Oh! Hello There!
I haven't posted very regularly, I know. Though I should say, compared to the NY blog, every blog I do will seem light. I was like a man possessed with that blog. For me, starting a blog after my intern blog was difficult, because that one was grade A blogging. Anything after, regardless, will seem less interesting.
It's been a different kind of summer. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, and other times worse. This summer has been the Summer of Thinking for me. I can't seem to shut my brain up. And certain things that I'm thinking about are causing temporary work stoppages within the humor area of my brain. But I don't want to get too specific, because I care about certain things too much to rant about them on this blog. As much as I want to talk about how amazing I think certain things are, and what a beautiful person certain things are, I won't. As much as I'd like to say just how funny and smart certain things are and how blown away I am on a daily basis by certain things, I won't do that here. And as much as I'd like to post certain things' home address so that letters of recommendation could be sent to that address by the blogging community on my behalf, I won't do that. Not here. It just wouldn't be right.
But I haven't NOT been writing. I've actually read and written a lot this summer. Some of it is pure gold, but most of it -- as I said chatting with Steph -- is pure platinum. Often, though, if I write something that I'm really proud of, something that has managed to blow even my own usually self-deprecating mind, I don't post it. I'm not sure why. Sometimes I think it's because I don't want to let it go just yet. And, specifically, when you post something on a blog (which is very public, as I learned in NY), it's almost like it's not completely yours anymore.
That's silly, but then again, I am a very silly person. I mean, good lord, just look at this post. What's it even about??? I don't know. I just don't know.
I'm curious to see what others think of this. Do you post everything? If you've written pieces that you thought were just above and beyond your normal game*, do you hesitate in posting them simply because you're afraid it won't be as much yours anymore?
*The post for Jasmine's blog, about zombies and true love, was pretty damn close, I must say.
posted by Andy @ 11:55 AM
20 comments
20 Comments:
I don't write about everything, but I do post what I write. A finished essay is a fledgling bird; it needs to fly on its own. I do my best to help it, but after that, it needs to get out there and make it on its own merit.
I do have a private blog where I post other things, more personal things (bitching about certain details of my life that I hate but cannot change, for example), observations about my colleagues that would probably offend them if they read them, and my poetry, which I am enormously self-conscious about. There are few people who read my private blog.
GrrlScientist
If I posted everything that was on my mind or going on, the upload would shut down the Internet. But, I heavily filter what I actually post based on who is going to read it - kind of like when I speak. I've written voluminous, Faulkneresque posts that I painstakingly edited - spending 4 hours in the process - and deleted them. [select all] [backspace] Why? Because I assumed other people would think it was stupid.
Give me a call sometime if you want to discuss certain things.
I've currently got 13 posts that have been relegated to "eternal draft" status, and will likely never be published. In many cases, it's because I think I'm the only one who will think it's good. Or that there are too many inside/personal references, and that most people won't understand them.
If I feel that kind of pressure with my 10 readers, I can't imagine what your blog-life is like.
Depends on what you're using your blog for - sheer entertainment or public diary. The best ones are both.
But as someone who plans on being a writer eventually, I (and presumably yourself) have to keep some things held back. Especially since your blog is high-profile - people will steal anything good, and you run the risk of becoming irrelevant before you've really even started.
Hell, some of what I thought was grade-A posting got only five or six comments. But when I post something short and useless, suddenly I get 65. Strange, finding out what people give a damn about.
i'm not a writer. so i'm not sure that i feel that bond with anything that comes out of my fingers.
are you worried that someone will try to steal your work?
i miss you, my darling fiance!!!
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Well, I don't write a blog but I'd like to. And very often in the day, I think "I could write this and this like blah blah blah". And then, the whole sentences are on my mind. But I don't start my blog and don't write them because as you say it, writing something is sharing it and there are things you just want to keep for yourself.
Sometimes you just want to write, but you don't want to be read....
(Hi, Jasmine!)
are you worried that someone will try to steal your work?
