Which brings me to an important question, one you have to ask yourself before embarking on keeping a web journal:

I really wish more people would ask this before they start. The answer to this question might stop more of these journals before they start.

Depending on what information you make available, people can learn an awful lot about you. And you might be saying a lot about people other than yourself, people who might not appreciate your saying anything about them they haven't expressly permitted. You will piss people off -- this is just about the only guarantee I can give you about online journals.

When I started The Paperwork, I envisioned it as a series of letters to friends back home to keep them up on what I was doing while I was down in Los Angeles. I decided what I would and wouldn't put in it, and for the most part I've stuck to it: I would talk about what I did during the day, if I was likely to mention other people in passing I asked their permission, and if I had something to write that was bad or possibly deleterious to someone's character, I either didn't include it or I used a pseudonym.

-- Tracy Lee, i am becoming, February 17, 1997

...The truth is that for the past few weeks I've dreaded sitting down in front of the computer to write.

s when I've wanted to write something and I haven't because it's too personal, or it's someone else's story, or whatever. But it's tough. There are no easy answers.

And my reason for keeping this journal has been to find my voice. It has served that purpose well. But now, well....now I feel that my reasons are chaining. Or perhaps that need isn't being fulfilled anymore. I don't know for certain...

Because there was so much I wanted to say but couldn't. So many things going on that had to be kept "private" and that bugs the hell out of me.

There are some pretty decent guidelines:

If you have a honest (read: racy, neurotic, sexy, drug-addled, whatever) journal, you will get lots of readers. You will also get other journalers talking about you in their journals, not always kindly. You will also get lots of fans, though they might just be there for the prurient value.

The loss of anonymity. Face it, it's a fact of life. This thing has gotten too big and too many people in my everyday life now know about it.

...The very idea of writing an entry today has left me with that feeling again -- that "showing the world my panties" feeling. I don't like it. Not one bit.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Los Angeles, Diary February, World February, Online Journal, Tracy Lee, Tangents March, Creep Factor, Life March, Estrogen March, writing journal, online journal,
Approximate Word count = 1240
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)