“So, why do you blog, anyway?”
by Zia ~ July 28th, 2005. Filed under: Webbish.Basically, because it’s a a socially-acceptable form of narcissism.
No, seriously. It’s like therapy in that you get to talk about yourself endlessly, only you don’t have to pay anyone to listen. It’s like a journal.
Actually, I used to be a journal-keeper. But, like most, I found myself only writing when I was depressed and the resulting entries made me want to puke. Wallow, wallow, whinge, whine, moan. I promised I would write every day, regardless of mood. Didn’t happen. Wallow, wallow … Finally, I chucked them in self-disgust and focused on writing. You know, the Real Stuff. The stuff for publication.
Writing is hard. Writing “my own stuff” is hard when I also write “other stuff” for a living. The last thing you want to do at the end of a long hard day staring at an empty Word document is stare at another empty Word doc. And considering that “my own stuff” is a novel (well, okay, two), there’s a lot of staring. There’s a lot of getting somewhere, but never finishing.
Enter the blog.
Yes, I self-censor. I don’t write about work. For the most part, I don’t write about my feelings either. But what I really like about the blog is that I can spend 5 minutes, 15 minutes, even 50 minutes on a blog post, hit publish–and it’s done–one perfect little post, one huge sense of accomplishment.
I have written.
That is, until I catch the typos.