To begin, I'd like to state for the record that I plan on updating this blog daily, starting today. You can hold me to it if you like.
An explanation might be required. In college last semester, I was keeping a writing journal. The purpose behind the journal is to "mind-dump" all the loose, random thoughts at the beginning of the day...one to three pages or so of it, so that when a writer's mind actually gets down to writing, there's less distraction. The ideas are supposed to flow from the mind and onto the page with ease, but we let a lot of things get in the way: the storm and stress of daily life, random thoughts and feelings, dreams from the night before, not to mention that constant left-brain nagging editorial voice that shuts down most sentences before they ever reach the page.
The process of writing is a fusion of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. From the right brain comes our creativity, our ideas. Our left brain has to translate those into language so that somebody else can interpret our words in the way that we intended them to be read. The trouble is that many left brains are too critical; none of our creative ideas are ever good enough because they don't sound the way the did in our heads. The point of the writing journal is to dump out all the free-floating thoughts, including any editorial negativity, onto the page. This should leave the mind free to focus on coherent writing.
To make a long story short, I stopped using my writing journal after the semester ended and I've discovered that this has led to a blockage in creativity. I even wrote a short story about writer's block; that's how backed up I was. However, instead of deciding to start up another journal, I remembered that I have this nifty blog that I keep forgetting to write in.
As a (not yet) professional writer, it's hard for me to feel free to give advice about writing (especially publishing advice!) and I only want to talk about my own writing a little bit...the magic there is in the finished product, not the process. So I've decided to make this blog much more free-form...random thoughts, non-fiction essays, possible short stories, and once in a while, a little bit of information concerning my journey as a writer. A blog is, after all, just one person sharing their ideas with the world.
Promise me that you'll stop me if I start complaining about my life though, ok?
In tomorrow's blog, I'd like to discuss my most recent writing venture: The Zone (I promise it's just a working title)
-James Funfer
Do you ever have days when even comments are hard to write? I have filled this comment box 6 times to painfully unsatisfying ends...
ReplyDeleteTo break this cycle Ima finish this wit crappy gramma, slang and ...an ending.
Yay, James!!! Glad to read you!
I was inspired by your commitment to blog more and have vowed to do the same on my blog. Plus, I linked to your blog. Just thought you should know because it seemed the polite thing to do. Write on, James. Write on.
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