Jay Lake (jaylake) wrote,
Jay Lake
jaylake

[personal] Luffing the sails a little bit

I've been talking a lot about politics on the blog lately, and I find I have a lot more to say. However, it's not actually my intention for this to be an exclusively, or even largely, political blog, so I'm luffing the sails a little bit on those topics, until at least next week. Don't worry, my ranty self will be back. I'm keeping track of the topics I want to cover. Never fear.

Which leads to a larger musing about the editorial voice of my blog. (Or really, anyone's blog.) Basically, this is a blog of Stuff Jay Likes to Talk About. I don't sell ads, I don't have sponsors, no one pays me for this. So you see here a largely untrammeled partial view into my interests, including but not limited to:
  • Parenting and [info]the_child

  • Writing

  • Cancer

  • Photography

  • Politics

  • Science

  • Travel

  • Weird stuff

  • Food (including, specifically, cheese)

  • Movies

Not to mention a ton of other things.

Mostly I blog to entertain myself. I figure if I'm not entertaining myself, I sure as heck aren't entertaining you. This is what I tell writers who ask me if they should blog: "Only if you want to, and only if it's fun." Otherwise, why the heck are you doing it? Nobody wants to read someone else painfully putting themselves through their paces. That's just as true of blogging as it is of fiction.

Obviously, not all of my blogging is fun. My cancer journey surely has not been. But if not fun or entertaining, it's still something important for me to talk about.

I generally don't talk about my emotional frustrations, or the times when [info]the_child is being a total pill, or the irritating aspects of my publishing career. If I do mention those things, it's usually to make a specific point, and I very much keep business confidentiality and personal privacy in mind. That's part of being a professional. Likewise, I self-censor on topics of race and social justice because the cost of speaking up has grown too high. Which I hate, but I only have so much time and energy.

I blog because I like to talk about stuff. Enough of you read this blog to make the discussion interesting for me, but I'd probably still be blogging even if I were only talking to myself. This helps me organize my thoughts and make sense of my world.

Why do you blog? Or conversely, why don't you blog? Do you have an editorial voice?

Tags: blog, cancer, child, health, personal, publishing, writing
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