My daughter's in sixth grade at a new school and eats lunch alone. "No one will talk to me."
"Talk to them first." I said. "Talk about them. Say, "Hey, I really like your shoes." She rolled her eyes at me. The next day she came home smiling.
"It worked. I was standing in the lunch line and I said to this girl that I really liked her purse, because I did and she smiled and asked if I wanted to eat at her table!"
And that's how it's done here on OS, we're all just a bunch of Sixth Graders trying to make friends. And if you sit by yourself and expect to get noticed, you rarely will.
I wander around the big lunch room that is Open Salon and see what everyone brings for lunch. I sample. I taste. Sometimes I will sit and eat someone's whole meal.
Bottomline: you want to get read....do others that courtesy.
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jlsathre
Kate O'hehir
maura4u
Samuel Podd
sweetfeet
James M. Emmerling
Salon.com
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Right On though I hope we're beyond fifth grade.
I'll throw in the monkey wrench and speak an element of the truth (as I witnessed it). There is always a risk in speaking the truth, ...there are some here who are highly supported from the lesser knowns and get high ratings who seem to visit very few blogs of others outside of a small circle. I'm just sayin' but calling it (as I often do) as I see it.
Nice to meet you! I'll be by more often.
I sometimes will get emails thanking me for especialy nice comments--writers like that you "get it" and "like it".
I've noticed that too! One of these days I've got to write a meta-post of my own and see how it compares in popularity to my regular stuff.
Seriously, though...I'm one of those socially-anxious-introvert types. Total geek-table material. Part of the appeal of OS, and blogging in general, is that I can self-publish from under the bed; just write and put it out there on its own merit without fretting over query letters or networking, etc. (And no matter how few readers I get, it's a hell of a lot more than I had in my spiral-notebook-journal days.)
But you're absolutely right. This "read and be read" advice is good. At the very least, supporting our fellow writers is a nice thing to do.
School sucks. Let's go get high.
Tsch,...'bunch 'a posuers.