The Stuff You Don't Blog About

Every writer goes through a dry spell, and I guess the last few weeks have been mine. Where I once couldn't wait to make a Blogger entry, if I think of blogging at all, it just seems like kind of a chore. And as chores go, mowing the lawn will score me a lot more points with the family and neighbors!

I looked at some other blogs today for inspiration and made a few discoveries:

1. Sex in a blog is an all or nothing proposition. Really. There is no middle ground. A blogger will go on and on about politics, religion, their favorite food, and the smell of their own farts, but no mention of sex will be found. I just can't imagine that there are that many gender neutral people blogging. The only blogs I came across that mentioned sex feature it as an exclusive topic, as if the writers do nothing else during the day but go from escapade to escapade. I found it odd to discover that blogs are written either by sexless manequins or people that go at it like jackrabbits 24/7.

2. A blog can get you fired. No kidding. Did you know that there are people naive enough to post from work computers or MicroSoft employees who post pictures of product development on the web? It's kind of asking for it, don't you think? On the other hand, it's less than satisfying to read postings about a generic workplace that gives no clue as to whether it's a gas station or a government think tank.

3. You can make different blogs for different topics. Blogger offers the option of doing multiple blogs. I guess in a perfect world I would have one exclusively for posting my musings on religion and a different one for my love of cheesy horror and sci-fi flicks. But that's who I am. I can spend an afternoon writing my Sunday sermon and then watch Day of the Triffids that evening. It may not be a picture that always makes sense, but I prefer to put the whole jumbled mess out there and let you, the reader, figure it out.

Just like all writing, I guess it all comes down to these questions: How much of myself am I willing to reveal? Am I writing for an audience, or for myself? Am I willing to pay the price for troubling the waters?