To Blog or Not To Blog?

Not necessarily such an easy question to answer--at least not from my perspective.

It relates in some ways to my habit of writing.  Whatever merit it may or may not have is completely beside the point.  I write.  Compulsively sometimes, though there's usually a purpose or a message--something I'm really trying to communicate.

But generally, I don't write things which I wish to put on the internet.  This is partially because the things I write, I hope to publish, and some publications consider the internet a means of first publication (and they're right, I guess).  I wish to keep my fiction and poetry to myself (well, until it's accepted for publication by some magazine or journal or whatever), though I don't really have strong feelings as such about non-fiction.  I've not written a great deal of it.  I do know that my nonfiction, however, might be more suitable to publish on the internet so that those who care to hear my views, opinions, or insight might have a method to do so other than by wading through my prose or poetry.

It makes me think of the reasons I have for writing, you know.  The first, and easiest reason that comes to mind is so that (as with all areas of life, for that matter) God will be honored and glorified.  The next might be something like because I enjoy it or because I benefit from it in some way.  Further reasons for writing include a desire to entertain my audience--however small it may be and no matter how large it may grow.

  

I used to think that I wrote for the simple reason that an idea, upon rearing its small and relatively nondescript head (or perhaps its really large and complicated head) had to be converted into prose or poetry by someone, and that someone would have to be me.  It stands to reason:  the idea didn't appear to anyone else, nor could it appear to anyone else in exactly the same way.  It's reasonable to conclude, therefore that writing the idea as it presented itself to me could only be satisfactorily accomplished by me.

  

Perhaps that's somewhat true.

But for whatever reason, I write.  And as a writer, I have to decide what it is I'm going to produce.  Prose, or poetry--Fiction or non-fiction?  All of the above?  Then what do I do with it once it has been exsposited?

  

Trying new things can be diffictult, and blogging may prove to be more of a chore than it's worth, but for now, and for the betterment or the detriment of my readers, I've chosen to "go for it".