Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Reflections on My Archive

One day in the recent past, I had the realization that I have a blog. It came on me suddenly, like I would imagine some memory would return to an amnesiac, shocking and poignant. I wondered what I had written. I only had the slightest of impressions as if I were catching a glimpse at some previous life. I decided to read back through.

The experience shocked me. Such a roller coaster of experiences, insights, and digital over share. I also found that my ability to recognize commonly confused words, grammar, and punctuation issues has increased significantly since the days of some of those early (and not-so early posts).

In the valleys of the tour, I found that a lot of past readers and encouragement givers are gone; not just absent from my annual courtesy posts, but no longer with any blog presence; web sites deleted. Reading back through the Word Count Buddy floggings and assorted other comments reminded me of how much inspiration I took from those friends, family members, and fellow writers. It is a shame they are gone. I don't imagine that they will be reading this, but I wish them all the best and hope they are well and just moved on to Twitter or something that better suits their needs.

I also discovered that my constant publication reports (i.e., "I didn't get published again") were quite annoying. There were just way too many of them in proportion to posts of actual content.

At the peaks, I enjoyed seeing what amounted to an online journal that loosely demonstrated my attitudes and interests over a period of years. I've tried to keep a journal before; this blog truly is the longest and most continuous record of my existence, recent absences notwithstanding. I also found some great posts. Like my wife likes to say, no one can crack up Riotimus like Riotimus. Here are a few of my favorites:

I hope you enjoyed your journey through the best of Write On and that you'll stick around as I dust it off and restore its vitality or whatever adjective you feel best describes said blog.

I am considering re-purposing Write On, mainly by giving it a point. Once I decide what that point is going to be, I may clear out the fluff from the archives. I know others have done this: was it worth it?

R.