I started this as a return comment to yesterday's post and it got a little lengthy, so in my head it made sense to go for the extra credit points of a post. Simmer down - the points are self awarded!
You'll please pardon my broader rather than individual response to yesterday's post. I did want to thank you for coming by for visits, reading and even liking my writing. I must say it is encouraging. Really, I thank all who took the time to comment, I so appreciate the various viewpoints and feelings that my posts provoke.
I think Minka got at the crux of where I was going though, this is a creative discipline that may just be necessary. Self imposed,not borne of external expectations. And I'd have to thank Pia for her advice as well because she's been down this path for some time; her advice makes sense and she knows, it seems, exactly the struggle I am alluding to. That of balance and writing for writing's sake. I'll point out that both Minka and Pia (like myself) are Cancerians. Hmmmm.
My every day requim is basically to force myself into creative mode. It is a discipline that I have heard recommended by the real professionals. But I don't need to publish every day, I can write on my own as well - as Pia pointed out. Do you get better at roller skating by doing it once a week? You're probably able to get up and get around on them, but you might also like to be able to skate backwards. As I write, I can pay attention to the important grammatical and technical side of sentence construction, the latter I may be just a tad sloppy at and the former, well my basics are good. Work is needed.
I enjoy the social aspect of blogging as well but as I: 1) work pretty much full time 2) have two children who would like some attention 3) have a husband - hey what about me says Scissors. I did this to start writing not necessarily reading. I realize that last comment sounds insulting, but pleae it is not intended as such. That's the problem - you're all so enjoyable, I need to be able to manage it better. That's where it gets tricky.
Hey, it's a procees. I'm learning. But I'm enjoying every step of the way.
Speaking of Steps Neva, when does our Tuesday meeting start?
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28 comments:
9am next Tuesday... you bring the bagels, i'll bring the lattes! or tacos. or veggie burgers. yogurt? that can be arranged...
discplined? color me impressed. but i think it's a very healthy idea to get into the practice of writing each and every day... especially if we ever hope to turn you out of that lovely office overlooking the LIE and into someone expressing herself in a more creative fashion on a regular basis. this is a good plan. and i support it!
and i think you are completely correct... it's one thing to write, and another to be a good blogger buddy and read each and every person you love and enjoy each and every day. it can't be done. not if you want to keep that job/your kids/those scissors. roll with the punctuations, NBFF. i'll read you as often as i can... and enjoy you always, because that's just what i do. but i know you're not here for me (and why the hell not? i mean, i'm here for you, dammit).
different key strokes for different folks... you need to do what makes you happy. if i am allowed to enjoy your efforts from afar (or anear) then all the better!! as long as i get to have my regular NBFF "fix" up close and personal, i'll always be a happyhappy camper! xoxo
Neva - You're simply the best. xox
I have just caught up and will say this... simply put (here in Simply Said)... do what works best for you... as an actual writing major back in the day, there were plenty of people with formulas and theories of what makes a writer and how and what you should do to be considered one etc, etc... and hey, most of it is easier said than done because, let's face it, we actually have lives to deal with and have no time to become these angst-ridden chain-smoking types who are glued to their computer suffering away in words...
Nope... motherhood, work, hubby, life in general calls and oh yeah, not becoming a social misfit is high on the list of priorities too! So what to do? Experiment and find what works best for you! I would LOVE to write more frequently but that would truly entail staying up into the wee hours of the morning and well, I cannot do that. So if I have my wits about me I will have my handy notebook in hand to take notes for whenever something pops into my head and then hope to make time to sit and work away at whatever is ready to pop out... sometimes it happens with more frequency and other times no... I think if we try to box it in we sometimes set ourselves up for failure... babysteps and a mere awareness of things around you, of taking mental notes does wonders...
Hey sistah, get yourself that notebook and start the process! The main thing is this... and it is what my yoga guru once told me but it applies elsewhere too I think... make sure you do not fill up your plate to much so that in the end you burn out and not cater to you like you had originally wanted to...
So should you do it everyday? Sex? WHY NOT? Writing? WHY NOT? Just make sure it is when you can and not as an obligation and then all shall be well...
Now, if I wasn't trying to be fair and understanding I would say GET TO IT cause I love reading you! But I am SO trying to behave!
DIOS MIO! What is the world coming to????
G, I've enjoyed your writing and if you write a new post once a month, then once a month, I'll enjoy your writing once a month.
Neva said it best, though I'll be envious of Neva, because it sounds like you'll be seeing your NBFF more often, and I may not see you visiting my place as much, or other blogs where your witty, thoughtful remarks are always enjoyable. You'll be missed.
MizB! Of course - a notebook - how perfect are you? I can just picture you madly scribbling around the streets of Spain! Must write down - use my notebook! Don't you know I have one in my bag. I'm a serial notebook buyer - and my daughter has inherited that from me. We love little perfect notebooks.
Brian - Keep me err, posted.
