Ego is Latin for I

Christian Crumlish

I seem to be breaking a cardinal rule of starting a lot of sentences and paragraph with the word I and using the I-word frequently throughout my posts.

I lost count of the number of times I used the word I in the previous entry.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that overuse of the word I is a sign of bad writing. There may even be blog advice people saying not to talk about I so much.

But then again isn't this a one-person blog. Should I give I-self a nickname and save "blinky had a nother thought today?" to give appearance of not talking about I so much? (Aside, I have always hated the word me-zine or mezine—it smacks of journalistic invention and as a word it inspires antilust in me.)

Or should I reverse-engineer and rewrite I sentences so they say the same thing but more artfully allide I presence in the thought process? Wouldn't that just be hiding the I?

Or is I like a fnord that just vanishes from the ear of most readers and thus no foul at all?

The publisher of Coffeehouse made us rewrite the introduction and interstitial material because it was written all in first person (singular and plural). The backlash against memoirs and first-person nonfiction writing of all kinds (such as the {fray}) generally criticizes the I speaking as self-involved or solipsistic.

Comes with the territory, I say.