What should I say?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Look! I have a word cloud!
I've been reading people's blogs of late, to answer the age old question, what should I say and what should I not say in my out there, attached to my name so it feels like it has more personal impact blog? I have a Live Journal, which I am really attached to, a MySpace because I'm told that's what all the cool kids do, a Greatest Journal and a Vox which I'm thinking of dropping, an invite to FaceBook...all of which are means of communicating with real people, drawing in new friends and new perspectives. That's what i want. And I believe you have to give of yourself. My blog style is, especially when I'm not posting under my name, quite conversationalist. I want to share my experiences because maybe you've had those experiences to. Or, maybe someday you will have those experiences. "We owe it to each other to tell stories," Neil Gaiman once said, and i don't think he means just the fiction ones.
The thing is, I've always used made up names on the Internet. When I was in college we went from a Lynx based system of email communication where the Internet was nothing but mailing lists, MUDS and chatrooms to web pages. When I first started college in 1994, I had an email address but the only people who knew it were a few pen pals from my INXS pen pal list days, and the last year, I think, I was there, we could surf the web on Netscape Navigator, which I loved because of the Naval/Lighthouse motif. It never occurred to me not to make up my name, to shield myself from the people whose intentions I could not really know, in fact, everyone encouraged it. And under my various (three, really, I generally stick to three, one of which is Ninave.) names I talk about my father being in the hospital. I talk about realizing I don't mind being alone, in fact I probably like it better. And I fan girl, not badly, but a little. These are things I'm not sure you want to read about. These are things I'm not sure if I want my ex-husband/ex-mother in law/enemy from high school to read, because they can bend it to make themselves feel better - feel justified. And I might try really, really hard to be a good person, but I'm not really delighted with the idea of people talking about how pathetic I am behind my back. (Of course, you should never care about what people think, which is easier said, some times, than done.)
Also, I sent one of the people reading the blog over to my LJ, because I wasn't updating this sucker much and wanted him to have a way to keep up with me, and he said he stopped reading it because it was too personal. But (And he knows who he is, and I hope he knows I'm not complaining...*waves to him*...) I don't update this as much as I should because I don't want it to feel like a running advertisement, and one doesn't always have news of the writing type.
So, I guess I should ask you. What do YOU want to read? Do you believe that we should share our experiences to create a body of knowledge for people to delve into? Do you think a "public figure" should be more careful? (But then, I'm hardly Angelina Jolie, or apt to become her.)
Eh, well. I'll continue to try and find a middle ground. Or, toss it over my shoulder as too much effort, and just cross post everything.
I do have a nice bit of writing news, though! I've started writing an editor's letter to go along with the Fiction Addiction newsletter. This week the newsletter talks about the Anthology Market. Generally, it's a almost blog-like post discussing experiences and offering advice and tips, and I encourage people to add their own. If you email me (at the address in the newsletter) your own thoughts and experiances, and they might get published in the next newsletter! :)Labels: internet
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 9:08 AM
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