I am not a MetaBlogger.

Part of my struggle in blogging is creating what I feel is a healthy balance between three contrasting types of content.

The first is original, fresh content. Be it a mundane report of the days events or a completely fresh work of (hopefully) scintillating fiction, original content is the primary focus of this blog.

The second is derivative content--reviews and spinoffs. My review of Revenge of the Sith was mostly derivative, drawing from my original experiences but using RotS as a frame of reference. My discussion of Taming of the Shrew is also derivative, being based on the work of another.

The third is meta content. Content that is little more than a link to something from outside this space entirely, to which I link, and which I might provide a little commentary on, but which is not original at all. My links to Neal Stephenson's latest article or predictions(1)-come(2)-true(3), for example, are all meta content, I provide a few witty remarks but the meat of the entry is the link to which I have connected.

I try to give meta content the least weight of the three, using links to other articles and stories at most two or three times a week, and attempting to always include some original commentary so that I never become a simple router, pointing my readers towards the work of people more original than myself.

I also try to admit derivative work whenever possible, often overcrediting others. I once told a friend of mine that I don't have any original thoughts at all, but I have a lot of wise saying's whose author's names I have forgotten, and therefore forget to credit. Whenever my work is derivative, I try to make clear that there are a giant's shoulders beneath my feet.

And my first priority is still to create original content. My objective here is to create a space for myself to train my ability as a writer both of fiction and of non-fiction. That is the purpose of this place. It may have grown out of very different beginnings, but that is the purpose now.