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

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Except that you do want to write in long form, or you say you do, and never get enough time to do it.

Mmm. Perhaps. I used to want that. I don't seem to have the mental energy to do that these days; another reason to worry about diet, allergies, exercise, whatever it is that has robbed me of the focus I used to have that made it possible to write long things. Any help you can offer in this would be happily accepted!

The problem is not so much time as energy and capacity. The argument I am making is that by writing drabbles, short pieces, and commentary on LJ (or in any other venue) I am still writing, still keeping the faculty of using words flowing. It isn't a choice between 'writing short pieces' and 'writing long pieces', it's a choice between writing what I can or not writing at all.

I miss the long stories, too. I miss writing them. But I don't believe LJ is the reason I can't, or haven't been, writing other things.

I'd like to find a solution to this, but I don't think the solution is cutting back on LJ writing. I think it lies in improving my health and ability to focus, if that can be done.

[maisedoat.livejournal.com]

What, other than Livejournalling has changed since you used to write longer pieces? You write that you've lost "focus" and "mental energy" but you're not willing to consider whether all or part of them might have been lost of LJ.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What, other than Livejournalling has changed since you used to write longer pieces?

Numerous health and personal issues.

but you're not willing to consider whether all or part of them might have been lost of LJ.

I have considered that, and concluded that LJ was on the positive side of the balance - that it kept me at least capable of producing the written word in one form when others were closed to me.

I know of no way to prove this, either way!