One year ago today I began this blog. This was my first post (and comments it got):
personal journal: nirvana or manuscript stifler?
I used to write lots of short stories and poems till I began a private journal. The stories and poems never got published. The journal, which I began as a notebook to help my writing, became instead a freewheeling, uncensored, unrevised forum for whatever I wanted to say: ideas, feelings, gripes, interests--anything that came to mind.At first the freedom from editing or rejection was liberating. And I loved the easy fluency I found, the flow and unselfconscious style I developed. But I found that the more I wrote in my journal, the less I wrote for submission. In time I lost interest in writing for publication completely. The journal became my only writing outlet, a substitute for any stories, poems, or essays I had written so easily before.I wondered if others had a similar experience. Is personal journaling always a good idea for a writer? Or can it stifle creativity and become a too-easy-to-please listener, insulating its author from challenges he may need more, like feedback from others, disciplined structure, focus and development of ideas, fleshing out of detail because it's needed for others to visualize, even though I might not, since I'm writing it? I honestly don't know.Online, it seems everyone promotes journaling as therapeutic and stimulating for ideas and creativity, great for hatching great writing to share. Privately, I'm not so sure. For me, it seemed to erect a writer's block like the Great Wall of China to anything I tried to write outside it.In any case, that's why I started this blog. I'm tired of just "talking to myself" in my journal and looking for ways to be read--not necessarily published or paid. At least I'm ready to listen.
posted by nbk @ 9:37 PM 2 comments
Since that first post was published I've received about 1,100 visits from all over the world that I know about and published 75 other posts. It's been very rewarding. I especially appreciate my regular visitor from Arizona (oops, sorry, New Mexico), Carol Anne, whose own It's five o'clock somewhere is always a delight to read and whose encouragement and insightful comments have sometimes kept me going when I got lazy. And I'm grateful to have had the chance to interact with a fascinating, very intelligent young museum researcher from Queens, Jill Pazereckas, who began commenting here nearly a year ago and whose own blog, Jill's Room, is a model to me of provocative social and historical issues.
But I feel most proud of the blogs my family have started this year and quickly diverged from this one, in both content and style. They all comment here frequently and really keep me busy trying to keep up with them, and they're bookmarked in my right column: Too Tall to Be a Penguin, by middle son Scott, the elementary school media specialist and part-time Disney ride operator--oops, cast; Iris Blue, my incredible wife, gifted photojournalist blogger, and love of my life; Underwear Ninja Comes With Space Suit, by youngest son and new york sound designer, whose photographs are amazing; and Lazo Land, by my gifted favorite daughter-in-law, Rhonda.
Thanks for a great ride, everyone!
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6 comments:
So sorry to have to offer a correction, but Carol Anne's from New Mexico last time I checked ... but you're in good company; so many people forget that NM is part of the USA that New Mexico Magazine runs a column titled, "One of Our Fifty Is Missing". So, I keep my passport handy just in case.
Pat
http://desertsea.blogspot.com
I feel so honored to be your favorite daughter-in-law. Now you know the real reason why your other sons aren't married...I secretly get rid of any potential competition for the title "favorite daughter-in-law". :)
Ah, yes, people do have trouble figuring out where New Mexico is.
A friend was trying to get insurance for his large sailboat. One insurance agent told him he couldn't insure the boat with that company because it wouldn't cover boats in hurricane zones. The friend patiently explained that Elephant Butte and Heron lakes were well over 1000 miles from any hurricane zone.
The agent responded by explaining that the zones are defined on a state basis, so if a major part of the state was in a hurricane zone, the whole state counted as a hurricane zone. It saved the insurance company the hassle of figuring out which boats to insure and which not to.
The friend explained that New Mexico was landlocked and therefore had no hurricanes whatsoever. The agent responded that that didn't matter, since New Mexico is part of Texas, and Texas gets a lot of hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.
Maybe someone should re-misinform the insurance company that New Mexico is part of Arizona. Last I heard, there aren't any hurricanes in Arizona.
Well, not yet anyway. But insurance companies don't like to risk much of anything, I've found. My homeowner's policy, one would think, would cover hurricane damage. Not so. I pay a hefty second policy for that, and a sizable third policy for any flood damage. Just what they pay for I'm not sure, but I think if someone runs off with my house, I'll finally be able to nail them for some dough.
Funny. Our homeowner's insurance in New Mexico does cover hurricanes. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that by the time a hurricane gets here, it's just a really soggy rainstorm without any wind. We actually LIKE it when a hurricane heads our way -- it means a break in the drought.
Are you a caring person? Would you like to make a difference? You can! Every day, more than 10,000 acre feet of precious water disappear from New Mexico's lakes. The lakes are now vanishing at the rate of 25% every 60 days. Please send all of your spare hurricanes, tropical storms, tropical depressions, cloudbursts, and other sources of that mysterious, elusive, unfamiliar substance known as "rain" right on up to New Mexico. You can make a difference to the poor, parched sailors of the desert seas.
Otherwise, we'll just have to load our boats on trailers, hoist the Jolly Roger, and head for the ocean.
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