(What) to write, or not to write - That is the question!

Since starting this blog, I've spent the majority of the time wondering about what I should not write, as opposed to what I wish to...

A couple of days ago I was reading the blog of 'The Great' Stephen Fry and he was talking about the days when he used to regularly write newspaper columns. The crux of his point was that if he needed a quick thousand words, it was very easy just to pick something he didn't approve of/dislike/hate and wax lyrical.

I found myself nodding along with this point, but then decided to take it one step further. (Two years of psychology training to develop critical thinking kicking in at last, I hope!) It has always seemed easier to me to be able to write constructive (or indeed any form of) criticism, publish it and then hide behind the words. When it becomes necessary to back those same words up in a public forum, to me that is entering a whole new sphere - For instance...

Over the summer, I spent some time 'hand-crafting' an e-mail to be sent out to the York chess mailing list, regarding the 'group-think' (See me or Social Psychology texts for details!) that had set in at The York R.I. Chess Club. The e-mail consisted of two sides of written text dealing with the salient facts and the conclusions that could be drawn from them. This whole process took me a week, because I wanted to make sure that the conclusions I represented were as close to what I wished to say and factually accurate as possible. This was because given that I rarely enter public debates, I wanted to make sure that I could state my case in public discussion with others, so as not to appear like I was hiding behind said aforementioned words on my computer screen.

The result of this exercise, for those of you who are wondering...well I received a fair degree of anger, but no-one decided to challenge me on any of the key facts that my 'words' had been based upon. Given the backlash I received, despite not being directly challenged on any of my points, I can only assume that I was too close to the truth for the liking of various people and I am now being portrayed as a dangerous and eccentric outsider who hides behind his keyboard!

Despite that little 'failing', I do intend to stick to my principles and anything that I write here will only be presented if I am able and prepared to back it up in a public forum. Perhaps one day, I may even have the confidence to back my points up in a dialogue with Stephen Fry himself. However, given that that man knows more about the English language than I know about the Sicilian Najdorf, that day may be someway off!

Right, now what do I actually wish to write about?