Go Someplace Else

Writing a personal blog has its downsides. There are times when you want to say something or tell a story, and you feel you can't because your reading audience is partially comprised of family members or people who know you in real life. Some writers are born with an inherent understanding of where they want to draw that line, and others learn it the hard way.

To make that decision, it's a pretty simple question you have to ask yourself -- how much fall-out am I willing to take? The flavor of fall-out depends on the topic you're considering. I've read about other bloggers who have had family members stop talking to them or who have lost friends. The opportunities for embarrassment (yours and other people's) abound when you spend time blogging about your life. Not to mention the vicious, spitting emails and comments I suspect every blogger has received, including yours truly.

Virtually every blogger I read or know has expressed regret about sharing the URL of their blog with someone in their life at one point or another, and that regret usually hinges on a particularly personal story or problem that they want to talk about, think about, or let loose on, but the very audience that provides them with feedback for their catharsis becomes the reason for not sharing.

Yes, I'm talking about other bloggers, but I'm also talking about myself. There are stories I would tell here (many of them damn funny), if I knew certain people weren't reading. There are subjects I would cover, some of them in need of a wider variety of opinions than I can get from my circle of friends, but those stories require sharing details that I don't believe are mine to tell. Someday, I'll figure out a solution. With any hope, the people in question will forgive me if their stories become part of a best-selling novel and I make millions off the movie rights. One can hope.

Until then, I'll point you to a blogger who had a need to share and another blogger who kindly accommodated her. Maggie is a great writer who recently revived her blog, because one of her posts ran on Blog Nosh. She has quickly become a favorite of mine, and while the story she tells on Merlot Mom's blog is devastating, she also manages to paint a brilliant picture of the dilemma that bloggers face when they write about their personal live. I've never seen Merlot Mom's blog before tonight, but her generosity to Maggie led me into her archives tonight, and I can tell I'll be a regular reader from now on.

So go someplace else today. Go visit Maggie and Merlot Mom, and if you come up with any ideas about how I can tell my other stories, let me know. If I put one of your ideas into action, I promise you'll be the first to know. Maybe the only one to know.