back to the blogosphere

I have a short history of failed blogs. First, I started one for my kids, thinking that providing them with a real audience would inspire them to write (wrong). Second, I started one for parents of gifted and talented students in our city--I think I was the only person who ever visited the blog. Third, I started or joined a blog for instructors who teach expository writing for elementary education majors. Haven’t logged on in ages—can’t even remember how.

So, I'm a bit cynical about blogs. Will anyone read it? Will I keep it up? I haven't exactly spent much time reading other people's blogs, so I can't expect them to follow mine.

You may well ask, Why make another attempt? I suppose I'm driven by the guilt, hypocrisy, and irony of my situation: I am a writing teacher who writes less frequently than most people I know.

Why now? I think the impetus is, at least in part, a book I just read: Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E. M. Delafield. As I read the book, I couldn't tell whether it was novel or diary—to me it read more like a novel: it was too smart, witty, crafted—in short, too literary—to be a diary (and did real people ever really live and think like the diary's author?). (Wiki describes the book as a novel that is largely autobiographical.) Our book group host assigned us to bring a diary entry—an interesting, but somewhat challenging, assignment—I'm not used to writing diary entries for public consumption (i.e., blog entries). "Diary" connotes privacy—a locked book that girls hide under mattresses. A big obstacle in writing my entry was that I felt that it needed to be as intelligent and humorous as the novel. Much of Delafield’s humor lies in how she portrays her characters—my characters (and, to some extent, hers) are real people. Since I just moved and this would be my first time attending a new book group with mostly strangers, I didn’t have to worry about portraying people they knew, but I didn’t want to throw my husband and kids under the bus, give too much away, or appear snarky. My entry was brief.

At book group, one member asked if reading the book had inspired anyone to start writing a diary. No one responded directly, but I’d have to say, “Yes, I guess it did.” We’ll see how long it lasts.