What do you write about? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

westcoastfunky · 06-09-2008, 06:15 PM

Sorry for posting ANOTHER topic! *blush* I just have all these questions and do not know anyone that has travelled for long periods.

I will be keeping a blog while I'm travelling but what I would like to know is what people write about and how online blogging vs journalling on paper has done to change what you write about? Do you censor yourself online?

I'm thinking things like...
1) feeling an intense romantic connection with a person you meet for 2 days
2) having a crazy sexual night (ummm...4 some with swedish techno babes for instance!)
3) personal emotions
4) stories that involve other people and you are sort of invading their privacy by sharing
5) etc

These are things, memories, I would like to write about but it seems you have to be more sterile than this and blog online, not journal. If you do journal it needs to be private or it needs to be annonymous. I am not really sure which route I want to take. I would like to have a public blog and be honest but... Well it is also the timing I know, because often recalling a story that happened 6 months ago is okay and the humour in your crazy emotions can be seen but at the moment people do not always find it so funny.

how do you balance morals / what the reading public deems acceptable / what you want to write about / what family wants to read? Or do you only write about events, stuff that happens, what you did that day vs how you felt about someone or something you did together?

I have kept a journal before, but it was a journal, it was deeply personal and it was publicly available but family did not know about it. I enjoy writing like that and I am lost about what to do now because I want to be able to journal but I want it to be public and family oriented. I know I am going to go through some really intense experiences and I want to be able to document that, the good, the bad and the ugly!

What do you do?

**Somnambulation** · 06-09-2008, 06:37 PM

Its certainly more rewarding enjoyable for the reader if they know you arent holding anything back. I did an online journal for family and friends the first time I travelled and I left certain things out, and I do regret that it wasnt a totally accurate depiction of my trip. Mybe you could have the uninhibited online journal and then just cut and paste a less personal version from that into a mass email to those who you wouldnt want reading it.

westcoastfunky · 06-09-2008, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somnambulation

Its certainly more rewarding enjoyable for the reader if they know you arent holding anything back. I did an online journal for family and friends the first time I travelled and I left certain things out, and I do regret that it wasnt a totally accurate depiction of my trip. Mybe you could have the uninhibited online journal and then just cut and paste a less personal version from that into a mass email to those who you wouldnt want reading it.

If you did an uninhibited one would you change people's names? They may know you are talking about them, as would a couple others but the world would not...although it might be hard to keep track of all the fake names for referring to people later on...

westcoastfunky · 06-09-2008, 06:59 PM

now my mind is whirring...if you did use fake names for people would you still post pictures? that seems kind of silly...

ugh I don't know what to do.

**Somnambulation** · 06-09-2008, 07:09 PM

I dont think people mnd being written about, at least I dont, unless you are going to bad mouth them. And if you are going to bad mouth them, you probably wouldnt be sending them the link to your site anyway. Its kind of an honor to be memorialized as part of someone elses experience.

**Canadian Bacon** · 06-09-2008, 08:29 PM

I guess its more about what you feel approrpriate sharing online. Like I mostly wrote about things that I felt that I wanted to share with ppl.. mostly random shit, not really outlining everything I did, but just impressions of things that stuck in my mind... sort of impressionist style writing. I also write exactly how I talk...