meta-post

I never had a blog before this one; it's been an interesting journey for both myself and my family and friends.

Some of you I never see in real life, so reading the blog is the only real insight you have into my boho life. But for friends, like Laura, and family, like my mom, the blog sometimes becomes something more than just a record of my activities: it becomes part of the discussion, part of the activities. If I'm writing about what I'm doing, and what I'm doing involves talking about the blog, then shouldn't I be writing about what I'm talking about what I'm writing about?

Firstly, it creates a slight imbalance in a relationship. Unless you have a blog that I follow (and unless you update it on a regular basis), then you have more of an insight into the day-to-day fluctuations. Ironically, people like Rob and Sarah (probably not the Sarah you're thinking of; she used to be a regular reader but is now doing yoga in California), the only two of my readers who have blogs, don't live nearby and so the balance is more equal. With my mom, however, I'll either start telling her something I've already written about in the blog--I hate telling the same story twice to the same person--or I'll have exhausted a story by writing about it and not want to talk about it any more.

I think the strangeness ultimately is most apparent to the other person involved; I sometimes forget that other people read this, so much it feels like a journal.

Secondly, it's forced me to categorize my life: there are some things that are blog-worthy but not conversation worthy; there are others that I would talk about but would never put in writing--certainly not for the whole world to read; and then there are those rare moments that are so unique, such good stories, that they merit a written description as well as a live, in-the-flesh narrative performance.

I've been reading through some of my old posts (so now I'm writing about reading what I wrote long ago; it's a vicious cycle), and, through reading other personal blogs, I've realized some things that make a good post. Recently, for instance, I've been trying to keep each post to one topic, one story. Maybe that means I post several times in a day (when my life is particularly exciting); some days I shouldn't post at all. The posts (of mine) that I find the most loathsome are the ones that just present a laundry list of things I've done. Sometimes, how those things fit together IS the story; sometimes it's just unfocused drivel.

I've also learned that pictures really help make a post more readable. I just am usually too lazy.

I've also learned a lot about storytelling from LOST (which people in real life are getting sick of hearing about)--like how to tie together a complicated story, full of tangents and create an overall structure. Stay tuned for more sepia-toned flashbacks.