Blogging

I was watching Julie & Julia today and it got me thinking about blogging. It is a strange world in which we live - traditionally diaries and journals have been private affairs; a place where secret thoughts can roam free and safe without censor of judgment. Later they could have been published - if the writer was particularly important or interesting - but that would be long after the events had passed into nothing but fading memories.

Now we type our journals into blogs and allow the world at large to view them. There is the potential there that hundreds of perfect strangers from multiple countries to read and interpret and judge our thought and actions.

The gap between the two mediums is quite large. But that seems to be the world that we live in now; a world with less privacy. Long gone are the days with multiple large families all squashed into a small house and so perhaps it is merely compensating for that. Or maybe not. There are so many other factors at play as well. Globalisation causing the world to be smaller, technological advances that allow us to do more, social networking that lets us reach out and touch hundreds if not thousands of people...

And it is not a bad thing, not entirely I don't think. As much as I have never subscribed to the whole Facebook revolution, I can defiantly see the advantages to a closer, more open world. The words of the every day person can now be heard - and as every one knows, words can be incredibly powerful.

The pen is mightier than the sword...

And speaking of pens and words - end of week one of November, and consequently of NaNoWriMo, and I am doing well. Structure and discipline seem to be working for me. One story arc is rounding out nicely and leaning towards overriding themes and titles are getting refined... I am feeling good about it - even though it is becoming somewhat of an obsession (and it defiantly is - I feel as though I should be constantly apologising to those that have to put up with me), obsession can sometimes provide a return - if nothing else than the satisfaction of completion. Obviously I hope that it will prove to be something more than just the satisfaction of completion - a dream career would be amazing - but a dream is never achieved over night.