After continuing to explain my motivations, I disclose my plans for the blogs immediate future
As mentioned yesterday, I have decided upon what I will use this space for, at least in the interim. I think it is something that will work well for this format, and is also in line with my own goals and values. To explain my choice, I want to offer a bit more about some of the themes from yesterday, and to elucidate my own reasons for not choosing the two, perfectly valid, options for how to organize this blog generally.
In terms of the personal, while I do not have an issue touching upon aspects of my own life, or revealing myself (indeed, the novel that I am working to publish is built around me as the main character, in my actual life), I don't wish to center this on my life, as I feel it might become overly indulgent and egoistic, or that I might merely use this space as an opportunity to spin my wheels. I do not want the temporal aspect to become a substitute for forward momentum. I am not saying these are universal issues within such works, but am instead discussing my own processes. It is not that all people who write blogs centered on aspects of their own life are doing so in a way that is self-indulgent, but I could easily see myself falling into a place where I am flattered to think that people are reading about my trivial little problems, and that this makes me feel important. It might even just be an illusion that anyone was reading or interested, or that if they were, the things I was talking about mattered in the way that this hypothetical future me interprets them, but I could imagine that happening. Also, I think that, for me, this feels like an easy answer, and I tend to be skeptical of easy answers. Perhaps, that is the true motivation and the other is merely ad hoc as a way for my own mind to have a logical reason. It can work that way in the mind, certainly...
I think much of that is probably a rehash of past statements, but I don't feel that I really explained my thinking on the issue of topical commentary. Again, I want to stress that I am quite comfortable airing my opinions and talking about issues that are significant to me, many of which touch on potentially explosive topics. I once made a comment that was about the theological differences between concepts of God as seen in different religions that nearly started a fight, and while I do plan to explore that and other ideas that might upset some, I am not wanting to do so in a way that is confrontational. So, I would rather spend a bit of time getting comfortable here, developing my blog both for myself and, hopefully, for a readership (though I am aware how long that can take).
To go further, though, there are other reasons for not wanting to make this that form of blog. The use of such a format is limiting, in general, and I am a writer who is already at work on getting myself published in other arenas with fiction and poetry. I don't want to make myself known here for one type of work that is not in line with other work, and I also don't want to mess the bed by accidentally saying something here that is incendiary which paints me in a certain light to potential publishers. I want the work that write here to reflect the kind of writing that I do elsewhere, and as such am not wanting to go into a lot of my own views directly.
There is also the issue of my considering whether some of the things I might choose to discuss here would actually function better in other mediums. It is one thing for me to work ideas out on the page, which I often do, but once that work is done, it is another to merely take that work and present it directly. Often, I have found ideas that I worked out in a journal or other personal writing, having set it aside, continues to percolate, and manifests in a different expression. By releasing the ideas directly, am I robbing myself of the fuel for those potential works, and are those works potentially more impacting and meaningful? That is not to imply that I will not explore ideas of that sort here, rather it is that I must first understand what my work here is about. While discussing ideas that are relevant to current events is likely to be helpful and successful strategy, and one used in authentic and powerful ways by others, I think it is not my path.
Also, as I mentioned in the case of the personal narrative, while a topical blog is temporally located, it does not always have a forward momentum, a sense of narrative or, at least, progress. To that end, I have come up with a project that I can engage in here, and which will also connect with my life and goals as a writer generally. Towards that end, I am going to begin to use this space, starting with my next entry, to do writing exercises and work my way through a particular writing book.
The particular book is one that I purchased fairly recently and which I have been wanting to work through, but I am not very good at committing to things on a personal level, which is partly why this blog exists. It, in a utilitarian fashion, is intended to give me a daily task for writing, so, I thought, why not align that task with my work as a writer? How, then, to do that while still working in the blog form? I don't want to publish drafts, or even stories that I am hoping to submit to journals, but I do want to explore my writing. It seems a perfect match to me.
