Read this from Chris Shiflett and then read this from Frank Chimero.
This shouldn’t be an idea of March and should continue on and on and on. Writing is absolutely therapy for so many of us just as I zone out when dancing at a festival or photographing. To spend all day dancing on Miami beach while photographing the event and then to go home and write about that equals my absolute best day ever over coffee with friends and sex with a lover. Self-expression even if you keep it all private makes me feel alive! I’m sure we all have these things that make us happy and we should keep doing them. It’s what life is all about.
From Chris’ Post:
Most conversation has moved from blogs to Twitter, and although Twitter is more active than blogs ever were, there are fewer quality conversations and debates taking place as a result of this transition. I’m hoping you’ll join me in a blog revival. It’s pretty simple:
- Write a post called Ideas of March.
- List some of the reasons you like blogs.
- Pledge to blog more the rest of the month.
- Share your thoughts on Twitter with the #ideasofmarch hashtag.
If we all blog a little more than we normally would this month, maybe we can be reminded of all of the reasons blogs are great. Here are a few reasons why I like blogs:
- Posts can be as short or are long as you want.
- You don’t have to use broken language to fit a complete thought.
- Posts aren’t immediately lost in a sea of updates.
- Posts can be easily found later.
- You don’t have to know what’s trending among the riff-raff of the Internet.
- Posts tend to be more meaningful.
- All conversation related to a post is easy to find.
From Frank:
engthier writing is hard, because it requires one to commit to it. One must be alone. One can not write in a group. One must step away, shut off the world. What do I think? How do I feel? What is this itch? How can I scratch it? Why am I so sad? Why did this make me happy? What’s it like being a father? Why did that project work? What did I learn?
Really writing forces us to lock the words into whatever contraption is being used to write. I like typewriters because it’s hard to take out the paper and crumple it up while writing. The easiest movement is FORWARD. Typewriters are momentum machines. Real writing pushes forward. Tweets push in every direction at once. These are not value judgements, these are just some observations.
and
Writing is chasing a question—an inquiry of the mind. Forward is better than every direction at once. It’s not really writing until you feel something; until you choke up at a thought, until you start fidgeting in your seat in excitement, until you feel the twinge of pain that happens when a thorn is pulled out of your side. Go back. Delete everything before you started fidgeting or crying or deflating like a balloon. Then, write some more.
Agreed.
Also, of note, I wrote “Being a Better Writer” & “The Art of Blogging”
These are two posts that I stand behind but reading what I think or what the aforementioned guys think is not actually the right approach as you’re delaying your experience. I look at reading to become a better writer as essential as diet books. Read one then apply it and apply the hell out of it when your body and see what happens. Once you’ve read one, don’t keep reading because reading doesn’t equal better writing or a better body. Reading is a great way to become a better writer while you’re writing each and ever day.
I write every day. My hands touch a keyboard each day. As you have all noticed, I’m tweeting much less now because most of my thoughts are going here.
I don’t need to “blog more in March”. Doing so would cause me to lose my job. I don’t want to do that. I blog at home and during lunch and it’s far more rewarding than hanging around bars to meet girls or tweeting short 140 character bits about how Apple is screwing up again. I blog it here and it lives on forever.
Thanks for reading. Now, go write.