Today was the second of my three spiritual memoir classes. Class started with a discussion about how personal writing is easier than public writing. I knew the answer to a fellow classmate's question although I can't remember the exact question. It's all about revision. The instructor showed a diagram she had made with the stages of writing. This diagram had a protective bubble around personal writing before the revising and publishing stage.
Later we were asked to think of a question we were chewing on. I started to write, "As I sit and listen, I wonder about my blog. Have I popped the bubble around my own thoughts by making it public? Does my writing suffer because I make no attempt to revise before I publish?"
As I was writing about this, she gave us the true assignment. What memory do you have that centers around when you first faced this question? What memory might help you answer this question?
My memory was of a first writing class in college. Although I put little to no effort into most of my college classes, I was disappointed when no matter what I did, in this writing class, my grades were low to extremely low. Before I had thought of myself as an average writer, soon I realized I was a poor writer. This always stays with me. In reality I often question my teaching. How can I teach writing when I am a lousy writer? Today as I was thinking about "popping the bubble around my personal thoughts", I felt a bit of fear. Should I worry more about what people think as they read my blog? Should I make some attempt to revise my blog? Should I make my blog less public?
The answers are basically no. "It is what it is..." Although I don't have a lot of confidence in my no answers, they remain an almost firm no. After all it isn't really writing, it's more regurgitating thoughts. Besides the readership is quite low. Most people don't even know I have a blog, so the answers are almost certainly no.
Later we were asked to think of a question we were chewing on. I started to write, "As I sit and listen, I wonder about my blog. Have I popped the bubble around my own thoughts by making it public? Does my writing suffer because I make no attempt to revise before I publish?"
As I was writing about this, she gave us the true assignment. What memory do you have that centers around when you first faced this question? What memory might help you answer this question?
My memory was of a first writing class in college. Although I put little to no effort into most of my college classes, I was disappointed when no matter what I did, in this writing class, my grades were low to extremely low. Before I had thought of myself as an average writer, soon I realized I was a poor writer. This always stays with me. In reality I often question my teaching. How can I teach writing when I am a lousy writer? Today as I was thinking about "popping the bubble around my personal thoughts", I felt a bit of fear. Should I worry more about what people think as they read my blog? Should I make some attempt to revise my blog? Should I make my blog less public?
The answers are basically no. "It is what it is..." Although I don't have a lot of confidence in my no answers, they remain an almost firm no. After all it isn't really writing, it's more regurgitating thoughts. Besides the readership is quite low. Most people don't even know I have a blog, so the answers are almost certainly no.
Comments
I don't know how the instructor classified "private" writing, but I can think of a few kinds: journals, letter writing (but that's TO someone else, so is it really private?) to do lists. It's been my experience that each of those things gets edited or revised. You cross off "cheese" on the grocery list and write "hvarti" and "cheddar." Or, you write, "I had a great day today," in your journal and cross it off and scribble in something else. I can't think of any kind of writing that doesn't involve some kind of editing or revision and I've read my share of letters and diaries as transcription projects.
I think that if you are happy with the way the text works out, you don't really need to worry about what others think, do you? But, if you look at it and think, hmmm. this could use a tweak or two, then you have two choices -- make the tweaks and make the writing "better" and yourself happier, or don't make the tweaks, in which case you have to live with the your internal dissonance and the readers get less than your best effort.
With regard to your blog in particular, the title of the blog helps shape the expectations of the readers--letters to an anonymous audience about the things that are important to you.
And, all writing is thoughts. Some writers weave them into a plot for a mystery. Others craft them into a poem. And, still others blog about current issues.
Blessings on you as you continue to write and teach writing and provoke others with good questions.