Finding a Voice
Saturday, March 04, 2006
writing: cheating vs. integrity
Yesterday my friend Rachel challenged me on these lines from my previous post: "Sure, blogging is a form of writing and I am doing it now, but it's kind of cheating. This is not really the sort of writing that requires 'listening.'"
She's right. The self-publishing world of blogging can be a very valid form of writing, a way of testing ideas in community. However, the cheating I'm talking about is writing for the public without first taking time in private. The integrity I am feeling called to cultivate in my writing is to spend considerable time alone, without an audience, in quiet reflection, writing a lot of things that most people will never know about, let alone see. Then sorting through the pages to find the gems and offer those to family & friends & other readers.
She's right. The self-publishing world of blogging can be a very valid form of writing, a way of testing ideas in community. However, the cheating I'm talking about is writing for the public without first taking time in private. The integrity I am feeling called to cultivate in my writing is to spend considerable time alone, without an audience, in quiet reflection, writing a lot of things that most people will never know about, let alone see. Then sorting through the pages to find the gems and offer those to family & friends & other readers.
posted by Colleen McCubbin at 12:32 PM
1 Comments:
I completely agree with your concerns about blog-writing as opposed to other, more private, forms of literary creation. First, this sort of writing takes time away from more "serious" creation, such as writing poetry or scholarly articles or whatever else you might write. Second, it can easily evolve into a kind of egotisitcal public journalling, as if the entire world cares and needs to know about all of my thoughts. Third, it can be facile, writing that spills out of the fingers with only minimal mental processing.
But it need not. We can take time writing thoughtful pieces for our blogs. Or writing works in private, with all the skill and craftsmanship we can muster, and then share them publically. Or we can use them as composting-grounds for thoughts and word-musics that later find their way into poems or articles or novels or songs.
Real writing, wherever it may appear, is the result of commitment. It takes energy of time, routine, mind, heart, and soul. So let us commit, then let us share!
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