I’ve been sort of wondering about the direction I’m heading with this blog. Family and friends have expressed interest in it – my Dad evidently finds it very self-revealing – but it started as a technical journal, and technical items are far easier to write about because they don’t demand the same level of self reflection. My last post was about query hits concerning a technical item that gave me a lot of satisfaction solving, and getting the search engine hits was also very gratifying.

So where do I go from here? When my family tells me that they like reading my blog but skip over the technical stuff, the need-to-please part of me says to cut down the technical stuff and, essentially, start bearing your soul. But the technical stuff is more relaxing to me. I like writing about stuff that I have learned or need to learn, without worrying about whether I am (or need to be) talking down to an audience, or whether I sound like a complete loser to the “l33t.”

I found the answer while reading Wil Weaton’s excellent interview on slashdot:

The short answer to your question is: Create something, and release it yourself. You don’t need anyone’s permission, and the traditional rules about distribution just don’t apply anymore.

The long answer to you question is: First, create something for yourself. You asked about acting, but this applies to a book, a ‘zine, a website, a web-comic, a short film . . . whatever. Don’t wait for someone else to give you something to do, or give you permission to do it. Just create something that you are passionate about.

The question that was asked was in a different context, so I’ve not reproduced it here. If you’re really curious, you can click the link. But Wil’s advice seems pretty sound to me, so I’m going to take it. I’ll just continue to write about whatever pleases me at the moment. But I’ve already started working on filters so that my audience, small in number as they be, can pick the subject matter they want to see.

Posted by Greg in My Website, Posts About Me

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