Monday, November 16, 2009

Blogging on...Blogging

I love the idea of writing a blog—mostly because I’m vain enough to believe, to think, that you and the rest of world not only needs to hear what I have to say but wants to hear it, that what I’m going to write is so clever or interesting that a light bulb will illuminate above your head, you’ll see the world in a different way and recognize my brilliance.

Then I start to write the blog and discover I’m not nearly as clever or interesting on paper (or the screen) as I sound in my own head.

As I fiction writer, I’m a good judge of my own writing, what’s working and what’s not. I might not always correct the problem but that’s usually from laziness or deadlines. Or the overwhelming realization that if I fix that one problem, I have to re-write the whole book so I make a decision to live with it.

When writing a blog, it's more real, more personal. And the words don’t sound like me. They don’t have the inflection or the pauses. I can’t jump into a character’s voice or describe actions. And sometimes, I just sound mean. Words that I speak out loud sound much more harsh when written. And in the end, I scrap the whole thing and write something less interesting, less controversial, less clever.

There are a lot of blogs out there but none that I return to time and again. The last blog I read consistently was of porn star and that was years ago before the term “blog” even came into being. She posted a weekly update on what she was doing and how many movies she’d done that week. The insights into her life were intriguing and it gave me a sense of “knowing” her. (And yes, out of curiosity, I watched one of her movies and realized, it’s still just porn).

I wanted my blog to be like that…to share with people my daily adventures, but you know, I don’t have that many adventures. I enjoy my life and have fun but can’t really imagine that most readers care that I’m knitting an Entrelac shawl. I certainly can’t compete with the adventures of a porn star (and wouldn’t really want to).

So, here’s the point where I normally start deleting. It’s not clever enough, or it feels like it’s a bit depressing. But I’m not going to. I'm going to post it as it. Well, I'll have to do some editing because that's just who I am. Now to wonder if I took out all the really good stuff...

5 comments:

Ruby Storm said...

Good morning, Tielle!

I had to chuckle when I read your post. LOL - isn't it the truth that we sit and hope others will think what we write is some of the most interesting stuff around? And yup, we'll start writing and suddenly look at the contraversial side of it and quickly hit the backspace key. I would rather be entertaining, no matter how lightly it comes across, then to start a dialogue that could possibly hurt or offend others. THere's enough crap going on in this world so why ruffle feathers! Hope you're doing well!

Ruby

Juniper Bell said...

Tielle, that was a very real, very honest, non-controversial post that I very much enjoyed reading! You nailed it! Feel better?

I agree that blogging is totally different from fiction-writing. Unless .... hm, maybe that porn star was actually a writer worried about how boring her life was?

Well, you saw the evidence on film, so maybe not. ;) But it's an idea.

Lynn LaFleur said...

I always believe that everyone will love every word I write when I start a new book. The more I get into it, the more I worry that no one will like any word of it. We writers are such an insecure bunch!

Great post, Tielle.

Lynn

Cait Miller said...

I actually did a blog like the one you mentioned. But as my daily life as a midwife (no porn involved... that I know of)but it fell by the wayside as I gave into those insecurities you mentioned. Maybe one day I will put it back on my website. Right now I need to keep telling myself that the book I'm writing does not suck and get it done. Good post Tielle!

Adele Dubois said...

I can relate to your post. Actually, I found it interesting. :) Nice to know I'm not the only author who wonders if her blogs are entertaining enough.

Best--Adele Dubois