The auspicious first post...

Yes, I know deep down that really, I need another blog like I need a hole in the head. Well, perhaps that's a little extreme. I need another blog like I need an asparagus flavoured ceiling fan. I just don't. But the problem is that I don't like to dilute my craft blog too much with that other craft I practice - that persistant one that involves all those delightful words. And my Livejournal is more a place for my (lack of a) social life than it is a forum for me to wax lyrical about which of my characters is being a misbehaving tool this week. I had considered a blog for this pesky conceit of mine for a little while, but I'd happen across other people's writing blogs from time to time and find them for the most part tedious at best and narcissistic at worst, and then I would once again discount the idea.

But the writing - it takes over and seems to think that it needs a place to be rambled about. And then I decided to do the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge on Ravelry, and it feels odd to be directing people to my knit-blog for that when there is really bugger all by way of reading/writing content on there. And now we've got writing assignments, which I think will be a lot of fun, but once again, I don't really want to post them on my knit-blog (or at least not now that it actually has - gasp - readership, albeit small). So I succumbed. Here, ladies and gentleman, from this point onwards shall dwell: the word-blog.

This isn't entirely a bad thing, I suppose. For a start, it means that I no longer have to brag to the people who subject themselves to my other internetty endeavours when I hit 50,000 words on a story I'm writing. I can post it here and save them the trouble of scratching their heads and saying to themselves, "Wait, Anna was writing something? When did that start?" My various random hobbies vie for my attention enough in my actual life - they don't need to compete for space on the wide open and fertile plains of the internet.

It also means that I won't need to keep all of my writing-centric ramblings locked away on wordfiles on my harddrive, or banished to battered notebooks that never seem to escape the recesses of my bag. The problem with doing things this way is that when these diatrabes are kept private, with no intention of ever being otherwise, I get repetitive, lose any motivation to be concise, and generally my thoughts end up chasing themselves around in circles. The whole 'writing my thoughts on the piece that I'm writing' thing stops being as helpful as it was originally, and starts being confusing and self indulgent. Probably bad habits to be falling into.

However, the main benefit of the word-blog that I can see is that it might actually force me into better habits. You see, I have this quirk. Like many people, I am a procrastinator. I have trouble helping it, although it should be noted that I'm getting better as I get older (she proudly proclaims at the ripe old age of 24). And one thing that I've noticed is that the more people I tell about my intentions, the less likely I am to put them off or not fulfil them at all. A muttered "I'll do it when I finish this chapter", grumbled over my shoulder to a single member of my immediate family, is much less likely to be followed up on than a proclamation to a group of friends, or a declaration to the inhabitants of LiveJournal land that I am going to undertake something. So, in keeping this word-blog, I'm hoping to scare myself straight and actually write everything I'm intending to. See, I have to do it, because if I don't the Internet at Large will think worse of me. All the billions of people who could potentially happen across this blog (though of course won't) will parade through my mind, saying "Oh, that Anna, she never follows through on what she says she's going to do", and lo and behold, I will magically become Productive... Or that's the plan anway.

So. There's the justification. Of course, one can justify a lot of things. Hey, I'm a law student - I'm supposed to be good at this kind of rubbish. Now, let's see if I can actually live up to all of these good intentions. Time will tell, I suppose.