Why blog?

I have always been a writer. I kept diaries from the time I could write. For elementary school assignments I loved becoming the character we were studying (Magellan, a passenger on the Mayflower, a soldier in the Civil War are a few I remember) and writing their journal entries. I always died at the end, and my writing turned into scribbles, and then just a long line to the bottom of the page when I slumped down with my last breath. When I was a teenager working at my dad's office I would write long letters to my best friend (who I saw every day, and talked to on the phone at least that often) just for the fun of writing them.

I always think better when I write my thoughts down. I've written hundreds of poems, years of journal entries, several magazine articles and even a few books just to see what comes out of my pen. I don't like to write fiction; I don't have that much imagination. Instead I like to chronicle my life, and explore what experiences mean to me, and especially the lessons I see in everyday life and write what I've learned. I love analyzing politics, books, the lyrics of songs, and why people say and do things. I understand everything better when I've written about it.

To be a fulfilled writer, you need an audience; even an imaginary audience will do. Up until recently that meant either coaxing someone to read your stuff, sending it to someone as a kind of offering to force them to read it, or getting a publisher of some sort to decide you would be worth reading. Most of my would-be publishers have decided I'm not. But I still need to write! So that's why I'm going to blog.

I can picture you, my readers, and whether you read or not, I'll still get the therapy I receive from expressing myself, and I'll have it recorded in a permanent record in the Blogosphere Library. I'm excited!