The Pseudo Expat

William Zinsser writes in the Introduction in his book, On Writing Well, that “Bloggers are saturating the globe”. His book is celebrating 30 years of being in print – revised, expanded and having sold more than a million copies.

What are blogs for and why are they saturating the globe? I could elaborate and share what I have learned from Debbie Weil’s The Corporate Blogging Book, but I will spare you the details (get your own copy…!) and pull a definition off the top of my head that will hopefully articulate an approximation of what she so expertly and eloquently writes – a blog is a voice in cyberspace.

“Self-indulgent diarists” is a term from Weil’s book in her description of who are the types that blog. This concept concisely explains, in my opinion, why so many blogs are born around the world everyday! The human need to document the daily-ness of our existence. But in a venue like cyberspace where people can be found at the hit of “Enter” on any computer keyboard that has Google attached to it, I have been wary to share my voice, to expose my thoughts, to let myself be… seen by potentially everyone and anyone.

I am constantly editing my words; I am endlessly copywriting, proofreading, re-writing, chopping, searching for the best words to express what I want to say, and ending up flustered and fearful that I will be found out and declared a fraud. Blogger, shmogger.

Pen and paper, or computer screen with digital lines and dots born and held captive on Word, feel safer. Less naked. Less vulnerable. Alone. Unshared.

But this is Web 2.0. Where there is room for one more blog. Though the blogosphere is saturated and the voices are aplenty, think, speak, post. Welcome to WordPress.

I copied this entire post from my maiden blog at Vox. Thank God for the fluidity that is cyberspace. Writing takes on different shapes and sizes accordingly.