{Tinkering}

Once you decide to start a blog, the next decision is what it will be about.  (I guess ideally those decisions might happen in the reverse order, actually.)  At any rate, I’m going to lay out some parameters here on what to expect in this space.

Things This Blog Is Not

1. A chronicle of my family life. Though parenting, marriage, in-laws and other fascinating topics will undoubtedly come up in the course of the conversation, this is not where you will find out about my toddler’s new tooth or what we did last weekend.
2. A blog about politics. I’m as interested in current events as the next gal. I’m also interested in democracy, and America, and how our government works.  (In fact, I’m currently kind of obsessed with The West Wing.) And I suppose I may comment on these things from time to time.  But I will mostly leave this sphere to the many, many people who know more about it than I do.
3. An attempt to demonstrate that I’m hip or funny. I’m not. And pretending or trying to prove that I am just makes me anxious. read more…

Um, hi… I’m new to this whole blogging thing and my palms are kind of sweaty here. Online journaling has never been all that tempting to me. I don’t keep a paper journal, first of all. I’m also an introvert and a perfectionist, so the idea of casually sharing personal information on the internet is not a real winner. Under substantial peer pressure I recently joined Facebook and I’ve been known to edit and agonize over my status updates.

All of which would lead you to believe that the lack of a blog is not really a pressing issue in my life. (And if you had any doubt, you could check out all the reasons why starting a blog is an ill-advised venture for anyone.)

But the thing is that I’m a writer. I write well. I write professionally, a little bit. And most of all, I enjoy writing. Since I’ve begun to dip my tentative little toes into the freelance writing world, people have been telling me I need a blog. They base this claim on two main arguments: read more…