Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Blog

A number of past journals, both actual and virtual, have passed through my hands in a variety of ways. Some I have simply lost, some I have destroyed through self-censorship by tearing out pages, burning embarrassing entries or by tossing them in the trash. A couple of summers ago I deleted about seven years worth of online journal entries in one massive, sweeping purge. I was proud of many of those online journal entries - many of which were written back when I only knew these things as "online journals" and probably would have assumed that the word "blog" had something to do with the sound a cat makes when it vomits. Actually, to be fair, a good number of those early entries probably had less color and texture than cat vomit, but I was proud regardless. Armed with only a primitive knowledge of HTML, a thirty dollar webcam and a passion for MS Paint, I had erected one of the finest websites that Angelfire was capable of supporting.

In those first few years, I enthusiastically considered myself ahead of the curve - a quirky little innovator. LiveJournal was still a year or two away from being widely heard of by the online community and, being the author of an online archive of journal entries, I had the distinct pleasure of being the very first person to explain the concept to many people. Most would ask, "You post your diary online? And anyone can read it? Isn't that... weird?"

Yes. It is weird. It is also now, in 2008, hugely popular - almost an obligation, or an afterthought for some. In 1998, I had only ever met one other person who had an online journal (Kevin Driscoll, a high school crush - his online journal was the first I had ever seen). Today, the number of bloggers coughing up entries all over cyberspace is estimated to be well over 100 million. Today, if I truly wanted to be unique I might entertain the archaic notion of quietly keeping a real paper-and-binding journal by my bedside.

But then, there is the troubling matter of "if a journal entry is written, and no one has access to comment on it, does it make a noise?". That's what seventeen year old Lola might ask, anyway. Of course, the world is noisier now than it has ever been and perhaps what we could really use is more individual quiet time; and that is partly why twenty-four year old Lola decided that the only way to move forward creatively was to erase all those quirky, funky online journals that she'd been resting her artistic ass on for years.

Since then, I have completed the first draft of a novel and recently began revisions. Progress! Art! So, now that I have proven to myself that I don't need the instant gratification of publish-with-the-click-of-a-button blogging, I am ready to start up a real blog again. Because I like it. Because I could use the exercise.

Because I hope someday to be a great writer - the kind that can forge gemstones from cat vomit.

6 comments:

Zombie Face said...

As someone who read your old blog before the word blog even existed, I wholly support (re)new(ed) effort. You rule, babe.


~Tess

Leslie said...

YES YES YES

I am ecstatic!

Miss Kolleen said...

i blog, therefore, i am

(i blog because i have A lot OF TIME ON MY HANDS).

- Cindy - said...

As someone who had a 'cyber journal' before the word blog existed as well, I say yea for the renewed efforts. I took back up the mantle towards the end of last year and have yet to look back. Congrats on the fantasy novel. I've been so close to finishing mine for probably a year now. :p Sometimes life happens I guess. I know I'll get back to it, and until I do, blogging is a great way to keep writing without dedicating time to a large project.

Tanya Rose said...

I love this so much
I hope you update it every dayyyy

Anonymous said...

wait a minute!! is that how mom and dad were able to retire at 56 and 60? from forging gemstones from cat vomit? there sure was enough of that back in the day. i knew they had a secret!!