Pavel - Oh no dear Pavel, you don't get rid of me that easily, I'm just musing aloud about writing. I will get around to everyone's blog no matter what. And I'll continue writing here - hell, I'm just warming up. What my dear NBFF is alluding to is our lunches - which we meet for on occassion.
I wish more of my blogging buddies lived within lunching distance.
Besides, I would probably have to go on methadone to handle the blog withdrawal if I ever stopped reading. Oh you guys are stuck with me.
rofl!!!
phew... I was also thinking about lampy withdrawal symptoms...
Now that that's been cleared up... HURRAY!!!
I like the learning process too. :) I have no idea where I am going, I never have, and I somehow doubt I'll ever have the road map I think I need. I've always wanted to be a writer and who knows maybe I'll finish my novel this year - one never knows. I hope you find the writing that your looking for and the balance that you also are looking for. :)
Pavel - Don't worry, I'm sure there are good methadone clinics where you are.
cj: I wish the same for you.
Brian: Yeah sort of a weekly recap. Well you've got a new computer.
What a magnanimous group! Seeing that those roles are taken I shall "simply say" that you may do what you wish as long as you read my blog and have a new post of yours up and ready whenever I come a calling. No, no, even though that might be my true feeling I certainly can't require that of you or anyone else...afterall, you DO have a life outside of this community and I think we all must somehow accept that and move on. So, G...write when you might, read when you will and we shall be happy in the knowledge that at least we occupy a sliver of space in the life you call your own.
(Sorry...listening to long, dull, redundant, B.S. budget presentations causes me to act out)
G, I agree with Joel that you've received plenty of good advice yesterday (where the h**l was I?) and today. I can offer perspective but the advice preceding is better than any I have to offer.
On the daily thing, it helps me two ways, I think. On the first, writing definitions underneath Bierce's intimidated me at first. By doing it daily, I kind of forced myself to keep going or else Waking Ambrose would have probably ended in early March '05. The other way I think (emphasis on think) is that it helps keeping people around. The people who post daily, I read daily but the people who post intermittently I'm less likely to remember. I think this is a general dynamic because I've noticed that people who take long vacations (I haven't had one since starting Waking Ambrose) seem to come back to smaller audiences. Also, people who post more than once a day are hard to keep track of a lot of the time. The best of them are worth sticking with, but I think exactly one post per day is the easiest kind of blog for me to stay current with.
It helps me that my blog is very structured in terms of content. Saturdays I need some inspiration for but the rest of the week there's a guest or a ghost telling me what to write. This all may be very personal to my individual weirdnesses but if you want to start writing once per day you might want to set yourself some kind of structure for what you'll write when. I think Sar's blog is another good example of how formatting makes daily posting work.
The other side of that is that you may want to limit how much you intend to do. I have many panics over needing a story and a column for Saturday. In fact, I'm having one now so, with that, have a wonderful weekend. Doug out.
welll rock on witcha bad self, g!
good for you. its difficult training impulse to obey reason, isnt it? and absolutely invaluable to attempt. writing is 99% perspiration and thats the damned truth.
that having been said, i feel that if G-d had wanted me to worry about sentence structure he would not have created the
semicolon.
Damn! Somehwere a response went into the air!
Brian - I smell another blog...
Joel - fair enough. That was acting out. I can take it.
Brian - or was it stew?
Doug - I hope you don't think we take you for granted. I'll take that all under advisement.
FN - or my fave - the hypen! Now you go on witcha bad self!
I lean on my children for creative help. This has caused a shift in the blog as one has grown into adolescence, but change is good.
As far as visiting everyone, I can't, but I do try to return comments; that's good manners. Every now and then I will have time to do more.
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but I have found blog writing much easier than fiction writing proper, which requires a lot more formal considerations. It's like the difference between practicing Sevcik and playing a concerto.
g, of course not.
Weirsdo, so that what it's like.
Weirsdo - Don't think I'm not ready to press my children into service. I agree on the comments of course. Although I respect those bloggers who just write and if you'd like to comment go ahead. Having said that, I can't not respond. I imagine it to be very difficult to write fiction well. I haven't really tried (unless I count my cooked up fairy tales for bedtime). Really my impetus to start this was to have a creative outlet. I have no delusions of grandeur in terms of writing a work of fiction...well, not yet. Are you available for editing? Really, I jest. Joke joke joke. Violin instruction?
Doug: Take notes.
Hmmm, us Cancerians...there might be soemthing to the whole astrolgy thing after all :)
I think everybody writes for a reason. Sometimes unconciously so.
For me it was a project for university in my teahcer´s studies. We had to make a blog. For some reason I kept writing although I already had graduated. I found my voice in blogging, I found people who wan tot hea rmy voice and with reading other blogs I found perspective. That is a whole lot of important stuff to get :)
I'm beginning to see some themes emerging on the astrology thing. Did you get an A?
You know it is amazing the people that one gets to meet and interact with through blogging. It is quite a movement underfoot.
I agree that everybody writes for a reason. Mine was mainly for creative outlet and finding my voice as well. Then it just took on a life of its own.
