I started blogging when blogs were online journals.

So, the writing style I developed (and mostly maintained) throughout the past 10 years has mostly revolved around myself, the main characters in my life, the ins-and-outs of everyday life.

The elements of blogging that have most tickled my fancy approach relationships, love, sex, memories, growing up, serendipitous/traumatic encounters, and travel photos.

Which is to say I’ve always written about myself and how everything relates to me.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve blogged less because I have grown tired of the sound of my voice (in my head). And because many of the wants that I used to go on and on (and on and on and on and on) about have been resolved, I feel less interesting.

But not less interested.

So, I’m going to attempt to blog anonymously henceforth about varying topics. It’s not easy for me to do this because storytelling is something I think I am relatively good at, but sometimes when stories run dry or are gathering in a maybe-someday-novel folder in My Documents, it just comes back to topics.

In order to give topics a fair shot without putting myself at the center of every post, I will work towards avoiding my real identity to arrive at conclusions and weigh in on issues. Here are a few of the reasons I have chosen to blog anonymously:

1. Freedom to change and learn – with a set identity attached to real social profiles, it’s easy to feel that once a belief or position has been shared that it is officially a part of the author and is irreversible. I think through anonymity it is possible to form ideas alongside new, relevant information and feel less anchored by past actions/statements.
2. Professional identity – I don’t want my freeform thoughts to negatively impact my career. There are plenty of people out there who fear that their writings will harm them at work. I think I can have more fun with this if I am not associated with the real me.
3. Writing for the sake of writing – I used to work in advertising, and I think over time those who write for passion sometimes lose the ability to enjoy themselves when they approach their blog as a brand that must receive a minimum number of clicks, visitors, and subscribers each day. For the first time in many years, I am actually writing on a free WordPress site without any premium features. We’re not optimizing anything but the written word here right now.

With any luck, this project won’t be redundant and irrelevant. While I’d like to hide who I am to make this a little more challenging and exciting, I am not interested in writing steaming piles of shit. I hope we can both get something out of this.