Once again, I read Buck Daruma’s journal, and he makes me see myself…. Not email, not blog entries, not stuff that has to be good or that has to be for publishing.Just write.
Once again, I read Buck Daruma’s journal, and he makes me see myself.
So here’s a promise I make myself — every day, starting today, I will write. Not email, not blog entries, not stuff that has to be good or that has to be for publishing.
Just write. Just fucking write.
I need to do it. I’ve stopped writing completely. The last thing I finished was my Bad Santa story, and before that, almost nothing for months. I stop when I don’t have ideas that are good enough, when I don’t feel completely inspired.
I keep waiting for a bolt of of the blue, and it’s not coming. I just need to get down and get my hands dirty.
So. Every day. Even if it’s thrown away. Even if it’s only a paragraph. Even if it’s crap and I hate it.
I must do it. I must.
yeah, isn’t he a clever one?
Me too, but blogging has helped me to at least type something. It’s a baby step to writing something more literary.
Don’t reply and get writing, dammit!
D
PS Thanks for the link, Karl!!!
D
I used to think blogging helped me write. And maybe it used to. Now, it helps me avoid writing.
Blogging definately let me hear my voice and reassure myself I was saying something in a manner that while titilating… wasn’t shocking. A tightrope of sex ed and seductive story.
Several magazine articles later and 1/2 a book… lets not talk about how I haven’t worked on it since October… I think it’s a place to work out ideas.
That said- you can definately post a paragraph and see the reaction. I used a blog to see if a quiz would engage people more than trivia for the last seminar I gave- trivia won out. I got 16 responses from a small readership of 23. The quiz got zip. It was a really small effective experiment.
Thanks for the link.
You know, if you just write one or two lines a day, of anything – a thought, a sight in the park, a person you saw wearing a ghastly outfit – and throw none away, at the end a month you’d have a treasure box, but at the end of a year you’d have a gold mine of images and random words to draw from.
And one line will naturally follow another.
You have to. Even if I have to stay up until 2 am, I force myself to write every day. It’s like this little deal I’ve made with my muse. In exchange, she’s usually in residence.
I love my blog, but sometimes I let it be my excuse not to write (and then I get rushed on deadlines which makes everyone stressed and unhappy). So I try to let my blog be something that I do in addition to my writing and if I get something good from it, that’s just icing.
I write everyday, crap or not. It helps me clear my head, and probably helps me not have to visit my therapist quite so often 😉