reflexive

[redbird]

Columbine was wondering, in her online journal, why anyone who didn't know her would read it. A fair question, and here's my answer:

I read the journals of people I already know to keep up with their lives.

I read other journals for the same reason I read non-genre fiction: because I'm interested in character(s). At some level, it doesn't matter to me whether a first-person narrative is factual: what matters is whether it presents an interesting
person, or people, or events.

The parts of your life--your writer's life--that you put in the journal definitely qualify.

Obviously, I can't tell you you're wrong--that wouldn't even be a meaningful statement, never mind a true one--but maybe this helps explain why people read a stranger's journal.

I don't know if there are any strangers reading this, but if there are, consider yourselves welcome. It isn't an exercise in prose, unless all writing is that, but it's a piece of a life, or of some lives: a small piece, of course, but a piece.

The forsythia and maples are in bloom, and the birds are singing at each other: let's all go out and play.