jamesq | Writing Lots About How I Don't Write Lots

I haven't been writing much lately, and the writing I have done hasn't been that good. Some of it falls into the "I had toast, it was crunchy" category. There's nothing wrong with that if you can make it sound amusing (which I can), I just want to do something more.

So I write about politics. I've started and given up writing about Terri Schiavo a couple of times for example. My thoughts are contradictory and poorly organized, which leads to contradictory, poorly organized posts. I'll give you the short version instead: She died 15 years ago and her body was finally allowed to catch up yesterday. I hope that her relatives can move on in their lives and gain some level of closure. I doubt it though - I predict a "wrongful death" suit is coming.

I wrote a sort of meta-post about other people's writings (namely grog and

evilscientist). Both wrote responses defending their actions. Guys, I wasn't trying to suggest that you were wrong, only that there is more than one way to approach these topics. For the record I enjoy both of your styles and I usually get something out of everything you write. You don't need to defend yourselves from me. That you are (defending yourselves) tells me that I wasn't as clear in my writing as I had intended. This is what I get for posting past my bedtime.

I guess I should be glad I don't drink, imagine what a dog's bollocks I would have made of things if I had.

I feel a need to write something and I tend to go through phases where it's like turning on a tap. The words come effortlessly from my mind to the screen and only my typing speed holds me back. Topics range far and wide, from reviews and daily updates, to humorous tales of my past and political or scientific primers.

Currently I'm not in one of those grooves. Writing is difficult, the words come hard and I agonize over every sentence, unsure if that is what I mean to say. I force myself to post when I probably shouldn't and my reputation as a decent writer must suffer for it. Thank god for online quizzes, they give me something to post when I'm like this.

My current writing nadir annoys me because I feel like I have an audience now. When I first started, I could write for weeks without getting any sort of feedback. In the last few months I seem to have passed some kind of threshold and now it's rare when I don't get comments. This holds true even when I'm writing fairly inane stuff. I think this is the penny in the beggar bowl phenomenon - nobody wants to be the first to post a comment, but once somebody has made that leap, others will happily join in. I know several people who got Live Journals primarily to comment on my posts. I like being popular, I want it to continue. I even have a few secret readers. I'm curious as to who they are, whether they know (or knew) me, or if they came across me randomly or from a friend's page as I have done for so many others. I'm not so curious as to scare them off with demands for their identity, mostly because I've been known to anonymously read a few pages myself.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I didn't take any offense at all, Quixote. Actually, your comment were rather thought provoking - and made me think it was time to perhaps write a bit that framed my own thinking and where I'm coming from for a few regular readers of my little blog that don't know me personally.

I think most people have their "hot buttons" - those topics and areas of interest that inspire thought. I hadn't really given it a lot of thought previously. I tend to write at random about a topic and see where the muse of thought leads me - that it's coherent at all is somewhat surprising at times.

Oddly, one of the original reasons for me starting my 'blog was to record some of the more interesting conversations my brother and I were having, as well as a venue to put things for my parents to read. (My Dad's having a lot of trouble with hearing these days, and misses much of our Sunday AM conversations *sigh*)

- Grog
http://www.crystalgaze2.blogspot.com/

Not all writing needs a response in your favor. Not all writing needs a response.

I used to write very frequently on a certain computer manufacturers forum to help others with one program. I became rather proficient at the program and in turn was invited to a secret area 'behind the curtains' wherre the other members of the invited elite could go and write about certain topics and even some of the people in the public areas.

It was an area to ven in, and I vented.

And, of course, there were assholes there. I spent most of one year writing against one particular person. I felt he deserved it, and many others would support me, albeit in emails out of the publiic limelight. I have since stopped visiting that forum because I decided my time was far better used elsewhere. I remember polishing one particular response to a one-sided and rude statement for hours, tweaking it until it rang with the clarity of a finely cast bell.

It took him less than one minute to write a response which boiled down to "Bile, no matter how well written, is still bile". A comment which caused more than one person to break their silence.

Write what you want and people will read it. If it strikes a chord you will get responses, good or bad. I commend you for not using your popularity for just debasing others viewpoints for the sheer hell of it. There is enough of that already on the net, aAnd I no longer visit (witheld)'s blog for just that reason.

I don't have time to visit or revisit every pointless blog. There is far too much good stuff on the net, but it is hidden, and people tend to revisit those spots where they last found it. I have gotten rather picky about where I spend my time reading, and I am sure others have as well.

Writing Lots About How I Don't Write Lots

No offense taken...

Write it and they will come...