Newsletter 7: February 18, 2008
Approx 750 words - I’ll be brief, but feel free to read quickly anyway.
Publication without crystallization
To balance the shortness of the last letter (whether you thought it was a good thing or another kind of thing, it still should be balanced) today I’ll choose one of the longer subjects from my to-write list. The subject is blogging.
Now, some people turn away from that word, the way others might turn away from Woody Allen or from eating animals. Let’s be clear. Blogging doesn’t mean being a political activist, or being in hiding under some oppressive regime or other. Blogging doesn’t mean being self-revealing in any way, least of all your loneliness, your narcissism or your romantic incompetence. In fact, if you look around the several million (really) blogs that have been started, you might think it's about being inspired for a night or two and then forgetting about the whole thing.
Blogging – as I’m using the word here – is simply a particular way of designing a web site. Specifically? It is a website whose content is not static, but whose author makes frequent additions. Items are usually presented with the most recent at the top, so that regular readers can catch up easily. That’s all it is.
People write about all sorts of things. Random examples from my own bookmarks file are nakedblog.com, the journal of a 61-year-old gay man in central Scotland, petiteanglaise.com, the journal of an English single mother in Paris (less of a favorite these days since she moved from being unfairly fired to being famous and comfortably off) and Smaller than Life, the comic and other ravings of a television writer.
I’ve been writing the Today I Write blog since 2004. I don’t work on it daily, but I do work on it. What it gives me is impermanence. If I don’t like what I’ve typed, I can go in and retype it. And again and again and again. What’s more, I do. In my experience, it’s only after you put your manuscript in the mailbox, it’s only after you send the angry memo, it’s only after you publish anything that you realize how it could have been made perfect. When you blog, you get to go back in and do that. It’s like having a time machine! It is publication without crystallization.
Writing is sometimes slowed by the fear - conscious or otherwise - of what people will think of the finished product. That fear can even prevent writers from ever finishing. So my suggestion to you is: publish your work but never finish it. Put it in a public place where you’re allowed to keep on editing and adding. And deleting.
And don’t be fooled by that word "publish." You’ll be very lucky if anyone but you ever reads your words. So they’re not likely to look foolish to anyone - if only they would! But the knowledge that someone might stumble across them gives you accountability, and that helps you keep working from day to day.
A reader: David, I don’t know how to create one of these things and I certainly will not do computer programming.
Me: That's fine. Instead of worrying about any of that, look at blogger.com. Other similar services exist. You will receive the facility I’m talking about, without cost or delay. If it helps you to write, it’s thirty minutes well spent. But spend zero time today on layouts and color schemes.
Well, that’s enough words for one week, and even so I’ve dealt with the subject very hurriedly. You may want to know more. So I will answer questions about this week’s topic, privately or here. Please ask some – I’m looking forward to it.
Something you can try today: (1) spend thirty minutes registering to be a blog owner in the way I just described. Then (2) when you do today’s writing, put it there – you can either compose it there, or compose it the usual way and copy it into your web page, it doesn’t matter - and (3) email me with questions, problems and comments.
David
David Jung McGarva
+1 (818) 707 1871
Write me: david at todayiwrite dot com
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