Writing/Blogging…what’s the difference?

Kyle Snyder shown here to cleanse our palates of the asshattery I write about in this post.

I’ve been writing stories and such since I was about 8 years old.  (Cyn trivia:  The first piece I ever wrote was a 13-page script for “Charlie’s Angels”.  It was to win a contest in “Tiger Beat” magazine.  I never submitted it, but haven’t stopped writing since.)  I have some formal writing training and am always looking for a good class to help me bone up, especially since I’ ve been baseball blogging more than any other kind of writing for a while now.  I will never claim to have talent on the same level as a Dan Shaughnessy (try to remember back to the days when he wrote some amazing  pieces on the Boston Celtics and forget, for a moment, about the hack work he’s done lately) even though I do think I have it in me to make it professionally at some point (not necessarily in sports writing) if I’d just get off my ass and focus.

I was offline for most of last week and only today read Curt Schilling’s latest entry in his blog over at WEEI.com that he posted on Christmas (quick plug, I’m 99% certain I’ll be over there next week.  January 5th is supposed to be the start date.  There’s just the matter of a little paperwork to be finished up.) and for the most part it’s a big “whatever”.  Some interesting views on how he feels about Teixeira.  Fairly  innocuous stuff.  Until I came to this passage:
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Oh and one more thing. I really loathe to even mention CHB in anything anymore, due to his irrelevance on the Boston sports scene but I suck at keeping my tongue in places like this. CHB wrote the other day (thanks to the person forwarding this as it’s the first thing I’ve read that he’s written in five months)

“Best part of Curt Schilling’s blog on the WEEI website? Schill claims, ’I don’t get edited.’ Could he be more of a diva? Here’s a clue for the Big Lug – Ernest Hemingway had an editor. And Schill needs an editor more than I need a pitching coach.”

By edited I meant content Curly, because Lord knows I sure as hell need help with anything I write. But your last statement is laughable, because I think — and correct me if I am wrong — I am doing what you do for a living right?

I am pretty sure you’ve never stepped on a mound, well a field of any kind for that matter, and competed for something that truly mattered to people not on the field? So I am comfortable saying I am a lot closer to being able to do what you do, than you are able to do what I did …

The bolding is mine.  Good God in heaven above, does this  man really think he’s doing what Dan Shaughnessy does for a living?  Seriously?  He thinks writing a blog, on the level that HIS is, is the same as writing for a major newspaper?

And before I go on about the writing, how about the “you’ve  never stepped on a mound and competed for something that truly mattered” crap?  How does he know that the CHB didn’t play ball on any level (including little league)?  He doesn’t.  It’s just ego driving him yet again.  What HE does is amazing and difficult but what Shaughnessy does is so easy that HE can do that as well????

There are many, MANY well-written blogs out there.  Some written by professional writers, some written by people who aspire to be a professional writer and have the talent, just not the resume, some who just like to write and can do it well and some written by people who have an opinion they want to share but not necessarily the tools for writing well.   With respect to Curt, his blog can be interesting because it is written by a professional athlete who has an opinion on everything and loves to share it – especially when he knows it’s going to raise the hackles of many people.  This does not equate doing what Dan Shaughnessy does for a living.  It doesn’t even come close, unless you count the part where he pisses off a lot of people on a fairly regular basis.

How pissed am I that I’m in the position to defend the CHB??

Curt thinking he’s doing what any other professional writer is doing is laughable.  He doesn’t have a deadline, he doesn’t have to work to get people to talk to him, he doesn’t have to answer to anyone but himself and, most importantly to me, he doesn’t have the command of the English language or exceptional writing skills that you associate with a professional writer.  I know he has a hard-on for CHB and he’s just trying to get his licks in, but he’s working on a site with ACTUAL writers who have honed their craft and bust their butts to do what they do.  Belittling their profession is beneath even him.

Dan Shaughnessy might be a horse’s ass, but, in this case, so is Curt Schilling.  Pot, kettle and all, Curt.

(Kyle Snyder photo courtesy of drownedworld73 @ flickr)