The Writing Process
My blogging has been spotty, but I like to think for good reason, and I can say honestly it’s not because of being too lazy committing to writing. Quite the opposite. I’ve been writing – a lot. In my last entry I had spoken about starting to do some journaling. That has taken quite a different turn, and it ended up ballooning into a project that I hadn’t anticipated.
Some of the fuel from this has come from seeing other blogs and media where others have embarked upon the same path. Some have made it a bit of an autobiography of sorts, and that is something I’ve consciously avoided over the years. People need their privacy, for example, and I’m not an exception to that point. Plus there’s the simple fact that everyone has their own stories. I’m not a famous individual nor did I ever have or have any intention of being one; so what could I possibly write that would be of any interest to anyone? I wasn’t witness to any remarkable event, nor was I ever part of any special situation where I would be in a position to write that “tell all book” regarding a certain situation or cascading scandal. I did not serve in government in any kind of capacity like many of those who push their books on Sunday morning news programs. So why the sudden about face now?
To put it simply, the writing process, if we are going to call it that, has been more for me than it is for any reader. That’s something I hadn’t realized when I initially sat down. Hammering out 2,200 to 3,000 words a session on snowy winter evenings or weekends ended up being more of an analytical process for me, to review different events in my own personal life, and now revisiting them with the benefit of an older perspective helps evaluate the present. A bit of a self-diagnosis and discovery of how opinions, outlooks, and perceptions of people, places, and things change as one squeezes through each year; each decade. There can be abrupt change in someone’s life – a medical diagnosis, a tragic loss of a loved one, or an experience that manifests a trauma that forever changes the direction of an individual’s time arrow. Then there are the more glacial changes of geologic time that effect the human experience. What one values as important at fifteen is not the same as they value at thirty-five and forty. Adult responsibilities take over, perspectives shift, and what once seemed paramount is then looked upon as the silly and playful thoughts of a child. We all go through this. We all evolve beyond our brief as children as part of the maturing process. At least most of us do anyway.
To be brutally as well as truthfully honest this sitting down and committing to such an endeavor still lacked any kind of catalyst to get me to start such a project. Then two things happened. First a friend bought me Patrick Stewart’s Making It So: A Memoir for Christmas. The second was randomly coming across another blog where the author was doing the same type of autobiographical analysis, and I felt I was being slapped across the face with my own decree of not writing anything personal. These straws tickled the dormant idea of mine about possibly writing down some of the things I’ve witnessed to pass onto the remaining members of my family. When I thought about it that way – of it being a personal manuscript; not to be published, and my target audience – I then reconsidered this self-imposed restriction of not writing down anything overtly personal. If I was to commit memories to paper for my family I’d have to get over this notion of walling myself off from the rest of society, my friends and family, and just do it. Just start writing. So I did and that’s when this writing process (for a lack of a better term) took the turn that it did – providing me with a fresh look and insight to events in my past that now help me navigate the present. Also, no one should fear that this is some sort of manifesto written with a degree of short circuited synapses – it is an autobiography, and a re-telling of past events. It has provided me with a clearer focus than I may have had previous, and I like to think that’s a healthy thing. I wrote in a brutally honest tone regarding myself because I have no intention of ever publishing it. I treat it as a bible for the family, and drawing inspiration from Sir Patrick Stewart and a handful of similar experienced centric blogs.
The other item of note which I did not anticipate is the length. This autobiographical essay, this manuscript of sorts, is currently at 245,632 words according to the writing program, and I still have a ways to go. I truly did not expect this when I first sat down, but there is no denying the older you get the more paper you will need – like the rings around the dead tree that provided the paper.
I feel the manuscript is written in a conversational tone, much like this current blog entry, and I hope that when the family does wash an eye over it they find it an easy read. I don’t profess to be any kind of great writer or master wordsmith, and I cannot provide any great insight for those that inspire to be – with the exception of maybe two important details. If you’re going to write – write for you. Do not in anyway write for someone else. While it is true there maybe a nebulous sphere of a target audience in mind during the course of the work, that should not sway any author from altering the content of the writing. The topic should be important to the author, and the author alone, and their ego should not be too sensitive to the critical reaction. This is what I learned through countless hours of sitting and typing. While I said I originally had an idea of a “target audience” in terms of family – this eroded over time to writing for me. I got to thinking those that enjoy it will read it. Those that start it and find it boring will toss it aside and not continue. You’re not going to win the latter over, and it’s a fool’s effort to try to. It’s not unlike baseball in that regard. Those that enjoy it – watch it. Those that don’t – don’t. You’re not going to win over the don’ts, and the author has to be comfortable with that being okay. The primary target audience for the manuscript is the author themselves. After that it’s just a matter of having faith that the wind will carry the pages to the like-minded individuals who will also enjoy it because they share a similar world view. This is where a sense of communities begin – even if the sample size is small and the topic niché. Write what inspires you, entertains you, and what you know. After that everything else falls into place.
The second detail is to actually write. While I confess at times this blog of mine shows long stretches of an absentee owner it’s not because I’m failing to write, but it’s because I am writing. There is where the difference lies. When I first sat down and opened a new document to begin it was after I had finished Sir Patrick Stewart’s self-dissertation, and it was a cold and snowy winter weekend. We’ve now moved into the infancy of summer and milder temperatures, and there will be that gravitational pull for more “outdoorsy” activities. I don’t know if this will interrupt my personal process at all, but my guess is it will not. My writing is confined to the evenings a few days per week, and when I do sit down I typically hammer out around 2,500 words on the manuscript give or take. I never have a goal in the word count – it takes whatever it takes to get the thought and topic across. Since we are a society that constantly have our phones glued to our hands I typically jot down notes in an outline during the course of the day if I remember something specific that I want to expand upon in prose for later that evening. This is easier to do when one is dealing with an autobiography, but I think it would be a good practice even if I was working on fiction. At that point it becomes a puzzle where you can assemble the pieces properly for what follows where. One can surprise themselves later when they open the outline and read it even hours later after they’ve already forgotten the bullet point because they had to deal with other matters. Here is where notes on a phone are invaluable. Consider it a collection of “ah ha” moments to be addressed later.
Whether one is journaling, blogging, or writing a feature length book the act of writing helps correlate one’s thoughts into a more focused picture, and goes beyond the simple act of relaying a message or idea to another. I find those that are good readers are good writers and vice versa, and this makes them better communicators as a whole not just with others, but in being honest with themselves as well. If everyone starts being more honest with themselves the more likely it’ll benefit the rest of us.