I Know What I Want To Write About But the Internet Is Scary

Here is the thing, I write a lot about my writing life, and not all that much about my life. Part of that is, well, this is a site ABOUT my books and stuff. It feels sort of weird and self-indulgent to talk about me outside of my books, but my life and my work are such close neighbors that it doesn't make sense to not talk about the other one anymore. The question is, what do you do when you're a shy person in your real life? Felicia Day has a book out call You're Never Weird on the Internet. The thing is, you might never come across as weird, you can still feel like a total werido while using the net. I also think it is telling that the subtitle is the world (Almost). It is in brackets like that as well, a thrown in aside. Well, to me it isn't an aside. It's pretty much my entire state of being. I feel weird doing this for two reasons. First, I'm boring. I mean it. My life isn't that exciting. I'm broke, so I don't go out all that much. I watch entirely too much television and I mostly hang out with my parents when I'm not working. I'm really sad. Who wants to read about that? Second, and I'm being honest, this is a writers blog and part of the goal here is to sell books. It's not the only goal, not by a long shot, but it is one of the goals, one that I'm not comfortable with. In my head, I know that this is a part of the deal, but I admit that it takes some of the fun out of this whole thing. My friend Rene has a blog, http://afunnythinghappenedwheniwaslea... and it is doing well. She spend a lot of time building relationship with other bloggers. She is more outgoing than I am because I cringe at the thought of putting myself out there like that.

Part of it is that I worry about sounding weird, true, but another big part is that I'm afraid of putting myself out there on social media. Expressing yourself online can lead to big trouble. A joke that hits wrong could get you fired, the stupid thing you said three years ago while you were a little drunk or tired could cause a virtual lynch mob to come after you. There are cases and cases of things like this where people say something, and have to face consequences that far outweigh their supposed crime. Now, sometimes the person says something that merits an apology because he or she was being a douche, but I think judging is easy and that we now have a new addiction, being right. It's all about the fear, but here's the thing, I'm sick of being afraid.

Been awhile since I did a rant. Thanks for listening faceless void!