Monday, August 2, 2010

Writing as necessity

For many reasons too numerous to ask anyone to contend with, this blogging venture is an intimidating step. By way of partial explanation for the angst, it is a lack of familiarity with this medium of expression and it also derives from an intensely private nature that cowers before such a public domain. Nevertheless, swallowing my fears and with the encouragement of others, I plow on.
I fell in love with words, the written word in particular, at a very young age and soon knew I wanted to write and be a writer. However, I lived in an environment where such dreams were, at best, considered odd, and at worst, were downright discouraged with dire predictions of the consequences of any attempt at realization. For decades I fought writing. Along the way there were many valiant attempts to let go the resistance to my passion only to collapse into panicked retreat once more.
After decades of this love/hate relationship with writing, there finally came an acceptance that this I must do, for better or for worse. I recently read an essay "Shitty First Drafts" by Ann Lamott about fears provoked in the writing process. (It's a great read and very encouraging: see "the Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante, W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, pp. 574-578). In it she describes a fellow writer who tells himself every morning, "It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do - you can either type or kill yourself." (p. 575).
So here it goes. I recently read a quote from Samuel Beckett: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." I think I can do that much.

1 comment:

  1. Nicely done! Welcome to the blogging world. I think you'll like it.

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