To add to this, I am going to begin with a book that I am truly excited about, by an author I deeply admire and respect, who wrote works that influenced me in my youth and continue to enthrall me now on even deeper levels, and who was one of many individuals whose voices I am personally saddened to have lost in the recent past. That author is Ursula K. Le Guin, and if it is not a name you know, it is my honor to share it with you in hopes that you explore her works to find why I am so excited by working from her book, Steering The Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing The Sea of Story.
It is, for me, an exciting prospect, as I believe that the even just the act of working daily with the intent of improving my writing will lead to great things, and the promise of learning from a master such as Le Guin is great. And, while the choice here is one that is largely practical, it is my hope that the improvements in my writing, the learning that can be seen through the progress of the book, will itself become a part of what structures this blog. That is to say, that I think my own progress forwards, ironically, may be the focus, despite the choice to not make this a personal blog. It is, of course, a personal medium....
So, starting tomorrow, I will begin with the first chapter of Steering The Craft. From reading the introduction and looking at some of the chapters, I believe each chapter is built around an exercise, and includes some follow-up questions. My intention is to start by describing the exercise, then doing it, then looking through the follow-up questions and activities. I may not do all of those, as it seems that some entail rewriting, which, if I choose to engage in, will occur elsewhere, though I will make certain that I let readers know if it produces future work and where that can be found. In addition, I want to try to write a bit after about my thoughts doing the exercise, hopefully discussing more than what I learnt from it, or how it felt about it as an exercise and the results. So that will be a daily practice that I can do here.
I do think that I will likely want to do other writing here as well, though I can't predict what or how often. In the least, the daily entries will keep me going here, but I do think that forward progress will also lead to me wanting to, at least on occasion, include some random entry. I am hopeful that the whole thing will take shape before I am through this first project, but, if worse comes to worse, I have a whole lot of books for writers, a few of which are even by people as significant as Le Guin. If worse comes to worse, the idea of a project blog is not terrible, and their are some fantastic examples, but I think that I will find some other way to use this space; indeed, the very resistance I am feeling towards that notion is suggestive to me that my unconscious has a plan already in motion, which will become apparent when the time is right. And in the meantime, I have work to do that I think can be important for me and worth putting out in this format.
In terms of the personal, while I do not have an issue touching upon aspects of my own life, or revealing myself (indeed, the novel that I am working to publish is built around me as the main character, in my actual life), I don't wish to center this on my life, as I feel it might become overly indulgent and egoistic, or that I might merely use this space as an opportunity to spin my wheels. I do not want the temporal aspect to become a substitute for forward momentum. I am not saying these are universal issues within such works, but am instead discussing my own processes. It is not that all people who write blogs centered on aspects of their own life are doing so in a way that is self-indulgent, but I could easily see myself falling into a place where I am flattered to think that people are reading about my trivial little problems, and that this makes me feel important. It might even just be an illusion that anyone was reading or interested, or that if they were, the things I was talking about mattered in the way that this hypothetical future me interprets them, but I could imagine that happening. Also, I think that, for me, this feels like an easy answer, and I tend to be skeptical of easy answers. Perhaps, that is the true motivation and the other is merely ad hoc as a way for my own mind to have a logical reason. It can work that way in the mind, certainly...
I think much of that is probably a rehash of past statements, but I don't feel that I really explained my thinking on the issue of topical commentary. Again, I want to stress that I am quite comfortable airing my opinions and talking about issues that are significant to me, many of which touch on potentially explosive topics. I once made a comment that was about the theological differences between concepts of God as seen in different religions that nearly started a fight, and while I do plan to explore that and other ideas that might upset some, I am not wanting to do so in a way that is confrontational. So, I would rather spend a bit of time getting comfortable here, developing my blog both for myself and, hopefully, for a readership (though I am aware how long that can take).
