Intro

I feel like I've uttered some sort of heretical statement when I tell people I don't like to journal. "How is that possible?" they seethe. "You're a writer and you don't like to journal?" That's when I hang my head in shame. My credibility as a writer has been discredited, again. I should just forget it and go back to one of the five other things I've tried to do. Although I do feel a little insulted. I think judging a writer for not journaling bears some resemblance to judging an artist not doing paint-by-numbers (OK, so maybe that's a stretch, but it's all I could come up with).

It's not that I've never journaled. In my adolescence and early 20's I filled books upon books with a lot of nonsense. And that's the problem: just when I've finally forgotten some embarrassing moment, I have to flip through an old journal and find it there, scorched upon the page, in past efforts to "get it all out." As if the memory haunting me forever through my waking days isn't bad enough, now I have it down on paper for all eternity. Or until I shred it. It's enough to make me want to slam the book closed and fling it in a corner, hoping not to hit a cat.

I suppose I'm being somewhat dramatic, but it is the stupid little stuff that one should forget. So why constantly being reminded of it? I was once told that I could journal about positive things. I could. But I am a realist, and I do doubt that happening. I think a better way for me to "get it all out" is by wrapping the issue in cryptic language, as can be done in poetry or within the context of a story. I believe that takes the edge off a little bit, but still keeps the feeling behind it very alive.

And I don't feel like I need a journal as a guide to my writing because it's all trapped up there in my brain. Perhaps the only way for me to get it out is to write about it...

So why, you ask, are you blogging? Since most compare blogging to journaling, that's a fair enough question. Well the difference between blogging and journaling is that journaling is (usually) private, as opposed to the public nature of blogging. For me, I think blogging will offer a refined version of journaling: since others may read it, I may put more thought into it than I would in a private journal. Therefore I'm hoping it's a little less like word diarrhea and more like enjoyable and introspective anecdotes from my life. In the insane limbo that is my existence at present, I think it provides an opportunity for me to write, and it might be fun. I guess we'll see.