BASICS: BUGS IS WORK | nationalsalvation.net
Irony is funny because it is true. It is also cruel because it is true. But as Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, a name only BBG will probably recognize, once said, "Man is the only animal who laughs. Man is also the only animal who knows he will die."
One of the strains of writing for BUGS is that I will start on one subject and then realize that where I am going is somewhere else. A change of direction means a complete rethought and a complete rewrite. This actually involves several rewrites.
In other words, most of the WORK here comes from a change of direction. When I put this in plain English to myself the simple answer as to why BUGS is harder than writing for money becomes a piece of irony:
"When I wrote for money I wasn't GOING anywhere."
When I wrote for money the route was laid out. I was writing in terms a certain public would understand and in the language of the person who had hired me. In short, I already knew what to say, and I knew exactly what the style would be.
I got paid because, as with the Populist Forum, all I wanted to do was truly represent the person I was writing for and put it in terms the people I was writing to would understand.
Another irony is that it was easy because what people would understand was so limited. So my books, even the ones in my own name, were dedicated to getting across just enough new ideas, which were very old ideas to me, so my particular public would understand and give examples they would recognize.
To be perfectly frank, when you were limited to those subjects there was little danger of me.
BUGS readers are an entirely different matter. I can talk about Wordism and a dozen other concepts that would require full explanation to others. I do not have to devote my writing to explaining these basics.
I can GO somewhere. I can be writing here and suddenly remember that I don't have to go through the old explanations and deal with the "DUHH!!" bit.
Within the old bounds, it was easy for me to do what seemed near superhuman to some.
When the heat was on and a congressman needed a speech fast, he would bypass his own staff and call me on the Committee. I had explained the same things, with a little twist to spice up the speech so many times I could do it on an entirely new subject at, literally, record speed.
In fact, I could do that on entirely new subjects. It was a technique.
I wasn't GOING anywhere. The tracks were easy to see. If I got off the track nobody would understand what I was talking about.
But talking about something that is new to ME is a whole different ball game. I am not just explaining something I have had years to think over. But when I connect different concepts together for the first time here and come to conclusions I hadn't considered before, it's a different thing altogether.
I do more mental WORK for you than I did for anybody who paid me.
It is new kind of freedom. And like any new kind of freedom it has elements of strain.