Writing

You may (but probably won't) remember that my first ever foray into the world of blogging came at the end of a winter break between semesters of college. I think that my writing bug never quite goes away, but it needs a little breathing room. Here I am between semesters again, and the writing bug is back. I'm coming to terms with its never becoming what I hoped it would be: I always wanted to write fiction, but that really doesn't come easily to me, and I find that when I force my writing, it's not worth reading. I have to write what I know, and that means non-fiction. Opinion, yes. Narrative, yes. But swashbuckling tales of high fantasy, much as I might enjoy reading them, seem outside my writing abilities. I'm okay with that, mostly. I may never write that novel, but I'd actually be okay with turning out a series of halfway decent magazine columns. I just want to write things that people want to read.

I haven't been blogging much, mostly due to stress, but at least partly due to lack of ideas for what to write about. Of course, that too is due to stress: it's easier to find subject matter when you can view the world with a contented eye. So it seems that going back to school had at least part of the intended effect: now that I'm on break, I've had my first idea for an article since . . . well, a long time ago. I haven't been able to write the article, though I've started it, in my head and on paper. It just doesn't want to come out. But that's okay too: good writing only comes after a lot of bad writing. The key is to keep writing, as so many writers and writing teachers will tell you.

So I'm going to try to get back into blogging, at least as long as the between-semester break lasts. I've got multiple blogs to support at this point, each tailored for a different type of reflection or opinion, so my best efforts to increase my writing output may not translate directly into more posts here. We'll see how it goes.

Funnily enough, it's not just the writing bug that parallels that winter of five or six years ago (has it really been that long?). It's the impulsiveness with my online identity. I've been as careful as I can to maintain my anonymity, despite a couple of intentional - and possibly some unintentional - slips. But today I came across the blog of a guy that I'm halfway tempted to break my online anonymity for. I know you're supposed to be paranoid about people on the internet, but I'm so tempted to fly out to Chicago and ask this guy out to dinner. Not necessarily on a date; he's just sounds like someone I'd like to get to know. I don't really want to get into another relationship right now, but it's nice to read about someone who could be worth it. Is that hope?