Writing Archives - Page 4 of 4

Aloha Friday: Private Journals

January 20, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Blogging, Writing

When I was young, I kept a journal. In it, I wrote about all of the private thoughts, fears, and feelings that I felt I couldn’t tell anyone. Well, that was the general idea. By "kept a journal", I really mean I wrote in it for about a week, rediscovered it a month later, wrote in it once more and then forgot about it for another three months. I was never very good with writing things with paper and pen. My love of writing only flourished when I was first introduced to computers.

Fast forward to the present. Sometimes there things we feel the need to write about that we just can’t blog about. Perhaps family members read your blog or perhaps the issue crosses a TMI boundary. However, despite these misgivings, there might still be an urge to write about it, just not in a public manner. After all, writing is a very good way of organizing your thoughts on matters.

At one time, I considered setting up a private WordPress blog for my son for this very purpose. He could use it to express his thoughts on anything and everything. The posts would not be publicly visible. After all, he’s only 8 and doesn’t need a public blog. However, B and I would be able to read it. I actually got it all set up, but never showed him it. Perhaps when he’s older he’ll use it.

As for me, I’m thinking of setting up a private blog for some of my thoughts. They might be matters that I don’t feel comfortable shouting out to a random mix of strangers, friends and family. They might be matters that I feel don’t interest my TechyDad.com audience (or my Twitter or Google+ followers). Or perhaps it is something that has been on my mind that might be a blog post at some point, but hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet. In any event, it would be nice to have a place to record my thoughts privately and a non-public blog seems ideal.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever had a journal or a private blog to record your thoughts?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #122

Disclaimer: The “Paper,Write,Pen” clipart above is from OpenClipArt.org.

A Novel Idea

November 3, 2011 TechyDad Writing

The month of November is used by many to engage in NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. During this time, participants commit to writing a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. While I’m not participating, I do have a science fiction novel in mind to write.

I’ve actually had this idea for over 15 years now. During that time, I’ve fleshed out the story’s world in my head. The groups involved have gone from flat stereotypes to having actual motivations. Until recently, though, I didn’t have a satisfying story to take place in that world. I knew that one was there, but I just didn’t know what it was.

I did write the story out for a college project but, I was never fully satisfied with that version of the story. I pledged to rewrite it, but never could come up with a satisfying story.

Meanwhile, the science fiction portions of my story began seeming like science fact. Concepts that I figured would be fifty years away when I first came up with the story idea, now seem a mere ten years away. More and more I worry that, if I don’t write the story soon, it will go from a science fiction tale to a historical fiction story.

Slowly but surely, I’ve been taking notes. I’ve mapped out a few characters, groups, and even devised a “future history” to detail how the tale’s world morphed from one like our own to the world of my story. I’m not going to commit to getting it all on paper (or digital file) in the next 27 days, but I will try to make significant progress on it over the next year. Who knows, by next year’s NaNoWriMo, maybe I’ll have a finished novel to present!

Have you ever written a novel?

While you’re at it, hop on over here and check out my new Twitter Application, FollowerHQ!