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

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

I'm absolutely exhausted - it's been a busy day but somewhere in the middle of that post of sartoria's she said this:
"Some ask because they want to get to know you a bit, maybe see if you are like-minded enough to turn into a friend. To those people, one can reveal oneself. But there are others who take that pecking order thing everywhere--to parties, on dates, to work, out shopping."

And I should probably hesitate to say this as I have no clue about who Robin Hobb is (and actually don't care to either to be honest) but it strikes me (the ordinary blogger and fanficwriter in ljland) that Robin would fall into the second category - the ones who take the pecking order thing everywhere...

And that LJland - in general if not in whole - is full of the first sort of people - the one's who want to know if you're like-minded enough to turn into a friend.

If you're a writer you write - you write in lj; on MySpace; in a good old fashioned page a day diary .You write in ringbinders on bus journeys; in jotting pads that you keep by the bed in the middle of the night when you can't sleep - hell if the inspiration takes you you write on envelopes with stubs of pencil crayon.

Blogging doesn't make you any less of a writer though somone saying it *might* (I emphasise the word might) make them less of a person...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

there are others who take that pecking order thing everywhere--to parties, on dates, to work, out shopping.

Interesting point. Yes, definitely a different view of ... how one assesses life, and people.

Sometime people have to develop a strong regimen to be what they want to be - perhaps Robin Hobb feels it necessary to cut such things as blogs out of her life if and when she wants to write fiction. And therefore feels other writers must do the same.

Or perhaps she is very competitive. Or perhaps she sees someone she thinks should be producing more original fiction for publication, who isn't doing so. A judgement call - not one I think we should make about others, or at least, usually not.

If you're a writer you write -

Oh so true!

hell if the inspiration takes you you write on envelopes with stubs of pencil crayon.

Yes - been there and done that.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

I came to the discussion totally neutral so I just picked up how it felt to me.
She could have all sorts of reasons, that doesn't mean she has the right to enforce her views on anyone else. She has a right to voice them and you have a right to disregard them as total rubbish (if you want) and do what feels right to you.

Yes - been there and done that
Yep, me too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am always fascinated by different views of writing - what some people find easy, what some people find difficult, and what some find necessary. Or things that create blocks to writing. Everyone who writes seems to have a difference balance things they need to write, or things which make writing difficult, and one person's inspiration is another person's handicap.

I find it good to be as open to as many things as I can be, but at the same time, to make sure I have time for myself - not necessarily time to write, though that is always good, but time to think and consider.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

Blocks to writing:
Obvious - family being around (even if they aren't interrupting); knowing I have jobs that *need* to be done.
Not so obvious - listening to music - it can send me off at a tangent or just interupt the voice I was trying to listen to...

I tend to save all my considering for when my writing brain has left the building like - ah - now.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I tend to save all my considering for when my writing brain has left the building like - ah - now.

Yes. I wish that wouldn't happen, but it does.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps she sees someone she thinks should be producing more original fiction for publication, who isn't doing so. A judgement call - not one I think we should make about others, or at least, usually not.

The tone of that essay reminds me of an alcoholic who tries to get everyone else to totally stop drinking because he can't control his own drinking. That alcoholic is right in thinking that excessive drinking is bad, but wrong in thinking that everyone who has a drink is going to drink excessively. She's right that spending too much time on LJ or any other blogging or social networking site can suck up time that should be spent elsewhere, whether it is writing fiction or doing anything else but wrong in expanding that to cover every writer with an online journal. Just because she might waste too much time doesn't mean that every other writer would also waste time that should be spent writing fiction. She starts off with the idea that a writer is choosing between spending an hour on LJ and spending an hour writing a manuscript. That's where she gets off to a bad start. For some people that would be true. For others it would be a question of spending an hour on LJ or spending an hour going out to a club or bar or wherever to socialize. The hour spent writing would be a different hour.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The tone of that essay reminds me of an alcoholic who tries to get everyone else to totally stop drinking because he can't control his own drinking.

Good point. Like saying "I can't handle this thing, so no one should touch it". But the truth is that it's good for some people, neutral for others, bad for another set - and everyone gets different things out of it, depending on their needs and approach.