Why Do You Blog?

I feel a bit of a fraud writing about why I blog given that I have only been doing so in a focused manner for a brief period of time, but in answer to the question; I blog because I am somewhat obsessive regarding my hobbies (namely, miniature painting and role-playing games). Blogging gives me an outlet to discharge/expunge/provide (delete as applicable) the various ideas going through my head.

Arda - The World

I am one of those gamers who has generally ended up being the GM for my tabletop groups, and I have started or thought up so many campaigns that I have lost track of them all. What I really need is a category like "The Junkyard" on Dreams in the Lich House in which ideas for campaigns are placed, to be developed further or not, as the whim may take me.

Tolkien referred to this urge to create a fictional world as "sub-creation" i.e. that one was expanding upon the Creation that God formed. For Tolkien, it was vital, if the sub-creation were to be "true" that it be congruent with the world as we know it, and that it not conflict with the Biblical account of the world, and the arrival of Christ. Hence, Middle-Earth is our world in a distant past inhabited by virtuous pagans, who fight for the good, whilst being ignorant of the Resurrection (well, it hadn't happened yet....) OK, for me (as an agnostic) that isn't really a factor, but I do believe that the creation of fictional worlds is a valid past-time.

Anyway, I seem to have veered into my undergrad dissertation, so I shall stop there!