Why write?
I was struck recently by something Rachel* said over at the MC. She expressed some dismay over what exactly her blog was bringing to her life - namely not so good vibes - and what the source was. She established that writers write for two reasons - "love and an audience" - and that her audience was what was lacking.
Before I move on: I hope the new format has brought the pleasure back to blogging, Rachel*. I don't care to think about a Culmination-less Tampa scene - haters aside, you know full well I'm not the only one.
Back to the writing. I am completely prepared to admit that I underestimated the appeal of an audience when I started this. It's not only the regular readers I've accumulated - thank you! - but even the random visits from places such as the US Department of Energy and those random Blogger sites from far reaches of the globe that bring me such jolly satisfaction.
It seems to me like there's more. A purely practical reason that I post here is to help me get more sleep. My mind is typically a regular tilt-a-whirl of sundry thoughts late at night that I usually have to watch mindless TV or play mindless video games until I'm too tired to listen. This way I at least feel like I'm not causing my brain to rot. And now I'm giving some of those thoughts (heavens to Betsy if I ever really lower the filter, the tedium of it would surely melt your monitor) an outlet.
I think I chose the right word in my rambling psychobabble post: catharsis. You don't have to go far down the fiction section at your local bookstore to find several authors that found writing to be the only outlet for demons that threatened to make their minds unliveable. I'm not suggesting that I have demons of that nature, but I think everyone stands to benefit from taking their thoughts out for a breather now and then. And if someone should happen to read those thoughts and perhaps even expand on them or debate them, then the entire concept of the blog has been met with great success.
In other words, leave comments! I'm certain that Rachel* is right in being turned off by the negativity, but at this point I'm jonesing for just about anything. If any of you bloggers have something to add about the whole idea of what we do, let's hear it. If any of you really wish I'd just pick a topic or just shut up altogether, let's definitely hear it. Chances are though you'll be met by more of the same. I hope that by now the very nature of this thing I do is why people come back. I love the audience, but I won't let it change what I'm doing.
Posted by Joel at 12/06/2005 12:42:00 AM
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