Steven Den Beste is taking some time off. Writing can become work.
I thought about this in regards to my own writing this morning. I remember working on my book, and how much of a passion it was for me at the time. As it neared completion, and I began asking people to look at it, I got tired of all the advice. I incorporated some and ignored other. I think the entire thing suffered.
I’ve always written almost stream of consciousness, which means my prose sometimes gets wordy, sometimes curt, often incomprehensible. I seldom go back and edit. What you see is what goes through this thick skull. When I have written for publication, I’ve gone over text several times to try and get it right. Of course, editors have their own ideas. Air University Review did little cleaning up on what I wrote. Once, the thing they changed actually changed the sense I was trying to get across. Oh well. Airman Magazine did almost a complete rewrite of my article (the only one I ever submitted to them) and then praised me for my writing. The senior editor asked if I would be interested in joining their staff! Go figure.
I started this blog to write. Like Ted Kennedy, I have become incoherent, and think this is the best way to regain some of the skills I believe I once had. I’m constantly in awe of some of the writing in the blogosphere: SDB, John Jay, Wretchard, Sarah, Harry and Porphyrogenitus are but a few. This is not to slight the others I’ve linked to on my sidebar. In fact, I intentionally link to very few folks. These are the ones that give me inspiration to sit down at the keyboard and bang out a few words. And those links are there primarily for me. It makes it easy to jump over and check what Dave Barry or David Feherty has to say today. But if someone likes what I write, they can get further, often better information from the people I read.
Bogey told me to get back to writing things other than politics. He’s right. (He better be with that high-priced Cornell education in Communications!) Writing hasn’t become the chore it can be, and I hope the broad brush I use as a pen keeps it alive. As Sarah pointed out (and added a link as well) the daily journal becomes a habit and refuge. For me, someone who is definitely not a social butterfly, it gives me a community I can enter and leave at will. I like that.