I seems that it can be many things. An advert, a website alternative, a recipe book, a forum, sports pages, a travel journal, a community, a diary, a world apart from reality.
I have two. One for work: cheaper and easier to maintian and navigate than a website. Something obligatory for the self employed person that I am. Focussed and practical. A necessary chore. A yellow pages entry alternative for today's Google generation.
The other? It is other. It is a diary, or the closet to it I have ever succeeded in keeping. It my voice. It is this. A voice with no regard for a 'target audience'. There isn't one. It is just me. And those who choose to share with me.
It is disjointed and personal. I appreciate those who do read, I learn from you all. It makes me focus my voice, to try and make a point, encourages me to keep recording my journey. It enables me to process the things in my head and my life I'm struggling with. It allows me to remember my father while Alzheimer's destroys him and record the moments of joy, in order that, on dark days, I can remind myself there is more.
It has brought me to a world where others share. I have learned more than many books could teach me of people and experineces. It is sometimes voyeuristic. It is very often a priveleged glimpse into the lives of people I will never meet but come to know in a different way.
I wish I could write long hand in beautiful notebooks. I've tried and failed. I scribble if I need to vent when I am laptop-less in any old notebook that comes to hand. But this? It works for me.
Thank you to all those who read and share your tales, factual or fictitious, with us here. A virtual dashboard bringing us together in one place and making sense of the maze. What does your blog mean for you? Has it become what you expected or something else altogether?
My blog started out as a way to force myself to write regularly and to try out different styles of writing. Well, at that point I was planning on being a writer.
ReplyDeleteThese days I'm a photographer instead, but the blog took on a life of it's own. It's all over the place - things that are funny, tragic, thoughtful, inane, overheard conversations, photos, discussions, a place to express fears or note anniversaries.
In that sense, I guess it's a bit like an old friend - someone with whom I can discuss whatever I happen to be thinking of at the time. Only it answers back with much more than one voice.
There's no doubt blogging is a bizarre thing - something I was never prepared for by school or upbringing. And yet now, 4 and a half years later, it's a natural way to express myself
It's strange what pops into the head, that suddenly becomes 15 minutes at a keyboard.....Your subject matter may be diverse but there's certainly a voice.
ReplyDeleteHearing about Sang and watching a BBC 4 programme called Dear Diary got me thinking about the alternative/virtual community and why people are motivated to scribble.
It's fascinating to see what folk choose from their day or week or whatever to record. It's a lovely, bizarre world. Rarely would anyone get so much insight, weird and wonderful, from someone over a pint. Well, perhaps after the 5th....