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Contemplating a sea-change
Dec. 24th, 2005 07:22 pmI was thinking serious thoughts earlier today, wondering whether blogging is really a good idea for me right now. I used to have a lot of IRL friends who blogged here, all of whom have effectively stopped, so it's not really fulfilling the social role in my life that it used to (and even when it did, let's be honest, that didn't do anything for the many long-distance friends I didn't write interesting email to anymore). I used to need it as a place to vent work frustrations, but, although I might again, for now I don't really use it for that either. I used to think it was good for my writing, because at least it meant I was stringing a few sentences together each day. However: they're usually pretty boring sentences, and I'm not doing it every day anymore. What I am doing is obsessively checking LJ and not finding a lot, because the people who originally made it such a good place to be are not really around anymore (it's a good thing I don't have an abandonment complex... otherwise I'd probably be feeling sad and lonely about that.) In addition to all this, I really do like real life better than cyberlife in a lot of ways.
However, what am I going to do... ditch LJ completely, and along with it the couple of non-IRL friends I really would miss? Stop doing it until it works for me again? That makes no sense. Stop doing it until it would work for me again? But how would I know... and with whom would I share the stupid little victories, such as the way I went all day yesterday without eating any cheese?
One thing I really liked from Finding Your Writer's Voice was the idea of "dangerous journaling". I've given the book back to the guy who lent it to me, but it was essentially about keeping a non-boring, possibly non-information-bearing journal. Writing down, in one's more writerly voice, the startling little things that happen, or writing exercises, or the brightest color you saw that day, or... you probably get the idea. If I did this I would probably post more dialogues (which don't seem to draw any comment from y'all, but which I like doing; I think that recording real conversations really helps me develop an ear for dialogue); I'd probably post more silly stuff, and more surreal stuff, and more lists, and it might not always have much to do with my daily life. Unless I had pictures to post, or something I really wanted to discuss, in which case it still would.
One thing I like about that is the partial repurposing of my LJ: less for the rapidly evaporating audience, more for me as a writer and imagination-stretcher.
One thing I don't like about that is my worry that I might lose the rest of y'all.
I hope you'll comment and let me know what you think.
However, what am I going to do... ditch LJ completely, and along with it the couple of non-IRL friends I really would miss? Stop doing it until it works for me again? That makes no sense. Stop doing it until it would work for me again? But how would I know... and with whom would I share the stupid little victories, such as the way I went all day yesterday without eating any cheese?
One thing I really liked from Finding Your Writer's Voice was the idea of "dangerous journaling". I've given the book back to the guy who lent it to me, but it was essentially about keeping a non-boring, possibly non-information-bearing journal. Writing down, in one's more writerly voice, the startling little things that happen, or writing exercises, or the brightest color you saw that day, or... you probably get the idea. If I did this I would probably post more dialogues (which don't seem to draw any comment from y'all, but which I like doing; I think that recording real conversations really helps me develop an ear for dialogue); I'd probably post more silly stuff, and more surreal stuff, and more lists, and it might not always have much to do with my daily life. Unless I had pictures to post, or something I really wanted to discuss, in which case it still would.
One thing I like about that is the partial repurposing of my LJ: less for the rapidly evaporating audience, more for me as a writer and imagination-stretcher.
One thing I don't like about that is my worry that I might lose the rest of y'all.
I hope you'll comment and let me know what you think.
