Thoughts Thoughts Thoughts

I’m a bit nervous about starting this. It seems ages since I last blogged, and to be honest the last couple of posts (comic reviews) weren’t exactly shit hot in writing quality.

I’ve got lots of thoughts buzzing around my head and I want to get them out. My nerves come from a couple of recent posts from the Occasional Superheroine and Ragnell. Ragnell’s response to Valerie got me to thinking what the point of any blog is, and what the point of mine is.

I’m not attempting to be a journalist and document stuff with up to the minute commentary on the interwubz. To be frank, I don’t have the time for it and a lot of the internet’s controversies bore me to tears. I‘ve tried covering topics I think a feminist comics fan should be covering, but when my heart’s not in it I think you can tell. And it’s a bloody pain to write about something you don’t give a shit about.

I think I’ve got this space online primarily to sort out my thoughts, for my benefit. It’s helps get my head clear and allows me to sort and file things away in my brain.

Another reason for writing is for the sake of it, to improve my writing. Alongside that I believe my analytical and reasoning skills will improve if I take the time to order my thoughts and write them down well, in a manner which I am proud to let the outside world see. It doesn’t always happen that way, sometimes I’m tired, sometimes I’m rushed, sometimes I’m too angry or defensive to think straight. But I try and I do think that’s important (to me).

I used to keep a diary as a teenager, not very regularly though. It was mostly used to pour out my adolescent anguish. It wasn’t articulate, it was barely legible and I’d hate to read it now.

A few years ago, before the blog, I started writing reviews of every book I’d read in a little notebook I have. This was mainly to improve my writing and get my brain engaged. But I tire of hand writing things (my hand hurts after about 2 minutes), and besides I wasn’t talking about comics in that book, only real novels. So I started the blog for my comics. This allowed me to respond to hot issues of the day (hah! As if!) and gradually I began to use the blog more. It seemed a far more attractive way to order my thoughts. And didn’t give me hand cramp.

And here we are now, in October 2008. I’m actually writing this on a word document on my laptop at the moment, as the pc is broken, but I’ll transfer it online when the boyfriend has fixed the pc.

It seems I’m talking about pretty much anything on this here blog. I’ve no idea how many regular readers I’ve got, my stats always look a bit wonky. I know of 3 people who come back regularly, for definite, but that’s it.

I feel my writing has slowly improved since using this blog. And it’s evolved in a way I’m happy with.

I write reports for work, that’s about 50% of my job. In the last 3 weeks I’ve written 4 bids for more funding, and in the next week I’ve got 3 reports to our current funders to write to ensure that we keep the money we already contracted to receive. None of these reports are like my blog.

And that’s why I continue with this.