Truman Capote wrote lying down. I like this, but can’t do it myself, as I don’t write longhand and I don’t have a laptop. All the writers I know enjoy hearing how other writers work, especially successful ones or masters of the craft. I was thinking about it today, how much like learning magic it is. We want to know if there is some kind of secret. I know, I do. I always did. Through college, I tried to get it out of my teachers, and assumed they were holding back when they gave vague advice like, “It’s hard.” I have nothing to show for my years as a writer. Yes, I’m a writer, even though I haven’t published. I write and always will, so I’m a writer. Now, almost almost thirty years old, I realize there is no secret. No perfect way. Just your own way.
I don’t mean any of this as advice for anyone, and this blog is not going to be about writing instruction (though sometimes I instruct myself out loud and then it just happens to get written down.) Because I am an unpublished writer, I don’t pretend to possess a knowledge anyone would want to learn from. I have been writing since I was ten years old, that is almost 20 years ago. That’s a lot of practice. But writers are interested in publication, and I don’t have any experience with that, apart from some online publications. But I do love writing and reading. So, this blog will be about books and my writing projects, sometimes. It will be about my new desire to fill in the gaps in my literary education (hopefully with some help), to get some stories done and sent out. But it will also be about other things I like. If anyone besides me ever reads this, hopefully they’ll find something interesting: mythology, recipes, people I admire, my apartment . . .
I like unfinished things; I like finding ideas written on scraps of paper. Sometimes this will be like that, too.
Note: I think having a blog can lead to taking yourself really seriously, and I have a tendancy to do that. Though, I can’t stand it in others.
I’d like to take a page out of the book or blog of my friend Leigh http://leighcummings.tumblr.com. She writes about the city around her honestly, and most importantly about herself honestly. And it’s great.
Apartment Miscellania 