Hey G xo
Some days, I have absolutely nothing to say and I fret a wee bit because I'd been writing like a possessed person in the days preceding. Will this send my blog into a spin, am I bucking a trend, will I be deemed lazy, uninspired, uncaring of my tiny audience of readers???
Than I have a coffee.
Sometime, a vodka-anything.
Maybe watch TV. Come back to puter, yawn a few times, click on "New Post", stare blankly, will the few ideas I had while watching trash TV to come back to me, yawn some more. Nadda. Wave at my puter, go to bed.
Some days, I can sit and write 2 or 3 posts and I have to contain myself. I repeat above process but minus staring blankly.
I've been mulling the same as you have the last 10 days or so. Why do I write? What do I write? How much is me and how much for others? Do I have anything real at all to say? Am I becoming self absorbed? Can I read, just enjoy and not comment? Can I be really moved or tickled and say just that without saying why?
I have no clever conclusions :-) Surprise surprise!! Lol. Except that I'm supposed to enjoy it. And on days I don't, it's ok to watch TV and snack on 7 mini Snickers.
That said, I finally got it. That discipline. I write everyday now even if I don't post it.
Even if a lot, A LOT, of chocolate and coffee and vodka and pate and cheese and pastrami and chips went into the process.
May your blogging stay calorie free.
GG xo
(Yea, this is a lovely s-h-o-r-t comment)
I guess it was the word "discipline" that brought out that comment. I once heard a published writer talk about how she had to discipline herself NOT to write letters, but to work on her "real" writing. Blogging is a bit like the letters for me: more of a vice than a discipline.
GG: Hi - thanks for your input on this. I might take some of those ideas - and maybe just 3 mini snickers. Hey, you can always come by - say hi GG was here, and that will be fine with me. xox
Weirsdo: I recall your comment in one of my posts, something to the effect of "wondering whether blogging was a good idea for recovering procrastinators". Perhaps not as it turns out. But after all, I have so few vices...I think.
Brian: Is that you under the hat! Well the wonders of new computers! Whatever you or *Dewy* does, do it because you want to. Don't want to overload the circuits I say.
Weirsdo, that makes perfect sense. My ambition as a writer is to have a blog and about 20 good people reading it, but if I had a book in mind, this would all have to stop.
Doug - don't go all book on us now. Although I would gladly line up to buy it.
Not to fear. I can barely write a blog.
It does seem to require a cetain amount of time. You may have to retire early :) From you day job - not your blog.
when i first started writing the blog, i did so as a way of restoring my creative voice. or some reasonable semblance of it.
and i wrote and posted something every single day. i still have a number of posts i've been working on, but somehow or other, i've been too distracted to actually finish and/or publish them.
my problem is that i love reading others, and because of the kind of person i am, i can't just scan the page, i have to read it and think about it and think about my comment and labor over a comment and rewrite a comment... can you say OCD? that's how it's manifested itself. you can imagine what this was like for me when i was working. razzum frazzum deadlines... i was a wreck!
of course, i realize i've allowed my naturally distracted self to completely stray off my original blogging track. not to sound like a procrastinator, but once the summer is over, i *am* going to get back to more serious writing. or blogging. maybe both. i need the creative outlet, but i need to direct it towards something more tangible if i hope to sustain my creative edge. silliness is one thing, but disciplined silliness is quite another. i'm actually intrigued with some of the suggestions you've received, and may steal them, not unlike some of your funny lines (which i often pull out from under you, like that cheap persian rug).
speaking of silliness, this is starting to sound like it! where you are concerned, i'll restate what i said earlier... you have an amazing voice, and i think you're only just now realizing that you can do more with it than crack a joke or two to a comatose assistant who may--or may not--detect notes of irony. i am all about the concept of Reinvention... and i think you are on the verge of reinventing yourself in a very big, very wonderful way. i'm just glad i'm here to see it all happen. if i can sit down with you over a latte, all the better! xoxo
Neva, you're such a great supportive friend. I can only offer that right back atcha! I hope you do get back to writing because I enjoy reading your posts and remember your first post that I read - The Barn Tour. Let's face it whatever our reason or motivation for writing a blog, it takes discipline in some form. I like to write posts like this because it helps me brainstorm.
So when you get back to it after summer hiatus, there are plenty of good ideas to pillage. Oh and on the assistant in a coma - she probably wouldn't be able to detect irony with a venn diagram dissecting it.
It's nice to have friends pulling for you. xox
Hi g, I love your writing. I'll still love your writing, no matter the frequency. I enjoyed reading the post and comments yesterday and today. You have a very interesting, supportive and insightful readership.
Also, I'd like to award you a feather for your lampshade for getting Doug to make the longest comment I've ever seen from him that's not related to a political or social issue. You're a hell of a lamp...lady.
xoxo
Kyah: What this isn't political :) I know that it's social. Thank you for your words of encouragement and may I say that I am quite happy to see your pointy ears back in the comments section. Something comforting about that.
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