Five Reasons Why I Blog

Azahar tagged me with this one.

1) I've always blogged my life. Even before there were blogs I would hold long conversations and arguments inside my head. When the conversations got too loud I'd take them outside. Blogging gets me fewer looks than wandering down the street shouting at myself under my breath.

2) I have a real interest in other people, which makes them uncomfortable. I want to talk to you about the stuff that makes you twitch, that touches you where you live, work, eat, sleep, and play. I want to know about your heartbreak, your triumph, your hangups and kinks. I wanna know where you get on and how you get off, and how hard.

I'm really not trying to be rude. I just want to learn what you make of this shared experience we call "life". Naturally this causes boundary issues. And of course since trust and openness are reciprocal, I can only reply in kind.

Blogging doesn't have boundary issues. I can initiate a conversation about barbeque, Barbie, or buggering badgers if I so please and it's entirely up to the Avid Fan or passer-by to enter the discussion. No subject is entirely taboo.

Try walking into the street and giving a five-minute talk about something so close to your heart that you've only ever told one or two people.

3) My friendships tend to be few and deep. Here at home in meatspace I'm only just starting to make acquaintances with whom I have enough in common to be comfortable socially. But online, those who have stumbled onto Metroblog are either real-world friends who came here to examine the inside of my head, or strangers attracted to the conversation and, let's face it, bikini-clad cuties. If you're here for that, by the way, let me give you a link ... uh. I had it on my desk a minute ago ... maybe it rolled behind the radiator? Too bad, that.

4) This is where I can let that little part of myself "run naked in the rain", to quote Pratchett. In the safety of relative anonymity (I know, nothing on the web is entirely anonymous) I can spew forth the wildest, the daftest, the most poignant crap I have. Mum isn't going to be here ... least I don't think she is. I can growl about God, piddle on Paris, and laugh at legalisms. In my head I sometimes refer to this sort of thing as literary masturbation. Like theatre, blogging is also greatly about the insecurity as well.

5) And in the end, ladies and gentlemen and those of you as yet undecided, it's also about you.

I'm a writer and theatrician. My work must have an audience. And for so long as there are still two Avid Fans left in the world I will continue to write.

For myself as well, of course; but this is a conversation, and requires listeners and respondents too. You do me much honour with your presence and in return I try to waltz at least as well as the bear.

If I was going to tag anyone with this I'd tag Stilletto Girl, Mme Metro, Aerchie, Frontier Former Editor, and Amanda.