Friends, I am just not feeling it. Can you offer any words of wisdom? What do you do when the problem is not that you don't want to write, but that....nothing is going on or at least nothing that can be interpreted in any kind of meaninful or interesting way that would make it blog-worthy? I speak to whomever is still reading this.
Here's the poem Danse Russe, by William Carlos Williams because I don't have a single interesting thing to say:
If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,--
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
again the yellow drawn shades,--
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?
You've seen my quality dip, so I have no advice. Sometimes I start writing and things happen... magical zip zoop zagical things. Sometimes I start writing... then stop writing.
ReplyDeleteblorg.
'nado, Maybe we need to issues a challenge to one another. But better than the one I came up with. I think it's your turn. This sounds cheesy, but we need to encourage one another.
ReplyDeleteSo...how do we create a quality vs quantity challenge? Thoughts?
Cheesy, but true. I'm happy to encourage whenever however. I keep going just knowing that half a dozen people check my page out with some regularity with a few other occasional visitors. There is the notion in the arts that quantity will result in quality, I think it is true. Is every song on an album great? Is every book by a writer good? Is every blog by a blogger worth reading? It's as if each bad result gets you closer to a good one. I started doing this so I would hopefully get better at writing. Better by doing, better by putting myself out there, better by availing my words for silent critique (mine as much as anyone's). I may only be establishing bad habits, but I think I'm finding my voice. I like having a body of work. I like that that I've written a bunch of things. I wouldn't call it a journal, but I think it offers an interesting and evolving 'me' reflection over the past couple months. Not always referencing what's most on mind... sometimes avoiding it entirely, but each day (more or less) I have something. I think we both flow along the continuum of serious to stupid in blogland. I like that. I try to write about a bunch of things and hopefully be creative enough to make the two minute visit by any passerby worth their small investment of time, even if the topic is of little interest. I don't really like to talk about things... I like to think about them and present my take with some structure, and writing, in blog form, is my outlet. I say - you're an interesting person, what you write must also be interesting. So, I ask you - why did you start Like-Like? If you start there maybe you'll find your shwerve.
ReplyDelete*** I get bonus points for longest comment/reply currently on record. There is quality in the quantity and the quality is the quantity. (This may not be true of this long-winded comment.) God, I'm still typing stuff... stop! Damn you, Cunado! Stop!
Make a list of the stories you'd like to tell. Those blogs you write in your head as you sit in traffic. Perhaps it's "The time grandma got naked at Christmas" or "Man, I never thought I would smell something like THAT." Put them in a baggie and anytime you're feeling lost for something to write about, simply draw one out of the baggie.
ReplyDelete'nado, I heart you in a totally platonic way. Thank you! Solid advice! Must get my swerve back.
ReplyDeleteHere's the best reason I have for keeping it up:
ReplyDeleteI've thought about formally quitting dozens of times. By formally, I mean telling people they don't need to bother checking Certain Blogs anymore. I'd probably write some kind of conclusion where I finally admit that I'm out of ideas, and maybe take a look back at some of my proudest entries.
But then I remember how difficult it was to expose myself by telling my friends that I had a blog (there are several I still haven't told). So if I were to quit and then one day change my mind and want to take it up again, I'd have to go through the same painful process of telling people all over again. So I keep at it, even if that means leaning heavily on Youtube clips and comic strip parodies for long stretches of time.
Both of which, I should add, are lazier options than reprinting fine poetry. Keep writing. Or take a break. But don't quit.
Or quit, I guess. But I wouldn't. Inspiration always comes back.