Just like athletes and dancers, those of us who call ourselves writers need to “practice” our craft and “warm up” before embarking on a new piece of work.
Whenever I’m faced with the prospect of a brand new writing project and find myself sitting in front of that blank computer screen, fingers poised over the keys, I need to feel that I am in practice and that I’m warmed up to begin properly. So, how do writers practice when they’re not writing something destined for publication in one way or another? And how do we warm up for the task at hand?
Over the years, many writers have simply kept journals. I’ve done that myself and I continue to do it. I love my journals as any of my regular readers know. I have journals for a wide variety of things. But they do serve me two very different purposes.
The first purpose is for me to have a place to write down ideas as they come to me. Most writers do this and these days many will do it electronically on IPhones and IPads or other electronic devices. I do this as well, but for me there is nothing like my nice pen and my Moleskine journal(s).
The second purpose for me in keeping journals is for writing practice. Writing guru Natalie Goldberg says, “It’s good to go off and write a novel, but don’t stop doing writing practice. It is what keeps you in tune…”[1] I’ve always loved her approach to writing practice; keep your hand moving. That works fine when I use a pen and notebook, but it’s not so useful when I’m at a keyboard. Maybe it should be, but it isn’t. That’s where blogging comes in for me.
Just like everyone else out there, when blogging first started to become a force, I started a blog. I thought that I could use the blog to make some of the work I do at the university available to a wider audience – but I wasn’t committed to it, and as I look back on the exercise now, I think I really wanted to learn the technical aspects of blogging more than I wanted it to be good pieces of writing. But blogging can be that practice Natalie talks about.
Consider this: if you are a writer, you need to write every day – or at least those five days a week that you devote to “work.” (I know, some of your friends don’t think you’re actually working when all you seem to be doing is sitting at home diddling away on the computer – my mother thinks that if I’m not in front of a class or at a meeting, I must not be working. I wonder where she thinks those books come from?) But you don’t always have a big project – and sometimes when you do, all you seem to be able to do is stare at that blank screen. This is where blogging as writing practice comes in.
Blogging, however, can only be a practice if you are committed to it. This means that you commit to writing almost every day and posting at least every week or two. But do you have to make your every blogged thought available to the masses? In a word, NO!
Not every blog has or needs to have an audience. You can actually blog away with your settings set on private. It does not need to be searchable by the Googles of the world.
For most people, blogging requires an idea that triggers a personal response that then becomes the basis of a blog post that begs for reader response. Blogging in this scenario is a very public activity that begs for that dialogue. Blogging as writing practice, on the other hand, does not need an idea, or an angle. It does not need an audience, and certainly doesn’t need any feedback. It just needs the writer to begin with a word or two – such as “I remember…” as suggested by Natalie Goldberg – and fingers to the keyboard, repeating that two words every time the ideas stop flowing. What’s very important here is that what you write doesn’t even have to be good – it just has to be.
This is how I justify spending time on this and my other blog – the other blog is one that chronicles my other passion – travel. They started out as ways simply to practice and warm-up before a big project. They have, obviously, evolved. That’s the nice thing about writing practice (even in your journals): you never know where they might lead. They just don’t need to have an objective at the outset. Happy blogging!
The Common Craft video reminds us that blogs are “news” of the 21st century – but as writers, we know better. Blogs can be anything we want!
[1] Goldberg, Natalie. (1986, 2005). Writing Down the bones. Shambhala Publications, p. 17.
Patricia J. Parsons 
I, too, find blogging a satisfying endeavour. I also find it builds a portfolio of work on my blog. My problem is that sometimes I like it a bit too much. Blogging, unlike writing a research paper, book, or even a magazine article, can be accomplished so quickly. You can have an idea, flesh it out, and post it often within hours. This is the beauty and the curse for me, as it can distract me from other writing I wish to be doing. That said, I love the opportunity blogging opens for dialogue and encourage everyone who reads a blog and has an opinion on it, to leave a comment. Most bloggers I know love nothing more than direct responses. P.S. Love this tip about starting a writing exercise with “I remember…” I may need to borrow that one.
Alison, I agree that blogging can be accomplished quickly — but maybe that’s part of the problem with the blogosphere. I think that there’s a place for blogs to be repositories of well-planned, thoughtful writing pieces.
I can’t lay claim to those writing exerciese! If you dont’ own a cop of Natalie goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, I highly recommend you pick it up — this one and others are hers. P.
Life is funny. I was sitting in my writing group tonight, and on the bookshelf behind the speaker was a copy of Writing Down the Bones. I borrowed it and am about to tuck in. Thanks for the tip.