as a writing major in college, the first thing i learned was the obvious: the best way to improve your writing, is to write. just like any other skill, you have to practice writing daily to keep on top of your game. it is one of the simplest, easiest things a writer can do and, of course, is the one thing i just suck at. one of my news years resolutions was to update this blog on a daily basis. to write something–anything–every day. but, the road to february is often paved with new years resolutions, and i was distracted by a shiny object and veered off the road not even 2 days into the journey.
i think one of my main problems is that i just dont know what to write. blogs are tricky like that. i dont really want to write something funny, because then youre going to expect me to be all funny like all the time, and thats a ton of pressure! (and have you ever noticed how stupid the word funny is? i mean, it just looks like a word that someone would make up, like gooder or something…but i digress…) and while id love to just sit here and tell you all the personal details of my every day, lets be honest — you dont care. and i cant even use this to just bitch and complain about my job or the government or people i dont like because then i could get fired or arrested or kidnapped from my house in the dead of night and taken to a secret CIA prison in poland where i will be forced to wear brightly colored spandex and sing the lyrics to that old 80′s PBS kids show Zoobely Zoo until i admit that i am in fact a terrorist threat…
so yeah…i dont know whats left to write about really.
i remember having a class discussion once about how personal a writer should get in his or her writing and where exactly one should draw the line. the answer was unclear. the truth is, there is no way to keep yourself or your ideas out of your writing, no matter how factual and boring the writing is. and while you dont want to drone on about yourself and your life without making an actual point, putting yourself out there and risking that kind of exposure is the only way to make a real connection with your reader. its the only way to make someone really feel like they know you.
i have always been really good at dispersing useful advice, but never good at following it. most of those who read my blog (or my livejournal or my myspace) do not know me.
but there is always room for change and improvement in life, that is what makes it so incredible. though it often feels like there just arent enough hours in the days, the reality is that time moves just slow enough so that we can sense it, and adjust to it, and work with it. we have the ability to choose to take every minute, learn from it, and make decisions which will help us to make the next moment and every one that follows, better than the last. that is the privilege of life.
