I usually write these blog posts in small stages; a sentence here, a paragraph there, a bit of editing, a bit of cutting, and finally a quick read-through and posting. I generally spend no more than sixty to ninety total minutes on these, which explains their brevity and lack of deep reflection.
The source of my posts' subjects vary. Sometimes it is an idea introduced at a panel discussion, a chance remark overheard at a writers' meeting, or the result of fighting with whatever demon happens to be hectoring me at the time. I hardly ever lack for an interesting - to me, at any rate - subject.
Until recently I imagined these little blogs as things apart from my writing, an experiment in writing journalistic non-fiction and, at the same time, paying forward by providing others with some of the hard-won lessons I'd learned over the years. At times I egotisticly entertain hopes that I've helped some novice writer become a little wiser and, more importantly, a little more comfortable with their writer's curse.
All of which brings me to my point (I do ramble a bit, don't I?) I recently wrote, in all innocence, a piece about feeling like an impostor only to realize later that it was the key that unlocked the heart of the story I was struggling with. Had the blog, I wondered, been my subconscious telling me the solution that my writer's brain couldn't see? Was I aware that I was actually working out the issues something I believed was quite apart from the story? Perhaps it was, so I began reviewing my previous blogs correlating these to the dates of when the stories had been completed. I didn't find an an absolute correlation, but there were enough instances of subject similarity to convince me that I have been talking my way through many of my story issues as I write each week.
Coincidentally, this week I just happen to be working on a story about reflections and self-discovery.
The source of my posts' subjects vary. Sometimes it is an idea introduced at a panel discussion, a chance remark overheard at a writers' meeting, or the result of fighting with whatever demon happens to be hectoring me at the time. I hardly ever lack for an interesting - to me, at any rate - subject.
Until recently I imagined these little blogs as things apart from my writing, an experiment in writing journalistic non-fiction and, at the same time, paying forward by providing others with some of the hard-won lessons I'd learned over the years. At times I egotisticly entertain hopes that I've helped some novice writer become a little wiser and, more importantly, a little more comfortable with their writer's curse.
All of which brings me to my point (I do ramble a bit, don't I?) I recently wrote, in all innocence, a piece about feeling like an impostor only to realize later that it was the key that unlocked the heart of the story I was struggling with. Had the blog, I wondered, been my subconscious telling me the solution that my writer's brain couldn't see? Was I aware that I was actually working out the issues something I believed was quite apart from the story? Perhaps it was, so I began reviewing my previous blogs correlating these to the dates of when the stories had been completed. I didn't find an an absolute correlation, but there were enough instances of subject similarity to convince me that I have been talking my way through many of my story issues as I write each week.
Coincidentally, this week I just happen to be working on a story about reflections and self-discovery.
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