I think people try, but fail. Or they use dirty water, or wash their face with lard, to continue your metaphor. Different strokes for different folks kb. If anyone gets some sense of peace or satisfaction out of expressing an idea, and it's not actively impugning on your life, is it such a bad thing? Even if you don't like it?Wash your faces, people.
Yes. YES. A thousand times yes. Here - let's pretend November is National Ballet Dancing Month (NaBaDaMo) instead. Come late October, everybody decides to take some time away from their Facebook and Reality TV to put on some dancing shoes. So they go out to Goodwill and buy a pair of tap shoes or engineer boots (since "hard toes" are the only requirement) and talk for a week about their tutus. Throughout November they all meet to encourage each other in their dance steps. They cheer each other on in online forums. And content-bereft listacle farms spew out puff piece after puff piece not about Mikhail Baryshnikov but about the six people who got to perform in their community theater version of "West Side Story." At the end of November nearly no one is still dancing but they all pat themselves on the back for "sticking with it" and "getting it out of their system" and look forward to next year when they will again stand on tip-toe twice a week for two weeks and call themselves ballerinas. Now: - Do you think that might denigrate the art of dance, rather than celebrate it? - Do you think that might degrade the professional respect of classically-trained dancers? - Do you think that time might have been better spent on something more productive? NeenerNeenerNooNoo gives people an excuse to pretend they aren't letting their goals slip by for 30 days instead of all year round. It's like giving up chocolate for Lent except since it's a social media phenomenon it gives people an excuse to yammer incessantly about their fucking novel to the point where everyone is legitimately dreading further discussion of writing in general. After all, the only books they've heard of are Hunger Games, Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter and 50 Shades. If you wanna write, write. If you wanna join, join. But don't for one minute think that joining will help you write. It will, odds on, hurt. If anyone gets some sense of peace or satisfaction out of expressing an idea, and it's not actively impugning on your life, is it such a bad thing?