I've been making a concerted attempt to blog more regularly of late. For a number of reasons. Which, if I think about it, are probably interconnected.
For one thing, I'm trying to write more. And write faster. I'm a pretty slow writer. It dates back to the difficult relationship I developed with writing when doing my PhD thesis. Academic writing is very different to regular writing. It's very structured, you're using other people's ideas to contextualise, discuss and explore your own concepts, and it's a formal space for expressing yourself. It doesn't really allow a space for including yourself in your words - or at least, I couldn't figure out how to get there. Instead, I got into the habit of writing in a passive voice. It was an easy way to keep myself removed from the topic, which also had the bonus of being an easy way to boost my word count. Fiction and creative non-fiction became the antithesis (pun accidental but celebrated!) and provided a welcome space for writing freely, in comparatively unstructured formats. Where I could write without second-guessing if I'd understood Prof So-and-So's argument correctly and had transposed concepts accurately enough into my own words. Where I could drop in an 'I' or 16 in a single paragraph. And where I could start my sentences with 'and', and 'where' if I wanted to.
Oddly enough though, my slow relationship to writing - even in the non-academic writing - has lingered. My fault entirely of course. I have developed bad habits of over-scrutinising my words as I write, of second-guessing, of ree-reading, and editing as I go. They all contribute to making me slow. I haven't figured out how to get around this yet. Except for practising not doing this. Write faster, give myself permission to not ree-read and edit, cringe later and edit later, and write to get to a point where the words get used to flowing more. Practise, practise, practise.
I've read most people can average 1000 words an hour for fiction. And more for non-fiction. Let's just say - those are benchmarks I need to work my way up to!
Blogging, in diary formats, is one way to practise writing faster. It's freed from most structures. It doesn't have to be sequential or flow coherently from beginning to end. It lets me read and review and, if I need to, to make changes after posting. It reminds me to focus on the little things and everyday delights - all the moments that slip by, through our fingers, to be quickly lost to the ebb and flows of daily living. This is important to me also for trying to capture family moments with my LittleOne. If ever there was a situation where the moments, once gone, are gone forever, it's in seeing your toddler grow up before your very eyes.
I'm also trying to blog more, because, for whatever reason, I seem to have lost my capacity for micro-fics and words in general on Twitter and Instagram (my main social media platforms). Writing microfiction on Twitter used to be my main creative channel and delight. But now, with the original Friday Phrases microfic community (the main writing prompt game I played and enjoyed) widely dispersed to the winds of real life, I'm also feeling (rightly or wrongly) that the many other microfic and prompt game communities have dynamics and engagement factors which are beyond my ken. And I lack the time and energy to plough and immerse and play and to establish myself in other games and communities. Lazy? Maybe. Time-poor? Yep. Oddly enough, although a more long-form medium, blogging feels like a writing alternative to the social media platforms. I can write and incrementally build up posts in the small windows of time I get, and I get the satisfaction of sending them off into the world sooner than any other kind of writing. Also, if I'm honest, I don't feel bereft at a lack of perceived engagement (or feel that my words are of lesser value because of small engagement) that I would with social media.
I also hope blogging will, at some point, help me crystallise what exactly it is I want out of writing and how it might work. But that's a work in progress for another time.
Du fond du coeur x
Haha! "antithesis"...I can relate. I moved to creative nonfiction from school, too. Then fiction. But am still a slow writer, as well, due to my infuriating "edit-as-I-go" tendency. I get that one. It's difficult to overcome. I also relate to the social media micros. Wow. That used to be a weekly, sometimes daily, outlet for me and I don't know the last time I wrote one. As for my blog... Well, most tell me I don't blog often enough. They're probably right. But I don't need the stress. I've cut way down and blog once a month now. It is a fantastic outlet, like you say, to write and express yourself and not get too caught up in what is said and how it's said. Keep writing, my friend. You'll get to where you want to be. (And, I'm sorry to be rude, but get out of your own way. Your writing is excellent so kick self-doubt's ass into the nearest tree.) :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words Sarah! They mean the world :-) Glad to know I'm not the only edit-as-I-go writer out there - although your editing filter is infinitely more sharply focussed than mine ;-D ..I will keep going with attempts at the more regular blogging and hopefully the regular practice will help me pick up speed. I do love your witty, pithy blogposts and I've thought more than once about borrowing your "200 words or less" approach to see how I would fare - it's at the top of my Cool Blogging Ideas to Try list!
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