Writer's block, an owner's guide: Blogging as performance art

I just wrote this for an upcoming book. Not for Writer’s Block: An Owner’s Guide. For an academic book. I’m telling you that as an apology for the style being rather stuffy. Hey, it’s a first draft, and I know you understand about those.

Anyway, I’m seeking your thoughts on the content.

Yes,you.

No, you.

You still think I’m talking to all the others, don’t you. If you think that, then you’re the one I mean.

“A recently developed form of publication is the blog (originally web log). The blog is simply a web page whose owner chooses to publish regular or occasional musings. It may be created using traditional web editing methods, but writers typically employ the readily-available purpose-designed software. In this way anyone with access to the internet can make a diary available to the public with no outlay whatever by author or reader.

“Over the past three years while researching writer’s block I have used a blog as a way of recording and developing my own thoughts on that subject. In my personal experience the blog offers several advantages over traditional writing.

“It is a performance art: it is neither writing not printing. Typically the audience is small if not entirely imaginary, but that can change in an instant: one casual mention by a more popular blogger can introduce hundreds of readers.

“Two differences from traditional performance art are that new readers can explore the blogger’s previous performances, and that she has the power to revise and improve them. (One thinks of the freedom Shakespeare had to improve his published work edition by edition, a freedom that writers today do not claim. Their changed expectation may have been caused by the technological shift from hand-set letterpress to lithography, but in the digital age re-setting has become easy again. What keeps the expectation alive is the general assumption that a novel, once released to readers, is no longer something the author is working on. No wonder writers hesitate to commit their thoughts to paper.)

The blogger may type freely for his public, knowing that he can correct inaccuracies and infelicities at any future time. The perception of an audience of regular readers, however hypothetical, lends a useful urgency. At the same time, most bloggers seem to feel they have permission to take breaks or write off their usual topics: there is a sense of control of one’s work.

“Popular blogs attract many comments from readers. This immediate feedback is published and can become a discussion with and among the readers: but the blog is not regarded as a collaborative work.

“The typical blog, then, stands somewhere between a scratchpad and a published work, and is in fact both. It benefits the writer in various ways including that it reduces the risk of loneliness, it invites regular work and it tolerates short and other unconventional postings. But above all, perhaps, it gives one the certainty of being both an active and a published writer. Should that certainty ever begin to fade it can be recovered in five easy minutes.

“The success of blogging gives support to the theory that printing intimidates us by crystallizing our imperfect writings. It also supports my theory that writer’s block is cognitive dissonance. It is also consistent with the notion that writers are paralyzed by the excellence of their predecessors, for bloggers have the unusual privilege of rewriting their published work. Finally it is not inconsistent with the concept of block as a fashion or self-fulfilling prediction among novelists and poets, for the blogger is neither of those. And so blogging is of no feckin use at all for our purpose and I just wrote 536 words that I can’t use.”

That last paragraph may not appear in the book in exactly the same words. Of course I can use ‘em. I’m a recovering lawyer and I’m a solution-focused therapist. I can justify anything.

Response to this article (1 response)

Published on October 9, 2006 at 12:38 pm. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/blogging-as-performance-art.html

1 Comment

I found your comments on blogging quite interesting. I think you’re very close to identifying one cause (or cure) for writer’s block, there. I do some of my best writing online, where I can get the immediate gratification of reader feedback. And yes – attention. Many years ago, I realized I was something of a “performance writer.” I’m not one of those writers who can honestly claim “I write only for myself.” That’s what diaries are for, in my opinion. I write for myself and for readers. Take the readers and their feedback out of the equation, and writing’s just no fun anymore.

But blogging’s interesting. As you noted, it’s not “fixed in stone.” It’s fluid and changeable. I used to feel guilty doing extensive revisions, back in the days before word processing – guilty for killing trees, marring that perfect sheet of paper with less-than-perfect words, etc. I’d carefully think out what I wanted to say, write it down, and that was that. The good thing about that was that it imposed a certain amount of discipline, to think before committing words to paper. The bad thing was, it didn’t allow room for the ideas to evolve and change over time. Then, too, it’s possible to overthink things, to where the final result is well-written, but not half as fresh or fun to read.

Blogging’s interesting in another way, though, too. I have yet to find my “voice” on Blogger, because I have this perception of there being millions of random people around the world reading it. Even though I can edit to my heart’s content, they’ll know – they’ll see the imperfect draft I was so eager to post and share with them. Will they like it? Hate it? Or worse, be bored to tears? (I can take constructive criticism, but I don’t like being responsible for drive-by yawnings.) By contrast, on Writing.com, my online journal is accessible only to “50,000 of my closest friends.” Now, realistically, only about 50 people read my journal on Writing.com, and maybe about 10 out of those random millions have ever stumbled onto my Blogger site. I know the numbers, because I have a counter installed there. Interestingly, the counter – the knowledge that my audience is somewhat more limited – makes it easier to write to them. Most do comment, so I feel I’m writing to friends – or at least to a friendly, receptive audience. It’s not at all important that they agree with me or love what I have to say, but it is important to me to know they’re reading, and to read what they’re thinking about what they’re reading. It’s the ones who don’t comment – at all – that leave me feeling unable to write. I don’t know what they want. I don’t care if the comments are negative – I really don’t. The only negative comment that ever gave me something approaching “writer’s block” was along the lines of “Oh my God, this is the most boring thing I’ve ever read. If I pay you, will you stop, please?” I’m ashamed to say that actually worked for about a week – until the check from dear old “Anonymous” bounced, and I felt free to post again.

Comment by hollyjahangiri — October 24, 2006 @ 10:33 am

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