Inflicting My Opinions on the World

I've created this blog to express my opinions and thoughts on whatever interests me, specifically stories. My first love is books, of course, and the printed (or e-inked) word is still the greatest mechanism for telling compelling stories in the world. However, I also think that movies, television, and video games can create great characters and plots, and I'll be writing about whatever medium I want. Also, as an amateur writer myself, I enjoy talking about the process of writing. Basically, everything interests me (except poetry).

This is my first blog, well, ever. To be honest, I don't read many blogs; the only one I visit once a day is Seth Godin's, and he doesn't write about the things that I'm going to write about. I don't even use Facebook. Sure, it's a great way to keep in touch with people you might not otherwise see, but I'd prefer to hear what's going on in my friend's lives face-to-face. And how cool can Facebook be when everyone's parents use it?

I have a Twitter account, one that I first started just to vote for Day9 in the Shorty awards. When I was waiting for the Avengers to start and all I had was my phone, I started posting a few tweets. Over the past month or two, I haven't gained many followers, with the amusing exception of one the greatest characters on television, Dwight K. Schrute.

So despite the fact that I'm in my twenties and spend all day on a computer, I'm not all that tapped into social media or the blogosphere (Does anyone still call it that? Did they ever?) I'm not aware of all the standard conventions, or tricks to attract readership or build relationships with people who do read my blog, so if anyone has any advice, please don't hesitate to tell me.

Fortunately, my habit of never trying new food as a stubborn child doesn't apply to this, so here I am. I'm looking at this blog as a learning opportunity, a chance to try something I've never done before, and a way to increase my communication skills. I also hope to promote my own writing, as well as the writing of people I like, have some great and thoughtful discussions, and establish a personal brand. If that last phrase makes me sound like some kind of marketing robot, well, I did go to business school.

But the first idea for a blog germinated whenever I'd have a great discussion with somebody about some weird topic like the changes in fictional characterization from the 80s to the 90s to the 00s, or something similar, and I would want to share my thoughts further. Some people have even told me that I should have a blog, over the years (and not derogatorily, amazingly enough). Maybe blogs are out of style, but Twitter and its ilk don't really allow for the expression of complicated ideas.

I plan to write a post once ever two or three days at first, and will try to increase my posting frequency when I get better at this. Unlike some bloggers, I doubt all of my posts will be insightful, but I do try to be entertaining.

So in closing, take that world! Feel the bitter sting of my opinions! :)