To go further, though, there are other reasons for not wanting to make this that form of blog. The use of such a format is limiting, in general, and I am a writer who is already at work on getting myself published in other arenas with fiction and poetry. I don't want to make myself known here for one type of work that is not in line with other work, and I also don't want to mess the bed by accidentally saying something here that is incendiary which paints me in a certain light to potential publishers. I want the work that write here to reflect the kind of writing that I do elsewhere, and as such am not wanting to go into a lot of my own views directly.
There is also the issue of my considering whether some of the things I might choose to discuss here would actually function better in other mediums. It is one thing for me to work ideas out on the page, which I often do, but once that work is done, it is another to merely take that work and present it directly. Often, I have found ideas that I worked out in a journal or other personal writing, having set it aside, continues to percolate, and manifests in a different expression. By releasing the ideas directly, am I robbing myself of the fuel for those potential works, and are those works potentially more impacting and meaningful? That is not to imply that I will not explore ideas of that sort here, rather it is that I must first understand what my work here is about. While discussing ideas that are relevant to current events is likely to be helpful and successful strategy, and one used in authentic and powerful ways by others, I think it is not my path.
Also, as I mentioned in the case of the personal narrative, while a topical blog is temporally located, it does not always have a forward momentum, a sense of narrative or, at least, progress. To that end, I have come up with a project that I can engage in here, and which will also connect with my life and goals as a writer generally. Towards that end, I am going to begin to use this space, starting with my next entry, to do writing exercises and work my way through a particular writing book.
The particular book is one that I purchased fairly recently and which I have been wanting to work through, but I am not very good at committing to things on a personal level, which is partly why this blog exists. It, in a utilitarian fashion, is intended to give me a daily task for writing, so, I thought, why not align that task with my work as a writer? How, then, to do that while still working in the blog form? I don't want to publish drafts, or even stories that I am hoping to submit to journals, but I do want to explore my writing. It seems a perfect match to me.
To add to this, I am going to begin with a book that I am truly excited about, by an author I deeply admire and respect, who wrote works that influenced me in my youth and continue to enthrall me now on even deeper levels, and who was one of many individuals whose voices I am personally saddened to have lost in the recent past. That author is Ursula K. Le Guin, and if it is not a name you know, it is my honor to share it with you in hopes that you explore her works to find why I am so excited by working from her book, Steering The Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing The Sea of Story.
It is, for me, an exciting prospect, as I believe that the even just the act of working daily with the intent of improving my writing will lead to great things, and the promise of learning from a master such as Le Guin is great. And, while the choice here is one that is largely practical, it is my hope that the improvements in my writing, the learning that can be seen through the progress of the book, will itself become a part of what structures this blog. That is to say, that I think my own progress forwards, ironically, may be the focus, despite the choice to not make this a personal blog. It is, of course, a personal medium....
So, starting tomorrow, I will begin with the first chapter of Steering The Craft. From reading the introduction and looking at some of the chapters, I believe each chapter is built around an exercise, and includes some follow-up questions. My intention is to start by describing the exercise, then doing it, then looking through the follow-up questions and activities. I may not do all of those, as it seems that some entail rewriting, which, if I choose to engage in, will occur elsewhere, though I will make certain that I let readers know if it produces future work and where that can be found. In addition, I want to try to write a bit after about my thoughts doing the exercise, hopefully discussing more than what I learnt from it, or how it felt about it as an exercise and the results. So that will be a daily practice that I can do here.
I do think that I will likely want to do other writing here as well, though I can't predict what or how often. In the least, the daily entries will keep me going here, but I do think that forward progress will also lead to me wanting to, at least on occasion, include some random entry. I am hopeful that the whole thing will take shape before I am through this first project, but, if worse comes to worse, I have a whole lot of books for writers, a few of which are even by people as significant as Le Guin. If worse comes to worse, the idea of a project blog is not terrible, and their are some fantastic examples, but I think that I will find some other way to use this space; indeed, the very resistance I am feeling towards that notion is suggestive to me that my unconscious has a plan already in motion, which will become apparent when the time is right. And in the meantime, I have work to do that I think can be important for me and worth putting out in this format.
I like it! I look forward to seeing more about this book and the exercises!
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