Paging Through the Past

I'll be honest....I have a love/hate relationship with writing on a daily basis.

No, not the fiction writing that I'm doing, or even the more professional writing that can lead to income, but keeping a day-to-day dialogue in print. It's held me back from keeping a full-on journal (which is why I tend not to do so), and it also keeps me from making this into a daily blog.

(Secretly, of course, I admire pals like Roger and Mike who are more consistent....but that's besides the point)

But it is rather interesting to look at my past blog writing (notably, the posts I was cranking out over ten years ago to see how far I've come.

First, when I started...I tried way too hard to appeal to the comic blogger intelligentsia (and yes, there was such a thing). So much so that I burned several bridges....and owe several amends. But those will all have to come later.

For example, one blogger's love of a particular character led to some Chuck Norris-style exaggerations on my part. (And some of the jokes are....less than enlightened, to say the least). In looking at how hard I tried, I realized that in my initial blogging enthusiasm, I should have merely focused on just writing well.

There was, of course, the obligatory gotta-do-this-for-the-blog posts, things like memes and the occasional listicle, and the odd foray into self-absorption....but something happened during that time.

My blogging started to become about things....whether it was a greater focus on why a comic worked, or looking at the facets of a favorite film. Writing critically about the things I loved didn't diminish them in the slightest, but enabled me to see them with fresh eyes. Even in those darker days, in the beginnings of what's been called "new Who", I could see the revival of my favorite show as having a greater emotional resonance than it used to...translating into greater personal investment - and affection - on my part.

But I will say two things in looking at my past: first, blogging works, and it's helped me develop my writing style. And I'll never apologize for that.

The second thing - I still think Dodgeball is a very underrated comedy.