Writing...

[fajrdrako]

Blogging. Ever since Robin Hobb wrote her piece on how writers should be getting on with the act of writing, not messing around on journaling, I've been struggling with a thread of guilt. Especially since certain people like maaseru have pointed to the article, and said, "It's absolutely right." And I think guiltily: "if I spend x number of minutes writing LJ instead of fic...."

But it isn't a simply syllogism. I can write a ten-minute LJ entry, easily, and do it often. I can't write fic in segments ten minutes. Usually it takes ten minutes to figure out what my scene is and where I'm going with it. Or sometimes I can, but it isn't the same sort of ten minutes. Fiction has its own parameters.

When there was no blogging in my life or anyone else's, I still kept journals. The difference is that no one but me saw them. (Well, except that time my husband started reading my pre-marriage journals to see what I'd said about him, and what a bad idea that was.) I spent daily time in writing letters to friends - I had dozens of pen-pals. I was in apazines. (Many apazines.) It was all the same blogging impulse.

I remind myself of this, when I find myself feeling guilt for writing in LJ and enjoying it. I see no reason to decide that one form of writing is better than another - any more than one kind of reading is better than another, or one kind of movie or TV show over another.

LJ is fun, and it's a stress reliever, and right now it's a much-needed lifeline to the world outside my apartment. Of course I love it.

sartorias's LJ got me thinking about this again. I'm trying to live without guilt about the things I love to do: it makes sense that some find LJ a pleasure in itself, and other people don't.

Comments

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I'd still rather have someone

Most of humanity probably feels that way. I'm one of the few oddballs who doesn't. Although I know it would be easier economically.

But it's just so much easier to keep the sine wave (personal metaphor) on an even keel when I'm not sharing my home with someone else.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There's certainly a lot to be said for keeping one's space the way one wants it - metaphorically, emotionally, physically and psychologically. Which is probably why I have kept mine so: I like the way it reflects me. And though I would 'rather have someone', it's clearly with mixed feelings - I'm past the point of easy compromise.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I'm past the point of easy compromise

So am I. If I ever had such a point in the first place, which is doubtful.

There's something about living with someone else that amplifies my already-borderline-manageable mood swings pretty much to the point of no return. Alas.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

something about living with someone else that amplifies my already-borderline-manageable mood swings

Yes.

I don't have mood swings, as far as I know, and I have this happy delusions that I am or would be the perfect companion. But none of my relationships worked out long-term, so I must simply be wrong. It's all quite baffling.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Either that or you simply never met the right person, which seems much more likely to me.

It's the luck of the draw, alas.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Either that or you simply never met the right person, which seems much more likely to me.

Yes, I suppose so. Or... didn't meet the right person at the right time.

It's the luck of the draw

That's life, isn't it? Whatever your intentions or plans, it just continues however it continues, whether that's what you wanted or not.