Fellow bloggers, how often do you find yourself wishing your blog was completely anonymous so you could just write whatever the heck you wanted? No worries about people reading and misinterpreting, or just the wrong people reading…
Ugh. More and more lately I am typing up posts only to delete them. It’s pointless to tell stories that are missing all the details. Like the story about an annoying “friend” who is constantly telling lies to some friends and truths to the others. So even though you didn’t tell the lie yourself, you are caught in continuing the lie for them around the people who don’t know the truth.
Ugh.
And there is no way of even knowing who reads your blog! Only later do you find out that your coworkers, family members, friends from college, and people you have never met are reading what you write.
Ugh.
But of course, that is the challenge and fun of having a blog. And I wouldn’t trade that in for anonymity. I just like to complain about it!
I say most everything on my blog because I would (and do) say/do those same things IRL. With the exception of a couple of topics that could seriously impact me legally, or directly alter the course of my and/or others lives, that is. An anonymous blog would be nice, but I already have a hard enough time keeping up with the two I have.
I created a whole other persona, writing at a whole other blog, in order to be able to express myself without having to deal with friends/family members getting all offended or hurt by posts that serve *me* as introspective exploration to understand my past and how so many things continue to impact me today, posts that unfortunately come across (or were chosen to be taken as) blame-throwing and finger-pointing by the involved people, posts whose contents were just too blunt/shocking for pals who have known me for years yet realise upon reading the posts that they had no idea what goes on in my head. (holy crap, that was all one sentence??!)
Oh…I hope you’re not upset about me finding your blog! Andrew finally sent me the link to his and I recognized your name on his list.
Sorry!
Lisa – I think if I said what I wanted to say, I would be, um… making a few enemies at work 😉
*lynne* – is that the blog I read? I feel like it is too late for me to do that. If I only would have been so smart in the beginning!
Jodi – don’t worry, it’s not you that sparked this post! 😉 You just happened to find my blog on the day that I really wanted to tell a “work” story but can’t… which is what influenced this post 🙂
Kim, you know my struggle with this as well!! The only thing I can recommend (which I am going to try to do) is start a “just for you” journal offline to vent. If you can’t keep up with both, give a little rest to the blog until you feel better. Bottling up the feelings definitely doesn’t help!
I am lucky in that aspect…while my blog is not under another name, most people assume I wouldn’t have one and if I did it would be posted on my facebook/myspace. Though I do refrain as much as possible in talking about work because of all the people in my life, they are the ones likely to find it. It is one of those situations where it is great that people you know read it and it sometimes sucks that people you know read it LOL.
i completely understand!!! it is so hard to tell a story when you must leave out certain details…
I have two blogs and you can too, as suggested, but you don’t have to keep it offline or develop a whole separate identity. Just begin a simple, absolutely anonymous blog. Vent away, and when you find yourself giving too much away when writing for ilaxstudio, just copy+paste the entry onto your other blog and alter identifying references.
Yeah i’m constantly deleting my stuff too. *sigh*
I have to write things on a private blog sometimes just to get them out. I found out this summer that my MIL and her sister had been reading my blog, reading wayyyy between the lines and assuming things that were not true about me and another blogger then passing them onto Shawn. Not that he believed any of it, but still…people see what they want to. Part of me wants to call them out but another part of me just needs to blog anonymously at times!
so much so that i started a private/anonymous one!
but it got to be too much to upkeep two…but i get ya on this.
I am kind of a private person, so I can’t imagine putting some of the stuff I’m going through even in a “secret private” blog… but yeah, sometimes I think about it.
Every once in a while something happens that I’m dying to tell people (for one reason or another), and an anonymous blog would be a great venue! 🙂
diane – I am not so good at bottling them up. Poor Steven has to hear my rants nearly every night.
Felicia – I totally agree. Sometimes I am excited to find out someone reads it, and sometimes I wish they didn’t! Usually I just forget and write almost anything…
CourtneyInControl – you know how it is, with all your acronyms for names! 😉
Catherine – I am thinking about that, but it seems like so much work!
Kyra – Maybe all of us should get together and start one big anonymous blog with guest writers!
Hilly – I can’t even imagine how awful that must have been with you MiL and SiL! Oh my gosh! It is interesting how people interpret things differently than you meant them to.
sizzle – yup yup yup. I think I am a one-blog gal.
Dave2 – You always manage to keep your blog and stories interesting though. Props to you!
heyya Kim, I was referring to a blog/persona I established in March this year, totally separate from “Life After Work”/”Lynne Naranek”. It’s an outlet for the more toxic stuff that doesn’t seem safe/appropriate for Life After Work, although it’s become a venue for me to explore my writing more than express my inner demons at this time, LoL!
My blog is semi-anonymous, meaning I’ve outed myself to almost everyone who reads my blog.
For some reason, that’s OK for me. I don’t know what I’d write about if I just my real name out there.
There is a price to pay either way you go.
*lynne* – thanks for clearing that up. I am still holding onto that idea even though I don’t think I will be up for all the extra work.
ajooja – I think your writing style is so good it creates a persona. It’s almost like we don’t need ALL the details when reading your blog 🙂 I mean that in a good way 😉