Blog Post 1: Quotation on Writing

"He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

As I am beginning my first blog, Von Goethe’s quote makes absolute sense. While writing in a diary is for personal satisfaction, public writing is a freedom of speech and should express a certain freedom from speech restraint. While that applies to hard print, it is imperative to online writing. The internet is open to anyone and everyone. For my writing to be on such a medium, it requires trust and self confidence. I am aware that my audience is the world and write as such. Though my writing is directly intended for a small group of individuals in a college English class, my writing purpose will reflect myself and what I stand for, regardless of the “million” people that may be reading it.

As our world has become as minuscule as “a mouse click away,” writers must realize their pieces are not going to be bound in the next town over and read only in the following nearest village. My writing here is available for the global community. Anyone with access to a computer is able to see what I have written. Although surely Von Goethe didn’t realize his quote would have quite the meaning it does today, he is entirely correct with such a thought. Possibly, he went a bit far that writers should not “write a single line” if they are uncomfortable, but in reality and today’s world, a writer must have a full ability to let his work be read, pondered, argued and criticized. Without this ability, a writer will not write to his fullest potential due to his inhibitions to let himself release what is meant to be said. In short, if a writer lacks the desire to let himself be read by the world, according to Von Goethe along with my own belief, he is wasting his time.