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I am sure only I could have written such an unprovocative title: the art of being provocative does not come easily to me.

I read on a fellow-blogger’s post today that being provocative is a great way to win an audience: get a controversy going, encourage discussion, spark debates.

While I agree at one level, the rest of me does not.

I’d rather read delightful, delicious posts like this one: Wonka is my reality or like the one that made me smile so many times within the space of minutes: F is for Frustration and Fridge Freakouts

I’d rather write posts like this one: Writing about winter sunshine, peeling orange

Or like this one: Life, death, and finding immortality through writing

I can’t help it, I like savoring a post, I like to twirl my mind around the aftertaste it leaves. I like blogs that touch me, not rouse me.

So, I will leave debating to those who are better suited to it. For me, I love writing, and I love reading, and having an argument is essential for neither.

Having a huge audience is a different matter altogether. But if you are reading this, I do have some audience, don’t I now?

Enough said.

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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8 Comments

  • damyantig says:

    LBW,
    Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment. For me, I feel provocative is only good if the results are positive.

  • lactatingbookworm says:

    I have unwittingly written provocative posts and yes the stats do fly high, but like Kym I did not enjoy the attention and ended up deleting a years worth of blogging. I know – I could have just made it a private blog and kept the stuff I wanted to keep.
    Then again, sometimes what one person thinks is provocative is not necessarily what another considers provocative. In the non-blog world, I know I have watched provocative movies – ie. banned movies like “Romance” just because they were banned – when it’s just a rather boring art house film that wouldn’t otherwise wouldn’t have been on my radar. I know that a lot of people have gotten published for tackling provocative subjects – eg. Shanghai Baby, Henry Miller…I think SB was supposed to be the female chinese HM etc..I’ve read these stories but nothing has stayed with me. Not HM because he’s a man getting his rocks off in Paris and not SB because the subject matter didn’t interest me enough. But maybe if I found these books as a younger person/male, I would have really enjoyed it. I’m rambling now.

  • damyantig says:

    Yes, Kym, being provocative just for the sake of being provocative is not really my idea of a good post.

    Thanks for dropping by to comment:)

  • Kym says:

    Recently, I had the experience of being at the receiving end of a provocative post. The stats did indeed fly high as people flew back and forth between the two blogs.

    But, I wasn’t enjoying the attention and, oddly, in the end, neither was the other poster. He ended his comments puzzled that his unpleasant post had received so much more attention than his discussion of homelessness.

    Being provocative is usually only raising the attention level but NOT raising the level of consciousness or the level of change. I write to bring happiness to myself and others– that doesn’t mean I won’t write about unpleasant subjects just that I want, in the end, to have changed life somehow for the better not just have people read me.

  • damyantig says:

    Queen,
    Thanks for dropping by, and the comment. I like a little action or pace in writing too, but not when that is its sole content:)

  • damyantig says:

    DarcKnyt,

    Did that last line on my post come across as a little snarky? lols:)

    Thanks for the compliment *raises her shirt collar*…..and yes I guess there is an audience for every kind of writing, provocative or not:)

  • queenofthecastle says:

    I agree with you about being provocative – sometimes it can be good to start a debate, but mostly I find provocative writing boring, like some of the subject matter is there purely to shock or get some kind of reaction, not to add to the story. I like gentle meandering writing (not that a little action isn’t good!). There are one or two blogs that I read that could be seen as ‘provocative’ depending on who was reading them, but not with the type of audience that they receive.

  • DarcKnyt says:

    Of course you have an audience! You’re a wonderful writer. And provoking isn’t all there is to being a stirring writer. Just write what’s in your heart. The audience will follow.