Why do I blog?

A few months ago, I had a conversation with my parents about blogging. Now... just to be clear ... I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, so please don't expect me to rehash all of the contents of the conversation. But the gist of it was this whole idea of blogging. I wanted to know why they never seemed to read my blog and they wanted to know why people would want to keep a journal online. And that got me thinking ... which is always dangerous.

I started to ask myself, "Why do I blog? And do I really keep a journal online?"

I've mulled over these thoughts every now and then for the past few weeks and have come to a few conclusions about my blogging.

My main fascination with the blogosphere is the art of telling stories. I love stories, and maybe one day, I might actually try to write something that people would want to buy. But for now, I like the idea of writing things that would go in Reader's Digest. Sometimes, it's funny. Sometimes it's serious. There are lots of pictures. I try not to spend a lot of time complaining or bragging. It's all about entertaining or educating.

As a result, some of my tales are embellished. They are based on real events, but they are told from the perspective of a narrator. I might mix up the chronology to make the story more interesting. I don't tie myself down to the preciseness of journaling. When I keep a handwritten diary, I want to look back and remember exactly what happened that day or that week. And to some extent, I can do that with my blogging, but I leave out a lot of boring details in my blog posts. I try to keep one consistent theme running through my post which means I have to edit out a lot of the stuff that I would put in a journal.

Also, I always write a blog post with the understanding that complete strangers will read it. I write with an audience in mind. So I leave out specific names or else I change them. I try to make my sentences easy to read, grammatically correct and a little more polished than what I use in normal conversation. I spend a lot of time editing my posts. I try not to get bogged down in detail or background information. I try to keep it interesting.

Anyway, I've enjoyed thinking about this topic. I've probably left out a few things. (Like the fact that I had chicken pot pie for dinner last night and a yummy spinach salad. Yes! I do remember!) Anyway, what are your thoughts? Why do you blog? Why do you read blogs? What did you have for dinner last night?