Looking in A Different Direction

Welcome! There is a good deal of apprehension around starting this blog and indeed to posting this introductory spiel, however brief that it may be. Most of this apprehension comes from a single source which mutates, deforms, and reforms into various other worries. I've run other blogs before, though what separates  this from my past experiences is this: I know people will read this blog.

I'm starting this blog as a semester long project for my ENG 382 class. The class will focus on nature in literature, and while I'm not sure anyone has read work I've done on other blogs, I know that there will be other people who will read this. Included in those people is someone who is paid to read this, critique my work, and assign me a number which corresponds to a letter that corresponds back to a number that affects my future.This is maybe the first time that writing in a blog environment will have such an impact (as minimal as it may be in comparison to other courses) on my future. No longer do I need only to worry about whether or not my writing is good enough for me, I need now also fret that my writing is good enough for someone else. 

Hopefully, the vast majority of those who come here to read will be able to recognize the fear inherent to such a statement. Hopefully they can identify with me. Ideally, all the extra eyes on our collective work will help us grow as writers in general. We will hack away the extraneous or grow the superfluous into something splendid as each case requires. Hopefully we will all be able to walk away from this not only having achieved the goals that our teachers and the curriculum has set for us, but also being able to examine ourselves and our work in a different light.