Scanning through my blog posts since I started blogging here (and my previous blog Pigeons Are Evil, now lost to the sands of time) it’s obvious that I’ve never particularly focused on the one topic for very long. Within these archives are half-started stories, captured and experimented with and then tossed to the sidelines. There are the odd book reviews trying to capture some of the thoughts that I’ve had about them and formulate an opinion. Sometimes, that opinion only comes in the writing of the review of course. As Isaac Asimov famously said, it’s “thinking with my fingers.” Susan Sontag said a very similar thing actually. Maybe there’s something about the construction of cogent sentences that helps certain people to better frame the random ideas whizzing around in their heads? Like trying to capture the fizzing, warping shapes created by the iTunes visualizer!
Writing it out and then making it public (publishing it) even if there is no one reading it, puts your words into a new and uncertain position with the world. It creates a tension for the writing and the writer. A tension that an unknown reader might break with a pithy off-hand comment, or a searing insight that hadn’t been thought of before. Despite the proliferation of blogs and the harsh treatment of them by mainstream media* they have a very real value in creating small groups of readers or helping someone think about their writing in a public sphere, even if it isn’t that good sometimes. But really, what constitutes good writing?
Anyway, I’m getting away from my point a bit. I’ve never really known what my blog is for, except I’ve enjoyed doing it and felt that need to do it. Even when I’ve been editing my own magazines or websites in a professional capacity for companies, or having my art writing published. The thing that’s always bothered me is this idea of the ‘theme’ of my blog. Is it a this or that, type of blog. It contains so many odds and ends, it’s hard to know, even for me at times, so god help anyone who ever read it.
But what I think what it does do well, is give me that scope for testing out ideas and thoughts that might be useful for turning into fuller articles. I’ve been trying to… understand, recently, where I could find ideas for writing about things for publication. My mind is totally blank, I could stare at a scrap of paper for hours and nothing would come. Yet, ironically, open a new blog post and something comes to mind straight away. Or alternatively, an idea stirs in my mind and it’s a blog post, in no time at all. There’s no pressure to be profane or insightful or even written well, the blog post can just sit there, fermenting.
Perhaps that is why I blog, only I didn’t realise it? Whatever the reason, I’ll probably think something completely different tomorrow. But you can bet I’ll blog about it.
*that’s a very sweeping statement, I know. What I’m thinking about is the attack on blogging by so-called amateurs, as opposed to professionals writing for newspaper blogs like the guardian.
K-Punk (aka Mark Fisher) has written up
