It's an interesting thing, writing a blog. It feels like I'm writing a letter to a friend, except there's the chance that some of the readers are people I've never met. (A slim chance. This isn't exactly a widely publicized blog.) At the same time, they're letters to my future self, reminding me what I happened to be thinking that day.
For example, I wrote a post on playing with that old `It's a Wonderful Life' scenario of what if this or that character was never born? Only to realize, looking back, that I probably just thought it was a nifty idea because I was outlining a story about parallel universes at the time.
Then there are the book and movie musings that only cover one aspect of the story. I wrote a post about the love story in Megamind. If I'd written about the character arc instead, I would have pulled on completely different points -maybe even contradicted some of my thoughts from when I was dealing with the love story. (Like whether or not Megamind was evil in the opening. I still say he was never as evil as he thought he was, but he was definitely selfish and needed a good kick to make him shape up and stop feeling sorry for himself. But hey, that's what character arcs are for.) The best thing about book and movie discussions is that stories are open to so many interpretations.
I haven't exactly been a consistent blogger. Life keeps tossing me distractions. But I do enjoy these letters. I hope you all do too.
I've been doing something similar. I consider it pretty much a personal blog, where I can share thoughts, interests, and events with folks who don't belong to LiveJournal. Oh, folks could visit my journal, too, but I wanted some place I could send folks where they wouldn't feel like outsiders looking in. (Besides, not all LiveJournal posts are open to the public; everything I put on Blogger is. {Smile})
ReplyDeleteAnne Elizabeth Baldwin
I've never played that game with my characters--at least not as a game. However, I have ripped characters out of my story, as if they never existed. It is hard. The most recent victim is still calling out to me, but I really did think she was leading the story in a direction it did not need to go in.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could be more consistent as well!
Anne, that makes sense. Yeah, it can be frustrating if you come across an interesting discussion and can't comment.
ReplyDeleteTia, Is she going to migrate to another story? Or drown in the morass of untold tales until she returns, morphed into a new form? (Or is it too hard to tell yet?)
Chicory, I do have my LiveJournal set up so anonymous posters can comment. (Not everyone does.) However... other users are more likely to respond to folks if they aren't anonymous, and signing your name while being labeled anonymous doesn't help that much. It would take folks a while to notice they weren't as included in the discussion, but sooner or later they'd get the idea. That doesn't happen on my Blogger blog as much. Folks seem as happy to respond to an "anonymous" poster who signs their name as to anyone else. So I'm happier sending non-LiveJournal users there. {Smile}
DeleteAnne Elizabeth Baldwin
That makes sense. I've never used LiveJournal so I'm not as aware of the differences. :)
ReplyDeleteLiveJournal (or LJ, as users call it) is a bit different than the rest of the blogging sphere. It's a little insular, as I said above. It's also very well-connected within itself, I suspect because the "friends page" feature provides a LJ-only blog reader that makes keeping up with other friends on LJ very easy. Also, you can make some of your posts more private, limited to letting your LJ-friends see them, or even just some of those friends. But you don't have to do that for every single post. Even better, the private posts will show up on the "friends page" just like the public ones; a feature most blog readers can't seem to provide. {Smile}
DeleteFor all these features, I do like LJ a lot. I just don't want to have to send folks who aren't members there. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Sounds a little like Facebook.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways yes, but without the games, and with a LOT looser word limit. The Facebook statuses most folks use can only hold 200 and some characters per post. Yes, you can post a much longer note that will post a snippet that folks can click on to go to the full note, but it's easy to mistake those for links to off-site articles by other folks. In LiveJournal, you have as much space as in any blog. There are ways to shorten the long ones, but the length is up to you, and it doesn't have to look like just a link. {Smile}
DeleteAnne Elizabeth Baldwin
That would make life a lot easier. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I like LiveJournal's style. It combines Facebook's easy connectivity with full-length blogging like we find here on Blogger. Even better, they don't make you re-learn things two to three times a year. When Facebook tried to rearrange the privacy controls, I got totally lost. When LiveJournal adds new features, the old ways still work. So I'm not cut off from my friends while I try to figure out if and how I can still read a tighter group than the full list. {Smile}
DeleteAnne Elizabeth Baldwin