What do I Expect from my Blog

I have been blog tagged by Fanciful Muse (thanks darling!)

The rules are simple:
1. Answer the question, “What do you expect from your blog?” and try to be as specific as

possible. Avoid warm-fuzzy answers unless that really is your thing. Link back to the blog

who tagged you so your readers can check others’ answers.

2. Tag at least five bloggers with the same question.

What do I expect from my blog ... immediately makes me think that my blog and I are in partnership, as I believe the when we have expectation, or place expectations on someone or something, then we're wanting or believing that we will get something in return.

What I want from my blog is a place to come and write - a place in which I feel safe enough to bare my soul, but vulnerable enough in which to feel challenged. I began blogging in about March last year I think it was, as a consequence of joining My Space. This was my first experience of having a wider, and uncontrolled to some extent, audience for my writing. When I first created my My Space account I wasn't quite sure why I did it. And it took me a while to create the profile and start putting anything on their. The issue - I didn't know 'who' I wanted to be in the world of My Space. After the first round of Mercury Retrograde activity in 2007 and had an answer to my question - I would just be me.

And that's what I want from my blog - not just a place to come and write, but a place that allows me to be me - in all my glorious brilliance, crazy idiosyncracies, darkest depths and irrating limitations. What you see is what you get here. (Note: I moved to Blogger in October so I could begin participating in Fiction Friday meme)

My blog is a place to be public, and private at the same time. While my heart is quite often out on my sleeve, and I'm not backwards in coming forwards in speaking about my beliefs and my ideas, I've realised that I remain very private in terms of sharing photos of me (my son is another matter - but that in itself is also another matter!) Although my name is definitely out there - I expect my blog to protect a certain amount of my identity.

Blogging sparked my renewed love affair with writing ... and it mostly had to do with the fact I go brave enough to write and share it with the world. Up until then, (with the exception of an odd article in Down to Birth, and my quarterly editorial which was always rather short and reasonably 'safe') I hadn't written in years. And I believe for that reason alone - my blog wont ever die because its so inextricably interwoven with my love of writing - that for my blog to die, would mean that my love for writing had also died. So I guess I invest into my blog the belief that like some sacred vessel it will hold nurturingly my fire of creativity and passion. There could be worse places to leave it.

The 'traffic' to my blog site is slow - there are a few who drop by regularly but that's really it. But that doesn't really seem to matter most days (other days I wish it were different) It's like that 'If a tree falls in the forest...' scenario .... if no one visits or reads, does it mean that I am not writing.

I do know that I strive to and hope that one day my writing can make a difference in the world - and I'm starting low on the micro level - hoping that something that I write can spark off something in someone, who can carry that thought, that idea and create a new thought or idea from it. That's what I love the most about blogging - the wildfire of imagination and thought that can sweep across continents, touching a few, or touching many lives, with a few key strokes. So I expect my blog to be a vehicle for change ... to challenge me to step up to the plate.

I want my blog to be a respository for my creative writing (first and foremost) but also to be a record of my journey and growth as a woman ... in days gone past it would have been kept very privately in a journal - and whilst I do still love journaling - there is something faintly addicitve about being able to share your world with the world.

I want my blog to be my friend and to introduce me to many more of its friends ... whilst not technically a social networking site ... you can't help but meet people here, either going out to seek and soak in their writing, images, experiences and wisdom ro for them to find their way to you. I've made a number of lovely new friends here and nurtured a couple of other fledgling friendships that are now beginning to bloom.

There are a couple of memes that I play in - but I'm not serious and there is a free flowing nature to what I write - other than regular postings for Fiction Friday, Wordless Wednesday and most recently Photo Hunt on Saturday. Fiction Friday keeps poking me to produce work, and the other too encourage me to find and share photographs that I love (which has now poked me into angling to get a new camera so I can have some new images to share - the camera on my phone really doesn't cut it.)

This year I am determine to post something every day ... and in true NaNo style - to try and write at least 1667 words a day - whether they be fiction, non fiction or blogging. It seems like a sensible word limit to aim for a day ....

Moreover - this year I expect my blog to keep my authentic - what this means, I have no idea yet, but I'm certain that this is the medium in which to explore this theme/concept in all is horrific and beautiful manifestions ....

I'm not sure I have five friends to tag ... so I'll simply give Dan a kiss on the cheek and slip her this note, because I'm intrigued to know what she will write.