All the world isn’t a stage; it’s a marketplace. All the people aren’t merely players; they are, alternately, sellers and buyers.
I don’t apologize to Shakespeare for that because I am simply updating him. He didn’t have social media and the world wide web to factor into his human intercourse equation. We do and, frankly, sometimes it makes my head spin.
Two weeks ago I talked here about Timed Free Writing. Several of you said you’d like to join some sort of group doing it here. While I was trying to figure out the logistics of that, I got a couple of emails from She Writes, the online community of women writers. They’re offering a four-week class in Word Yoga. A Word Yoga expert (does this mean her vocabulary is really flexible?) offers daily exercises to stir up the creative juices and, by sharing with the group, participants can find comfort in being knit together as a metaphoric gaggle of geese flying in formation (their metaphor).
That sounded enough like what I was thinking of doing here (minus the geese) at MidLifeBloggers Writer’s Workshop to peak my interest. And then I saw the price tag: $99, or as the promo blurb puts it, a mere $4 a day. Perhaps I’m not representative of the majority of women writers, but that sounds to me like the ultimate in fanciful, discretionary purchases.
I don’t want to take out after She Writes, because they’re just doin’ what seems to be the thing to do with the internet. Create a community, build the community, sell niche products to the community, and then sell advertising to marketers who want to reach the demographic of that community. The whole thing starts out as a way of empowering the niche community. Does it end up as a way of enriching the creators? And is that a problem?
I don’t know. I do know it makes me somewhat queasy.
The link for She Writes is here, should you want to join their Morning Mojo Word Yoga sessions. If you want me to send you a MidLifeBloggers Absolutely Free Do With It What You Will prompt, email me: jane(at)midlifebloggers.com
