This blog is more like a trilogy than a single work, (or at least the first three parts in a series:
- Book 1 (parts 1 & 2) are all about social media - it's two parts because I took a hiatus,
- Book 2 - ownership, control and the Indieweb, setting the scene
- Book 3 - more personal, more about me and how I'm dealing with things
Book 1 was me trying to be something I wasn't, exploring an exciting time but doing so in a way that was trying to force things, trying to be the next someone else and not me, trying to be found.
Book 2 was a voyage of discovery, almost a rebellion against the whole idea of the first part. It was still, perhaps, me trying to be something else, not entirely myself but it was a definite improvement.
Book 3 takes the lessons from book 2, strips them down and gets to work. It's where I wish I always had been.
The old blog (2003 - 2008) was a mixture, very much a rough draft written by an inexperienced hand. It mixed the personal with the geeky but not in such a pretentious way. It served almost as a template for what I'm doing now. Now, however, I'm a better writer, a deeper thinker, more at ease with what I'm doing.
There are times I wish I hadn't taken breaks, hadn't moved my writing away from the blog, but then wonder if I would still be stuck writing Book 1, never progressing. I realise that, although it leaves gaps, I needed to step away to move on to the next part.
Some can claim to have blogged every day for the past 15 or 20 years and I say good luck to them, they were lucky to have found their voice early. I have had to rediscover my voice both figuratively and literally and am still finding it now, but it's mine, not an approximation or impression of anyone else.
And that is all I could ask for.