Do you censor yourself in your diary?
Sort of. Let me give a story as an example.
When my best friend started dating his girlfriend, I ended up writing about it a lot, because my feelings for him went beyond friendship, and both of them knew it. Things got awkward, and they both learned things they might not have otherwise. I found myself, again, using the journal to talk about things I didn't dare bring up to either of them face to face, and I found myself making sure they knew how miserable I was. I finally wised up and stopped, hopefully saving the feelings of all involved. It ended up being a learning experience of sorts. There /are/ some things that are better left unsaid.
Do you ever use fiction techniques such
as imaginary dialogue?
Sometimes. The times when I've fictionalized an event, or even posted
out-and-out fiction, it's been a lot of fun to write. I've never gotten much
feedback on them though (aside from one reader after I wrote about hitting
a deer I nicknamed 'Bambo').
Do you ever significantly edit/rewrite
past entries?
No. If I catch a spelling or grammar error, I may go back and change it,
otherwise they stand as is. I've never taken an entry down. If someone ever
asked me to, I'm not certain how I would respond.
Would you describe your diary as
traditional, essay, novel, rant, letter to someone, a theme journal, or
something different?
I suppose it's a combination of a lot of the above. I rarely do a laundry list
of any day's events. My day to day life just wouldn't be that interesting to
anyone else. I tend to focus more on internal events that are sparked from the
external ones. I do write essays, I do write an occasional rant, and there is
an overall theme, of sorts.
What is "one word" that would
describe your diary's content?
I couldn't think of one, so I asked a friend. "Lucid." I like it, I'll go
with it.
As an online diarist do you consider yourself
a Web celebrity, an
exhibitionist, a public figure, a writer, an innovator,
or something
different?
Definitely a writer. I don't get enough hits to be a 'celebrity' or a 'public
figure', I came into it too late in the game to be an 'innovator', and I don't
honestly feel like an exhibitionist, although I'm very honest overall. For me,
it's all about the writing.
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 usually end up spending a lot of time with various tutorial sites, trying to
figure out exactly what it is I want to do, and exactly how to do it. I've never
run into the wall of absolutely not being able to do what I want at all. If I
can't do exactly what I want, I can usually come up with a slight modification.
Why do you think people are interested
in what you have to say?
*laugh* I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm not certain exactly why, but
I'm incredibly flattered that they are!
What compels you to design beautiful
pages and to write from the heart (beyond just the usual question of
"why an online journal")?
It's a part of me. I never considered myself an artistic person at all until
I started working on web pages. Now I can explore that side of me that I always
thought was limited because I couldn't draw or paint or sculpt. The writing is
another extension of who I am, and I love being able to combine the two aspects
into a whole project.
