L'ennui, c'est ici.

Several wonderful and prolific writers whose blogs I read have had unpleasant blog-related experiences in recent weeks. One was outed by a friend about whom she'd shared some unpleasant and deeply personal dirt. Another was passed over for a new job for lack of writing experience, and realized her blog was far too . . . open . . . to serve as a resume-enhancing portfolio. A third was dinged because of her blog, and soon thereafter her writings were found by a former boss, to unpleasant results.

All of this leaves me feeling gun-shy, particularly since most of my time and emotional energy these days is devoted to the bloggity red zones of my job, my sweetie, my family, and a few lucky (?) friends. To my knowledge, none of my colleagues read this stuff, but I'm not the least bit anonymous, I'm easily googled, and I'm occasionally linked-to by more prominent law bloggers. Steve checks in here from time to time, but regardless, I'm careful to keep most of the details of our relationship off-blog. And even if I did have something obnoxious or personal to write about my friends or family (like I would ever do that?!), I'd rather have you all in my audience than available as targets for my poison pen.

So instead of witty insights about life, love, and the joys of retinal degeneration, you're being subjected to pith about my adventures in closet cleaning and congestion battling. I really do apologize. I'll have to come up with something a tad steamier soon or you'll all abandon me for Belle's place.

Comments

[UCL]

I have to say that probably over 50% of the posts I've written on my blog, I would never have written if I wasn't anonymous. At the same time, whenever I write such a post, I do have to consider that I could one day be "unmasked" and outed. Consequently I still write with a measure of reserve no matter what the topic.

[rebecca]

I agree. Blogging is really tricky stuff. I assume anyone and everyone might read my blog - employers, coworkers, friends, family, etc. It does keep my from writing about a lot of things but I try to see it as a challenge, not a hindrance. Our lives have become increasingly public, blogs aside. I've tried to keep a few ground rules: Personal is ok, private is not; never speak negatively about anyone; never tell anyone else's secrets; never write about my weaknesses enough to provide fodder to someone who doesn't like me; assume the person I don't want reading a particular post will be just the person to find it.

I know that all sounds kind of stringent but I think it's important, especially when you have a responsibility to maintain a professional persona and not lose any friends, either. For some, it might preclude blogging. For me, I try to write more about my thoughts than about me, if that makes sense. It's tough to balance that with not becoming too abstract and, quite simply, boring. Honestly, I think Sherry does a great job of it too, though her approach is a bit different than mine.

And when a lot is going on personally, yes, it does lead to some sparse blogging~ But I love your blog so I hope you'll figure out an approach that you're comfortable with.

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