The Will to Blog

Amazing, and revealing, article by Emily Gould titled Exposed was featured in the New York Times Magazine.

Amy T. sent this to me saying that she thought I would enjoy the article and I did very much. Thank you Amy!

There is so much I want to quote from this article. There are many launching points from which to discuss. Of course the circumstances of Emily’s online blogging life are very different from my own but there are a lot of the blogging dynamics I have no doubt that many a blogger can relate to ( to some degree.)

Emily’s concluding paragraph reads:

I understand that by writing here about how I revealed my intimate life online, I’ve now revealed even more about what happened during the period when I was most exposed. Well, I’m an oversharer — it’s not like I’m entirely reformed. But lately, online, I’ve found myself doing something unexpected: keeping the personal details of my current life to myself. This doesn’t make me feel stifled so much as it makes me feel protected, as if my thoughts might actually be worth honing rather than spewing. But I still have Emily Magazine as a place to spew when I need to. It will never again be the friendly place that it was in 2004 — there are plenty of negative comments now, and I don’t delete them. I still think about closing the door to my online life and locking them out, but then I think of everything else I’d be locking out, and I leave it open.

Unlike Emily, I haven’t been reduced to panic attacks and am not a gossip/entertainment blogger. I have never been paid to blog and haven’t ever really had the amount of traffic that she gets. Maybe with her first blog but definitely not what she was getting at Gawker.com.

However, I am a little familiar with every single word scrutinized with every single post … to be parsed and spun for whatever purpose the derivative blogger or critic wanted.

Derivative bloggers … boo. Critics? … some of it’s good to hear even if they are wrong (and yes, especially if they are right … but don’t tell anyone. )

I know what it’s like to be harassed and blessed by comments and harassed and blessed by other blogs. I’ve also had “fan’s” who fancy themselves more familiar with my life than reality would ascribe. I even rate my own attack video. I have deleted/restored/deleted/restored posts and comments. Craziness.

Speaking of odd … in my blogging life, I have had four women and one man tell me that God told them I was to be their husband. So apparently, if this is true, God isn’t talking to me about this subject and is now sanctioning the bi-sexual polygamous redefinition of marriage.

…. rrrrriiiight

Also, like Emily, I did relate to the experiences of oversharing. I can relate to writing blog posts that later I wish I had not written. I also relate to the process of changing my mind or evolving thought processes only caught in declarative blog statements when in reality…it was much more complex and intricate. It’s also a very familiar sensation of “…losing the will to blog…” but also being hooked on it.

I told you… I really liked this article.

All of that said, I love Emily’s last sentence. There is so much *more* good about blogging than the risks. When the risks appear to outweigh the good, that’s the time to simply take a breather, re-evaluate and slow down. Emily shows the wisdom she has gleaned when she shared that she is now revealing more vulnerable issues about herself but keeping more of the details of her life private. Any blogger without any boundaries and oppressed by the tyranny of the never ending soapbox is headed for a crash

When I am tempted or actually do run … I usually run right back. Here’s why … The Lord is fully aware of my strengths and weaknesses and while my blog is hardly a big dog blog, He has been very generous to bring very strong encouragement that this blog is serving a good purpose. Plus, He is the God that “… all things work for good…”

… love that part.

I am currently in a season where my blog posts aren’t that hard to create. My energy is needed for a lot of other things right now. In fact, this post is the longest one in a while. Even so, I will continue to blog and watch its seasons ebb and flow.

Thanks for journeying along.

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