Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Postsecret
Sorry about blogger yesterday. It hardly accepted a comment all day. The system was totally gummed.
Have you all discovered the Postsecret site yet? It's one of the most highly rated blogs on Technorati. People send in their secrets on a postcard, using the art side of the postcard to tell half the story. The site is updated only once a week on Sundays (which breaks all the rules about posting often if you want a lot of visitors). Frank Warren, who runs this blog, has become something of a cultural icon. Read how his blog got started in this USA Today article.
This site is a novelist's dream. I've read the secrets and laughed. I've read them and gotten teary-eyed. Many are amazing stories. Many would provide the premise for a novel.
Postsecret has become so successful that many of the postcards have been put in books, which are now available from amazon.com.
I suggest this site as a weekly stop on your blog reading. Especially if you're knocking around, needing a new idea for a novel. Or perhaps a subplot for your current wip.
P.S. A comment came through that reminds me I didn't mention that these secrets aren't all easy to read, and they're certainly not sanitized. These are real issues out there in today's world.
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4 comments:
Intereseting site! This is the stuff novels can be made of! I love to get into the heads of characters and what a way to get into the heads of real people. Wow! Love the one about the military wife afraid her fiance won't come home. Laughing at the 33 year old who TP's a house for the first time.
You might have mentioned already, but "gentle readers" might want to beware that some images can be jarring. It is sad that so many people are living with such sad secrets. But check out the letter from the young woman inspired not to take her own life. She saw a post card with a phone number to call for help, and called it! Wow!God can use anything, and anyone.
I went to the site, and some of the things made me feel bad. It kinda' reminds me of the Montel show or the Povich show (which I've never watched; I only know about their fodder from things I've read).
I have a REAL curious mind. I just don't really want to know people's bizarre secrets, like the teddy bear one. I have a friend who's husband was a psychologist for years. She finally talked him into going into another field. She said she was tired of him being a sin eater.
'Course I'm a writer who likes to present the lighter side even though I've touched on things like death and divorce; one WIP has a homosexual character; so I don't dodge the dark necessarily.
Maybe I'm like Norman Rockwell, who said, "I just painted life the way I would like it to be. Maybe I unconsciously decided that, even if it wasn't an ideal world, it should be."
I read about this in our local paper Sunday. Too incredibly sad. Like the woman who's scared she's going to become "that" woman... and shake her baby to death. Lord, help that woman and heal her fears. Send someone to hold her and help her. And how about the person who wrote that their son is gay and they love him a little less. Breaks my heart. Absolutely makes me want to sob for the parent and the son. Can't go to that site too often -- I'd become suicidal just worrying about all those hurting souls. :(
Maybe I'm just in a "mood" tonight. But maybe not.
(I had to sign up for a separate account because of switching to beta means I can't post comments on non-beta-switched blogs...ugh!)
I've read PostSecrets for a long time now and I am truly captivated. I laugh and I cry. It is amazing how such a small postcard can carry the weight of someone's world.
I've read about several people who have overcome just because of this site. Over time, I've read about people who, instead of killing themselves, sent in a postcard. How incredibly powerful is that?
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