Sunday, April 01, 2007

Writing to Write

Blogging has scratched an itch I had forgotten I had.

Guys don’t keep diaries. Although one of the most famous diaries in literature is a very old one kept by a man long ago, Samuel Pepys, today, guys might keep a journal, or even more technical or scientific, a log, but generally, there will be no post to dear diary or anything that would jeopardize our manliness.

I’ve seen all manner of recommendations that it is therapeutic, but I could never keep it up for long. The closes I came to keeping a journal was based mostly on what our son got for Christmas, because I can remember getting things but I can’t remember which year it happened, and I wanted him to know what I sometimes wonder about my own youth. One day he will find it in the records I leave behind.

I found a letter my mother’s father left his children in her records after she died. He died before I was old enough to know him and this letter he left his children is one of the best insights to who he was. I have read it several times.

When I was young and in high school, a girl talked me into joining the Dramatics Club. The sponsor said we needed money and we should do something such as put on a skit and that I should write it. Until that moment, I had never thought about being a writer. I was going to be a scientist, an inventor.

I wrote the skit. I plagiarized the Addams’ family. The short skit had a duel plot the climaxes of which came together at the end, and the whole experience surprised even me. I went from wanting to be a scientist to wanting to be a writer. I loved reading and wanted to do to others what I felt when I read something that especially touched me for one reason or another.

And so, I majored in journalism because that sounded like writing. God punishes us by answering our prayers. I should of asked to be a storyteller. I can write but I don’t have anything to write about.

I wrote a short story once a long time ago called “Futuring by JetAge”. Only two characters are in the story, Scout29c and the Bearer. That one character has a name and the other was only a work related reference was part of the story. I sent it around and got all kinds of rejection slips. I plan to publish it here on the net, and that is why I’m posting this here post.

To a journalist, publishing is everything and though this little blog might not be much: it’s the publishing that makes all the difference. I seem to be able to post week after week. Sometimes I even feel the pressure to meet a weekend deadline – since it appears I’m a weekend blogger.

Part of the problem is that the place I work has a policy against blogging. So I’m not suppose to blog – and I don’t most of the time. Usually I’m to busy to either blog or read blogs. I write reports and I can read reports on the web, but I’m not suppose to blog – that is the policy. I’m not sure what they would do if it came to a head and I was reading a technical blog. Probably say that any blogging is wrong since that is against policy. But they are wrong. DEAD WRONG!

Blogging or some form of daily posting is to a writer what practice is to a musician or daily running to a marathon runner. What they are asking me to do is run a marathon ever so often but I’m not allowed to go run except on the day of the marathon. What kind of marathon would that be?

People who want to be writers and are waiting for inspiration to strike before they begin writing are wasting their time. When or if a great idea were to come to them, the difficulty in turning it into words would get in the way of the endeavor.

My writing of analytical reports has greatly improved because of my weekend blogging. The words come easier. And after I realized this effect, I did it even more.

I’m writing to write.

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