What do you look for in an online journal, as a reader?
I like well written, longish entries. I like fairly
regular updates and
a conversational style. My taste in journals is pretty
eclectic though.
I don't really have any unifying factor except most
of them are written
by women who are older than me. I guess I like those
that make me think,
are well-written (either in a structural or emotional
sense) aren't
suicidal and depressed, and have some humour as well.
Do you use your real name in your diary?
I sort of waffle back and forth. Online, I use the
name Ceit, which is
the Gaelic spelling of Kate, which is my name. Well,
it's actually
Kathleen, but I've always been Kate.
Do you censor yourself in your diary?
Yes I do. As stated above, sometimes when dealing
with people you see in
real life, it is necessary to censor yourself in the
interests of
keeping the peace. I won't say it is always roses,
because it does
rankle sometimes that I have to omit things I would
dearly love to get
out.
Do you ever use fiction techniques such
as imaginary dialogue?
Nope. Sometimes I'll start a story and have readers
continue it, but
that is more like a supplement to the journal entry
as opposed to
supplanting it.
Do you ever significantly edit/rewrite
past entries?
Not really. If I see a typo or something I'll fix
it, but generally they
stay how they were written. I like to see how I evolve.
Would you describe your diary as
traditional, essay, novel, rant, letter to someone, a theme journal, or
something different?
I don't know. I always imagine I am talking to someone
when I am writing
an entry. I try to write in the order that thoughts
come into my head. I
guess it is traditional, but there are elements of
being a letter to
someone or a scrapbook with the photo images. I imagine
I've written
entries that cover the whole range of topics above.
I try not to set
limits on what my journal is, let it find its own
boundaries.
What is "one word" that would
describe your diary's content?
Eclectic.
As an online diarist do you consider yourself
a Web celebrity, an
exhibitionist, a public figure, a writer, an innovator,
or something
different?
I'm hardly a web celebrity. I'm not really well known
I don't think and
I don't aggressively promote my site. I think I get
about 30 repeat
visitors a day plus about 5-10 per day that come in
through search
engines or from a link. I'm not really an exhibitionist.
I guess I am a
writer, and this is a way of self-publishing for posterity.
I've written
off-line journals in the past, but have always given
up. Having an
audience keeps me fresh and motivated. I write not
only for me, but for
my readers. I'm not really an innovator. I was inspired
by two of the
'old guard' to write my journal online. I am sort
of in the third or
fourth wave I
guess...when I joined Open Pages (a journal webring)
there were about
350 journals on the site. Now there are more than
2200.. In any event, I
don't do it for the 'hits', it's for myself.
How do you tackle the mechanics of Web
design and how do you deal with your frustrations when you can't do what
you envision.
I try again until I get what I want. I learned HTML
and I hand code my
pages in Notepad or Arachnophilia. I draw and design
all my own graphics
and take my own photographs. If a design doesn't work
out, I try a new
one. I tend to change the look of the site fairly
often to keep it from
feeling stale. I keep the old designs in the archives
though because I
like to see the progression and evolution. I don't
like WYSIWYG editors
and stuff like that. I'm a geek at heart and I love
to tinker with
things until I get them just right.
Why do you think people are interested
in what you have to say?
To be totally honest, apart from my family and friends
I don't know why
people read my journal. I guess it is the classic
'voyeurism'. We like
to see inside people's heads, know what they are thinking.
Reading
someone's online journal lets you do that. Now I know
that the self
reflected in the journal may not be their actual self
in reality, but it
is still fascinating to get a glimpse inside someone's
mind.
What compels you to design beautiful
pages and to write from the heart (beyond just the usual question of
"why an online journal")?
I want to give something back. I feel like a big sponge
soaking up
things....sometimes I want to wring it out to make
room for more. Rather
than let it go to waste, I have an image of who I
was at the time. I'm
looking forwards to rereading it when I am older.