So, try numero dua. Last time I tried to start writing a blog, it was while I was travelling from San Diego, CA to Manchester, NH during Christmas break in undergrad and it took me 5 days. I was trying to go to a friend's wedding in OK on the way, and that didn't work either. It was a long adventure, and it has taken me a considerably shorter time to fly half way arond the world than it did to get across the country that year. I wrote two blog entries, both while I was in airports with nothing better to do. And then I never wrote anything on it again. Eventually took it down, when it was clear that I wasn't going to write on it again.
On the other hand, many, many people (good friends, acquaintances, former professors, favorite authors, and random books) have said that the key to being a writer is to write every day, even if it is only a little. Since, although I'm not sure about being a "writer," I actually need to write as part of my job/profession/calling/life, I figured I had better start somewhere. Even if a blog isn't exactly "productive" writing, it might help me to get into the habit of actually writing down what is in my head.
In addition, I am, well, shy, about people reading my writing, slightly embarassed to have anyone read my papers (even my professors), which is not a good thing since I am really supposed to be trying to get things published, eventually. Maybe if I write where anyone, including my siblings, grandparents, and complete strangers, can see (not that I'm really expecting anyone to look), I'll get over that particular hurdle. Hopefully. We'll see. As I might not tell anyone I know that this blog exists (not even to link it to my Facebook or something), perhaps this will end up being the same as if I just wrote in one of the many notebooks I have collected through gifts and impulse buying over the years.
Finally, I expect that sometimes I will write entries newly inspired by life, but other times I may pull out old and dusty pieces of writing that no one has ever read, shine them up a bit, and let them out into the world to forage for themselves. Sometimes I will write non-fiction essays. I may complain about my students in the fall. I may decide to post short stories or fairy tales. I may talk/write about past travels or log them as they occur. I may reminisce with sickly-sweet nostalgia about things that happened while I was growing up and adventures that seemed completely normal at the time but take on a tint of the absurd in hindsight. I may put up pictures (without people in them as that is a little creepy) of places I've been. Probably I will do exactly the opposite of what one of my brothers' professors suggested when keeping a blog -- I will not pick a particular subject/style/topic and stick to it. The entries will be in the style of my own wanderings - all over the place.
No comments:
Post a Comment