Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Its De-Lovely, Its Delightful, Its....De-Lurkers?

They say a few things about writing. Some chestnuts of wisdom I have heard:

Write about what you know about. (Well....duh!)
Know your target audience.
Find your voice, and keep that same tone throughout (unless one is writing parallell narratives, etc.)

Now, in the world of the Blaawwwwwwg (I really hate that word), things are a little different. There are those *cough, MySpace, cough* who WriTE liKE thIs...apparently in hopes of being Uouneeek and Speshial, and take oversharing to its umpteenth degree. There are others who for various reasons, write under a psudonym, in vaguest terms, and still manage to say to much on some topics and not enough to give a clear picture of themselves in others. Still others are fine with their personal business (sex/drug/rockn'roll addiction, ugly family dynamics, E.D., etc) hanging on the internet for anyone to see.

I am not so much in any of those categories....I think I give a pretty clear picture of the parts of my life that I'm willing to share with (potentially) my family, friends and strangers to read. However, I do notice that there a number of you, some on the Pacific coast, others in Canada, a whole bunch on the Eastern seaboard, and quite a good number of international folk, who don't comment. Personally, I don't comment every single place I read, every single time. But I'd like to raise a glass/mug of tea to all of you, just the same.

So...(taps glass with fork) I hereby propose a toast: May I find the inspiration (somewhere) to eventually write something that moves you to comment. Till then, I remain your faithful reporter of the odd, the irritating, and the silly trivia that is life here in Santa Barbara. Bottoms up!

7 comments:

Janet said...

cheers! :)

I wouldn't want to be accused of any bad East Coast behavior. I have to try hard not to becoming one of Them, ya know?

Anonymous said...

I think the reason that I don't comment is because I feel like I am snooping in people's lives by just randomly checking blogs of people I don't personally know.

Hello from Canada!

Anonymous said...

Hello from San Mateo! I lurk, rarely comment, but really enjoy reading!

Jen

Kay Cooke said...

Hi I am a reformed lurker - it took a little courage to begin commenting on people's sites (see how deftly i avoided the dreaded B word?!) But once I started, nothing could stop me. I think it's encoraging more than anything else - it gives me a buzz to read comments on my site, and I hope it gives others a buzz too when I comment right on back at ya!
Anyway Meeps you write such great stuff I just HAVE to comment - try and stop me!

Maya said...

Yeah! Hail Canada! Actually, anon....you'd be surprised how many of you are readers up there (or maybe not, but I was)...My first enrollment in someone's bloglines came from the Great North.

Hi Jen! I think we must frequent some of the same 'places", because I see your comments elsewhere - funny. San Mateo, CA, right?

CB....Remind me to tell you sometime how I almost moved to Kiwi-land when I was 17. I really, really want to go there - Scott and I could have gone to Auckland when we were in Oz a few years ago, but we want to get out in the country. Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

That would be SM, CA- lovely mid-peninsula locale!

I think we do visit the same places- blog reading is going to be my downfall!

Maya said...

You ARE my sister, after all. But not the only Coloradian who reads on a regular basis. xoxo