Monday, November 17, 2008

Naked Blogging

I used to write for fun.

I started writing when I was about 15, short stories mostly. I joined a superhero fiction community called The Parodyverse (still around, a decade later - crazy!), co-wrote a crazy stream-of-consciousness novel with Colin Horgan, planned for the story that would launch my inevitable authorial stardom.

These days - after years of creative writing classes, journalism, editing, dramaturgy and criticism - it's rare that I find the "fun" in writing. Sure, occasionally I'll get caught up in an exciting turn of phrase, delight at discovering the precise word to best express my message, but mostly... writing is a job. Pitches, deadlines, paycheques. Which, when I think about it, is kinda fucked.

Now, when I try to write creatively, when I even try to come up with an idea... I freeze. I'll use any excuse I can to get away from the keyboard, promising myself that I'll come up with a brilliant idea later.

Hell, it's taken me nearly two months to muster up the courage to write an original blog post.

In a lot of ways, my life is awesome. But I miss writing. I miss the fun, the discovery, the creativity. And I want to get it back.

That's why I started this blog. I want to write, unfiltered, whatever leaps to mind. I want to write often. I want some of the writing to be shitty and embarrassing, because experimentation and failure are the only ways to discover something unexpected and magnificent.

So here's the goal: I want to post on this blog every day. Whether it's rambling autobiography, or fiction, or poetry, or a cool link, or a newsletter. Every day.

(Because, y'know, I'm not busy enough.)

So. Day 1. That's a pretty good start.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Mark Go!
This is just like old times. I remain your ever-faithful reader.

chorgs said...

Oh, the stream-of-consciousness story. That it was 90 pages long is impressive... impressive that we could sustain something that terrible for so long.
Good times.