I don't think I'm worried about work being stolen, because once it's on this page, it's mine to the internet world. IF I ever needed to prove it, well, here it is, dated and all.
But maybe that's part of it. Maybe I think it won't feel completely my own anymore because someone could easily take it and use it as if they wrote it. Hmm...
Right now, I'm posting about 75% of what I write, if not a little higher.
I can't stop thinking this summer and it's killing me, too. In fact, I'm gonna go for a killer ride and sweat it out soon.
I keep wistfully hoping I'll get real critiques from readers. Saying, "Hey, I liked that voice," or "This line was really evocative because of this, this, and this" or something, but sadly, no.
Sometimes it can be a very empty experience, even if you get 15-20 comments or more. It's very strange, this blogging thing. A false feeling of fulfillment sometimes.
(shrug)
Thanks for the linkage, honeybunch.
(But since you're a stickler for grammar and spelling, can you start spelling it with FFs, kind like, oh, I don't know, like it's supposed to be? ;)
Naughty Steff for adults only.
Steff Lite.
I did that only once, but it was because the post turned out to be very personal, not the other way
I try to, which is funny. the thing is, my thoughts don't come in blog-ready or even speech-ready forms. it takes me a while (a really long while) to translate the really important stuff swirling around in my brain onto paper (figuratively). I've got a pretty active self censor, which is sometimes a bad thing because I get those days where I'm all about everybody else. and I feel writing shouldn't be about that. not all of it anyway.
I might get to have some of those eternal drafts omar's talking about once I hone my writing skills more. I have tons of stuff that no one has ever seen. but its only because 1. I can't be bothered to show it to anyone or 2. I can't find the right place that'll let me show it to anyone.
I don't post everything. Then I realized I couldn't get into my Blog... because I'd forgotten my Username and my password...
It's a sad, sad fate.
Oh, and Steph, if it makes you feel better, I had a friend who would take a red pen (quite liberally) to anything I ever wrote. It was nice. The crushing of my spirit was the best part.
Cheers!
I'm like that, at times I hate my blog because there's very little of interest on it. So many cool things happen in my life on a day-to-day basis, but I never write about them because I don't think it would be interesting enough for other people to read!
It's rare that I won't post it, but I don't hesitate to pull something if it's too close to home or is just mine. There are moments where I write my heart, and I'm not comfortable with not knowing who reads it or with having people comment on it.
But, as a sub-par writer, that's probably a blessing for most people. ; )
I don't understand what a "private blog" is. Seems kind of like a "private billboard."
I post a lot more than what I speak. But that may be because I'm originally from MN (and hopefully you'll understand that beng from WI). But it becomes more of an issue the more people I get to "know" that read my blog. I think that this is an increasing problem. How much do you want the people that love you (for whatever reason they love you) to know about who you "really" are? A catch 22 really. What becomes of your life when the people of your blog become your life? That's the question on my mind....
I freak out that eveyrthing I write is below par, or too self obsessed, or irrelevant... constant paranoia, it would be crippling, but life moves too fast for me to reflect on it, you know? What are you doing now the summer's nearly over? Back to college?
I keep my blogs pretty far apart. One is just rants, links to goofy crap i find or pics of friends. Since i'm not a very good writer, i keep the personal one a relative secret. By reading your previous comments, this seems pretty common.
I'm digging your new(er) one though- keep it up!
I try to post stuff I think is funny or interesting. It doesn't always work that way--and I've offended a few people with posts.
The main reason I try not to post something serious is that I will probably come off as pompous or as a complete boob that has no idea what he's babbling about. However, if I can come off like a funny boob, as I often do, then it's okay.
So--he said finally getting to his point--write whatever you damn well please. If people don't like it they'll tell you (and I'd tell them to F-off), but it's your space, you write what you want).
I don't use my blog for anyone's amusement but my own. I also don't write as practice as a writer, but use it as more or less, a diary. My thoughts, my feelings, my drunken nights of sex with random guys... well, sometimes :)
So, more or less I post everything. I do have one friend who reads it though, so I really can't write about her.
K
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