In the middle of the night, wakeful, I suddenly thought it might be a worthwhile idea to create a blog to share thoughts and experiences while on my semester leave from UNI. This is a surprising and ironic thought, because previously I have done some private eye-rolling at everyone and their blogs, or the idea of blogging as a creative outlet for aspiring writers. A transformation of the Emily Dickinson poem has been much in my mind: "How public -- like a Frog -- / To tell one's name -- the livelong June -- / On a self-admiring Blog!" Hence the name for this one (and, OK, I'm a bit proud of it; Googling suggests no one's gotten to the phrase before me). Though I really am not thinking of this as a wider public project, and don't necessarily intend to continue it indefinitely -- of course, we'll see.
My as-yet-incipient idea is that I will write for myself and anyone who's interested about my creative process/struggles and other experiences as I work on the personal book project that is before me, and probably share pieces of what I am writing. Even with what I've been working on so far I can feel that this writing is a deep emotional process that is going to change me in ways I cannot fully guess in advance. I know that I will be wanting to share, if only because I am working in considerable isolation in real life. Doing it here will be better than sharing directly on Facebook, "since this may be read or not as anyone pleases," as Ben Franklin wrote in the first paragraph of his Autobiography. I guess I will post links on Facebook at least some of the time, since I know I'd never manage to follow any friend's blogging without reminders.
It will hopefully become something like keeping a journal again, only not writing only for myself this time. I know that putting down more into words will be good for me, and the more writing the better, right? If I am daring to write a book that shares all sorts of things I almost never tell anyone, I need to practice letting people in to my thoughts and feelings in smaller ways before any Big Reveal.... I am trying to move ahead with both things in the faith that if I dare to communicate more, my thoughts might actually connect or be useful to somebody.
I will share some more about the exact nature of my project soon. I need to gather my thoughts a bit regarding how and how much I want to describe it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment