Me: My problem lately -- i.e., why I haven't posted anything of substance for a week -- is that I can't think of anything worthwhile to post about. I wonder if I should just go back to my practice of trying to churn out SOMETHING each day, but that means the blog stops being an outlet for creative writing and becomes, well, an online diary. A LiveJournal entry. You know? I don't want to dilute my BIG WRITING THING by having daily bitch and moan sessions. But if I don't make myself write... sometimes nothing comes out for weeks at a time.
Jeff: It seems to me that your issue is differentiating between writing and Writing.Like cooking is only adding food and heat together, writing is jotting down words coherently. Take one kind (based on style, length or content) any more seriously as a creator than any other is limiting and it ends up breeding the sort of "I don't want to write if it's not significant" line of thinking that has led you to this sort of blog paralysis you've been stricken with.
Me: Yes. Well spotted. Now how do I get over it? Other than just jump in and write about crap?
Jeff: Well, that's the ideal outcome. Because even if you think that everything you write is crap, that doesn't mean that your reader thinks it is.
ITEM! It's time for me to cull Ye Olde Blogrolle again. My rules are simple: if you don't post new content within a span of one month, out you go. Todays' victims:
I'm really sorry to see you guys go. If you ever get your acts together and update, let me know and I'll re-add you.
ITEM! Jeff Stolarcyk has once again caved to the Wednesday Night Night Wackiness. Unfortunately, he decides to hate on Jericho. However, he betrays his true colors as a fan of the show by demonstrating he knows not only the names of the characters but the actors portraying them. Also, he admits he listens to Maroon 5.
ITEM! Speaking of Jericho, no, I haven't forgotten about it. I'm still watching and am very positive about the writing, the acting, and the current story arc, but I've decided to hold off on posting about it until more develops because it's all kind of expository right now. The past two episodes have dealt with learning about the Conspiracy, and I get the feeling that Important Stuff will happen Real Soon Now. When that does, I'll do a big post where I try to tie everything together and make sense of it all. That said, I hope you're all being good and watching it every Tuesday night at 10 pm on CBS.
ITEM! Hopefully I'm back on track now, and will try to post something every weekday. It may not be creative genius -- it may in fact be the kind of whiny crap you get from an online diary like LiveJournal -- but dammit, I need to get back into the habit of daily writing. If I stop writing, then I can no longer Write, if that makes sense.
ITEM! If you've been wondering about what has happened to my poor abused L5R players, tomorrow is the day you've been waiting for.
And that's it. Sorry, no amusing bon mot in closing. See you all tomorrow.
Two things: (1) I never worry about whether what I'm writing has substance, because I'm confident all my writing has substance; it's just not always the same variety of substance.
ReplyDelete(2) I always tell the kids in my creative writing classes to make sure they think of writing as a craft, not an Art. Thinking in Art terms will stifle you (especially those folks who talk in terms of "muses," a concept which is anathema to me). Carpenters don't hit the "wood block," electricians don't hit the "power grid," and writers can avoid being congested if they think of their work in the same way as other craftsmen.
I tend to sabotage myself by thinking that I need to be an expert on something before I can write about it to avoid (a) embarrassing myself, and (b) getting into arguments with people who claim to know more about it than I do.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if I was to wait until there was no chance of getting into an argument with someone on the interwub that would leave me attempting to write from beyond the grave which, whilst darkly romantic, might be a bit of a bitch. Especially if I was a zombie. They don't spell so good and my fingers would probably keep snapping off.