Direction

When I returned from my hearing today, my secretary greeted me and said, "You had a weird phone call — it's in your voicemail. Someone from the Denver Post called wanting to ask about blogs." The intonation of the second sentence trailed upward as though it were a question, specifically, "Why does a reporter want to ask you about that?"

Greg Griffin of the Denver Post wanted to ask me about this weblog and legal weblogs in general. I hesitantly called him back — hesitantly, because the only interview I ever gave, with a college paper, ended up in some selective quoting that left me a little unhappy.

Our conversation left me wondering what I'm trying to accomplish here. He remarked that my weblog seemed a little more "eclectic" than some of the other ones written by lawyers. "Eclectic?" I wondered. "No," I thought, "Haphazard" would be a better word.

This blog has always been an experimental testing ground, and it has yet to expand into anything more. Back in 2002, curious about the emerging world of weblogs and curious how I might participate in its conversations, I downloaded a copy of Movable Type and started tinkering. I had some time on my hands, because back then I was waiting for my bar exam results and looking for full-time work.

I've put the weblog down and picked it up again from time to time, but I have yet to find a consistent voice. Greg asked me where I think I'm going with this weblog, and I had to say I had no idea. Sometimes something draws my attention and I write, but far more ideas fall through the cracks than actually find their way onto this page.

I've been writing more often recently in yet another effort to find a voice for this space. But I find myself encumbered by a peculiar kind of writer's block, one that I mentioned to Greg. Not only do I have the hesitation that comes from being a relatively quiet, private person, but I feel constrained by my professional role as an attorney (and a relatively young one at that). I have to admit that to some extent I brought that on myself by adopting an analytical tone early on. The "about" column on the right even identifies me as a lawyer. I'm proud of the profession, of course, but it's not the defining feature of my personality — in fact, it's not a personality trait at all, though it can shape them.

I commented to Greg that I've got the impression that a lot of lawyers in the early stages of their careers seem to prefer to write anonymously. I was going to elaborate on this topic here until I realized I wrote about it a year ago, here and here.

I still tend toward caution, and that caution (overcaution?) tends most often to express itself in silence. Some of the webloggers I admire most are those who, like Ernest Svenson, manage compelling forays into the personal alongside posts about the law, or politics, or music, or whatever else may interest the writer. Another favorite blog of mine is Scheherazade Fowler's, which chronicles, among other things, a journey that took her away from the law to something very different.

I don't know if I have the extraversion and sense of personal comfort to produce quite that kind of writing for a public audience. Still, I'm going to try to write here a little more often to see what develops this time around, and I'm going to try to shake some of the stiffness out of the style.