entry 'Blank Pages', was the first of my so-called emotional posts and got nowhere too! My third entry was 'Two Minutes', which was a humorous essay and found some favor with the readers but did not win a thing.
My fourth entry in the Blogaton was "Yesterdays and Tomorrows', which won me gold in the latest Blogaton a couple of days back. Today I just checked up on Writeup Cafe and found that my first entry in their contests 'The Gates of Hell' has been declared the winner!
In a sea of my humor posts, I find that I really got nowhere better than a consolation prize. Two out of three of my emotional posts have plundered gold! Seems to me like I have misjudged my abilities in humor! I had always doubted my capabilities in writing anything other than humor and I find that my maiden emotional attempts have turned out to be extremely rewarding.
How true it is that no person really knows himself!
Congratulations! Wish you many more wins.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pattu!
Deleteno, you do write humor exceptionally well. it's the readers or rather the people who evaluate. you will come across below par posts on social issues or some substandard poems getting huge response. because those who read and those who judge are not good enough. of course, i am not saying your emotional posts were not good. those were outstanding to say the least.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debajyoti! You have no idea how much it means to me coming from you!
DeleteI agree with Deb up there. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteThanks Uma! It is a great morale-booster to hear that from people like you and Deb
DeleteCongratulations Suresh, great stuff. I have been thinking of blogging myself, for some time now and reading your blogs has inspired me to stop procrastinating and start now. More power to your keyboard and your fingers, my friend.
ReplyDeleteHi Saif! Did not even know you came to my blog! Great to know that! And I shall await your blogging...do let me know when you start!
DeleteCongratulations. Guess humor is considered frivolous while emotion is considered serious literature by most people.
ReplyDeleteThanks TF! I have always wondered how people judge a mish-mash of humor, emotional, fiction, essays, poetry and photos and select winners :) Maybe it is true that in a mixed bag, humor probably ranks pretty low on the list!
DeleteSuresh, I agree. I wonder how they can judge prose and poetry together too. Photos too are their own different category. But nothing like a humorous article to put a smile on one's face at the end of a tiring day!
DeleteI'd actually love genre-specific contests - provided they can spread it evenly around all genres!
DeleteHearty Congrats, Suresh:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Amit!
DeleteDear Suresh Sir - Congrats :)!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mahesh! Could not mention meeting you and Antony in that Indimeet post cos there was a powercut here and I was in a hurry to complete and post it before my inverter gave way :) :)
Deletepersonally for me..it is not a genre that wins an appraisal..it is the way you present them...the power and flow in your writing and thoughts that gets the attention...i must say you are quite a writer :)
ReplyDeletePossibly, dreamer! I have seldom found someone who does not favor some genres over others and, thus, automatically finds herself leaning towards posts of that genre when it comes to voting - always assuming that we are not talking of rank bad quality in that one and superb quality in the genres she does not like! I know I would end up not selecting poetry, for example, since I lack the ability to truly appreciate it.
DeleteThanks for appreciating me as a writer!
Congrats again . I did tell u that u shine in the emotional posts as well . Superb Suresh :)
ReplyDeleteMmm! So you did Jaish! Thanks!
DeleteThere's writing for yourself, writing for the mass - the readers who love to read what you write and then there's contests! I am sure you have written plenty for yourself, I personally enjoy your humorous articles a lot, and now with the contest wins you have nailed it Suresh! Every bit well deserved! Its nice that you have provided links to your popular posts - on to reading those and my backlogs now!
ReplyDeleteI do write primarily for myself, Deepa! However, the whole point in writing is that you also think that there will be others who will appreciate it - else you might as well just think it instead of taking the trouble to write it!! So, contests and contest wins provide that feedback as do these comments. Thanks!
DeleteHearty Congratulations Sir!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Rohan!
DeleteCongratulations, Suresh. However cliched it sounds, I knew you would win at least the write-up cafe one :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for that vote of confidence, Sudha!
DeleteHumour is the most difficult to get right. If you won Gold in that genre you are good. It means your writing has universal appeal
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
Looks like I have been ambiguous yet again! I thought I had mad it clear that I won gold in my two emotional attempts and not in humor!
DeleteCongratulations, Suresh ji! I'm all the more intrigued to read your humor posts. If you feel that humor is your forte, there must be something in there. Do not abandon writing in your genre just because it hasn't got much recognition. You are a terrific writer and your work shows so. Keep writing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Vaishali!
DeleteSuresh you write great stories;with captivating lessons of life;but your humor is non-pareil ( is the spelling correct?)
ReplyDeleteThanks Indu! I hope that what you said is as right as the spelling :)
DeleteHearty Congratulations, Suresh! Wish you many more..:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Panchali!
DeleteCongrats Suresh. Just because you won the contests for your emotional posts, does not mean that you are not good at humour, as Indu has pointed out. So don't restrict yourself to some genre, but keep experimenting with them all. But make sure you are enjoying doing it -- that is the true measure of your capability and strength.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I am doing while blogging, Zephyr! Trying out various genres and enjoying myself in the process!
Deletecongrats :)
ReplyDeleteI am happy for you
Thanks Rahul!
Deletecongrats CS.. Wish you more good luck
ReplyDeleteThanks SIS!
DeleteCongrats Suresh !
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Delete