As we're just wrapping up awards season with the Oscars, and it always seems that there's some movie (or TV series) that scores big in peeling back the layer of the entertainment industry and giving an insider's view to the masses, I thought I'd take the opportunity to write about the act of writing.
Of all my hobbies, writing in one fashion or another, is probably the one I've practiced the most. When I was younger I wrote a few stories, but abandoned the practice due to a lack of self-confidence and the realization that I was going to have write some real crap and subject myself to honest criticism if I wanted to grow in that area.
Instead, I've channeled a lot of my writing desires into other areas of my life - emails, status reports, documentation, and - off and on - blogging.
Blogging, or consistently creating anything on a fixed schedule, has proven to be difficult. Some days, the words flow easily, even when I think the topic is sparse. My series of posts on beginning guitar is a great example. I thought it was going to be one post with some general musings, and I realized that could actually be a series of about 10 posts (which I haven't completed, but that's a different discussion).
Other days, I feel like I've got a really meaty topic, like the discoveries I made while starting my recipe site, and realize I'm struggling to compose my thoughts.
Still, other days, I have no topics nor any words to describe my non-topics and am left simply staring at a blank screen trying to come up with something.
But that's why I precisely like having a deadline of 1 blog post per week. It forces me to write. I know professional writers are much more intense. I've read they often write 1,000 or 3,000 or some other arbitrarily high number of words per day, even if it's complete nonsense, in order to stave off writer's block. This is my own version of that. Of course I'm doing it on a 'public' stage. My navel gazing is out there for everyone to see if they stop by, but it's a blog, so quality is expected to be a range anyway.
However, the fact that this is a blog leads to some interesting dilemmas. If I never told anyone about this blog, chances of anyone finding it and reading it are low, even if it's public facing. In that case, this is essentially just a diary. I could write about all of my potential doubts, shortcomings, hopes, dreams, and character flaws and no one would really be none the wiser. Of course, if someone does stumble across it, then my vulnerabilities are immediately on display and open for comment.
Luckily, all commentary on the internet is thoughtful and sensitive, so I don't need to worry about some troll excoriating me for indicating that I have liberal leanings or bashing me as a know-it-all libtard for using the word 'excoriating.'
But all internet sensitivity aside, that's actually one of the beauties of the medium. I've read articles indicating that we're becoming a lot more desensitized to others' points of view because we now have a gigantic universe where we can be anonymous assholes. From my vantage point, I think people have always been this type of asshole - genocide isn't a new phenomenon, and many people are complete jerks when they're alone in their cars because they're provided with a pseudo-anonymity. The internet has just unmasked these tendencies in us.
And, as stressful as it can be, it also provides a certain liberation - any random passerby can scribble "UR Blog Sux" in the comments section here, and regardless of how flawless my writing or my logic will continue to double down on offending me. Because I know there's somebody out there willing to hate me simply because I exist, and I can do nothing to change their mind, I also have the freedom to write random, rambling posts and not have to worry about what the internet is going to think of me.
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