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I never had any intention of writing a blog. I
first heard about them while enrolled in a web design
course...hoping to make a career shift away from teaching and
into the booming world of the internet. This was the summer of 2000.
Unbeknownst to me then, most internet companies would go bust just a
few months later.
At that time, I felt blogs were
self-indulgent, worthless, and a waste of time; both from the
writer's and reader's standpoint. Obviously, that has changed. Not
the self-indulgent or worthless part, simply that I wouldn't write
one.
A number of factors played into my decision to create a blog,
the main one being that I was unemployed at the time. With excess amounts of
free time, I started surfing around to see what this blog phenomena
was all about. I soon found that most blogs were (and still are) poorly written and
mind-numbingly dull.
Anyone can write a diary entry
stating that they went to the store. Or how boring their day
at work was. Or rant about how they hate
baseball, or husbands, or democrats, or people who can't drive.
But to make ordinary life entertaining by weaving a crafted story around an event and creating
something that people might actually find amusing is something
special. I'm most impressed with those people who have the ability
to do this.
Which isn't to say that I am one of these people.
I've always enjoyed writing but find that I never do it unless a
deadline is looming on the horizon. I liked the creative writing
classes that I took in college but, once finished, I stopped
writing. And I've never been a fan of diaries or journals. I have no
desire to write down the incredibly mundane things I do each day.
But a blog, I reasoned, would
get me to write something every now and then. Of course, I'm not sure how long I'll actually want to
continue doing this. For now, though, I'd like to force myself to
write again.
There is also this new phenomena of 'blooks'...bloggers that end up
landing book deals. I'm almost embarrassed to
admit this, but how incredibly cool would it be if my dinky little blog
could end up getting something of mine published?
Of course, with millions of blogs
on-line, this isn't going to happen. Although there are people out there
who became authors by default. It
happened to
her,
and
her, and even
her...who
not only has a book but wrote a screenplay as well.
So I can always dream. Of course, I
dream of winning the lottery too, and that hasn't happened yet
either.
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