Somewhere in my brain I’ve been harboring secret hopes that people other than family and friends would discover my blog, and perhaps enjoy reading it. That’s part of why I’m writing, and why I want to get published. I want people to enjoy my writing. And yet I was jarred badly the other day when I found out strangers had been reading my blog.
Funny, isn’t it? It’s a bit like loving music, enjoying playing an instrument, and then getting stage fright the first time your band gets in front of the crowd. What if the audience doesn’t like you?
Ah, well. It’s too late to turn back, now. Besides, it’s like Ing said in a response to one of my other posts:
It’s tempting to think that your blog is a private conversation with your “own” people, but really it’s more like having a conversation with a few people you know, while standing in the midst of a huge party. You may only intend to talk to a certain few people, but anyone nearby can overhear you, and you never know who might walk up and just join the conversation.
I can only hope that the partygoers will have polite and interesting things to say.