If I remember correctly, when I started blogging, I hoped that the act of writing frequently would help improve my writing skills. I think I forgot about this aim as the months progressed. I was reminded of this aim when I read Walt Crawford, quoting the San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, yesterday:
I am sometimes asked for advice on writing. The only two things I know for sure are: Good writers read a lot, and good writers write a lot. As the artist Chuck Close said: “Amateurs look for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
I don’t think I have any particular talent for writing, but I’m sure I can benefit from continuing to practice this skill.
It’s just as well I don’t have writer’s block when it comes to blogging, otherwise I’d still be trying to write posts for January now, or something.
At the moment I’m trying to tidy up and finish two abstracts that have to be submitted by tomorrow. So far, to procrastinate, I have:
I’ve decided that I don’t like writing for more formal media, but I’m sure it’s good for me.
I wish it was possible to read and write while doing puppy-related things.
I’d like to write more on the following. At some point.
The Gypsy Librarian’s recent post, You need to keep up with the disciplines, has got me thinking. Also spotted an article in the latest issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship, on keeping up: “Academic Librarians, Professional Literature, and New Technologies: A Survey”. (I’d like to read the whole issue, actually.)
T. Scott’s post, Slow writing, makes me want to sit and scribble, doodle, contemplate.
When I was in my teens, writing by hand, or even at the typewriter, frustrated me because I couldn’t get the words out as fast as they seemed to be forming in my mind. In the late eighties, when I was able to write with a computer on a regular basis, I thought, at first, that this was much better — but I found, instead, that I became sloppy. When you’re not forced to slow down, and carefully choose every word, then any word will do. And when you’re not being careful about the words you choose, you’re not forced to be careful about your thinking. Hence the very sloppy thinking that permeates most blogs.
Then there’s reading, not reading; or, when do you decide to abandon a book? See Rebecca Blood’s Another reader’s manifesto.
(Rebecca’s also pointed to a post entitled Seven ways to find the time to blog.)
And then there’s that language post…
