So now I'm a blogger. No one could be more surprised than me. Isn't evolution wonderful?
In my cadre, blogging is considered self absorbed. Uninformed or unduly emotional. Vicious, sometimes.
But there are some advantages to the first-person style so typical of blogging. Writing as a journalist, I had to pretend that I was not there--that I had no personal observations and no opinions. That's a tough way to write: the disembodied observer. Now, I can be in the story (if I want), participating (if I choose). Or not. It's very liberating.
As a professional journalist, I have been accustomed to the protective touch of good editors. You need more than one set of eyes on a story, you really do. Or I really do. Mistakes missed by one person are caught by the other. It's safer, when handling reams of research, to have someone else looking for holes in your logic, information or presentation.
So I appreciate a good editor. But bloggers don't have editors. Somehow, I need to make NOT having an editor into a plus.
Maybe the advantage is that finally, after decades, I'm in control of what I write--and totally responsible. Heady stuff. No editors, agents, publishers, employers, partners, mentors. Just me on the keyboard.
Scary.
