Unabashed

I�ve been thinking about this blog thing and blogging in general for the past few days and I have to admit I have no clear answers as to what this thing (this thing being my blog) is or wants to be. Part of me tells me not to worry about it, just post publication alerts and the journal of the struggles of the (hopefully) emerging writer and leave it at that. But there�s this creative side of me that wants it to be more, though more in what way I do not know. Here�s what I do know:

• Of blogging in general I do not want to do what�s already been done. Meaning, I do not want to create a blog that emulates the successful blogs of other writers, like Warren Ellis or John Scalzi. I would rather speak with my own voice than another�s.
• I don�t have time to do a lot of research or field work for the blog, because I am a full-time employee and my off-time is filled with wife, babies, and writing. So whatever it becomes needs to be relatively low impact, while at the same time interesting. �HA! And therein lies the crux!
• I do not want to review movies or books or music. I like what I like and I find it difficult to tell you why other than to say thumbs up or thumbs down.
• I�m not what you might call an intellectual, so anything overly cerebral is out of the question because I would just eventually reveal my own intellectual shortcomings. For a smartly-crafted occasional essay, I�ll creep over to Charlie Stross�s blog.
• And lastly, I�m not going to bore any potential audience with my day-to-day life. There are plenty of blogs out there doing that everyday anyway, and my life right now is filled with more poopy diapers than I care to report.

So what does that leave me with? Not much, unless genuine inspiration strikes.
Digging around on the Web, I�ve figured out that there are two kinds of blogs:

1. Personal
2. Topical

A topical blog is one that�s about a certain topic, like cameras or hot-air balloons. Something very specific. A personal blog is one that�s in more of a diary or journal format. Most of the blogs I read by writers who have met with varying degrees of success (as a writer) are generally of the personal type. They wisely use their blogs as promotional tools to sell their books, but each of them has that certain unique voice, from Warren Ellis�s sometimes disturbing show-and-tell, to Scalzi�s ability to write rather entertainingly on almost any subject, to Charlie Stross�s sharply intellectual commentary on SciFi and science in general. So what do I want to do on my blog? Mostly I want to tell stories; but stories are worth money, and in the publishing world if I put something on the web, even on my blog, that counts as a publication and thus the great and mighty publishers will deny all submissions that have ever been on the Web at all. So I can�t tell you stories. I�ve tried in the past but all of a sudden something will show promise and I have to pull it down before I rewrite it so I can submit it.

This isn�t something I have an answer for just yet. MattMitchellFiction.com is my home one the web, and being named what it is you might expect to find fiction on it, but alas, no. The publishing world is too restrictive for that.

written by Matt Mitchell