Does anybody read these?

Blog envy...

I love my blog. I like having an outlet to bitch, snark, whine, stroll down memory lane, wax philosophically or whatever else strikes my fancy. It's my own little place in the world, and I can do whatever I want with it. Most of the time, I'm very proud of my blog and my writing. Sometimes it's just dumb. Sometimes I really shouldn't blog drunk.

I'm a good writer. I've been writing as long as I can remember. I was first published in the 4th grade (how old would that make me? 10?) when I won a county-wide writing contest and they published the book I wrote. Only one other girl from my school won the contest, because we went with a teacher to this all-day conference where we got to meet real writers and get tips. Looking back, it was probably a total waste for someone my age, because the highlight was that we had those school-lunch pizza rolls and I thought they were great because Catholic school kids always had to "brown-bag" it.

I find my life to be dreadfully boring, but apparently y'all keep coming back for some reason. Not that I'm complaining. I am absolutely fascinated that people from all over the world like to read my writing. And as I work on my little side-project novella, I realize people think I'm a good writer. I'm my own worst critic, so it's nice that I have loyal readers. I appreciate you all more than you realize.

However, when I go out on the 'Net and look at other blogs, I get some serious blog envy. The first blog I read was by The Blog King, Wil Wheaton. That was long before I decided to do this. Of course, my foray into blogging was inspired by the blog my friend Greg maintained before he passed away in August. Along the way, I've met some very talented writers and great people. I've even inspired a few people myself. I like blogging and this whole virtual community that we've created. We're all great at this in our own special way.

So, why have I been thinking about blog envy? One4JC introduced me to a new blog yesterday. I went to visit She Just Walks Around With It, and I fell in love with the writing of the amazing woman who hangs her hat there. While I was there, I found out that the author has a little blog envy toward Stephanie Klein. And frankly, I'm jealous of them both, but in a good way. They are phenomenal writers.

But I think that a little blog envy can be a good thing. These great bloggers inspire me to be the best that I can be without losing my identity. And isn't that what blogging's really about?!?

posted by Laura at 10:28 PM