I am going to try something different. In order to break the ice, I am writing with absolutely no plan of what to write. "Writing to make meaning," if you will, or "Improv Writing." There seems to be this idea that writing is permanent, that it should be completely accurate and error-free always. If you're publishing a book, these are important things. But the ephemeral world of the internet challenges that tradition. Writing is often in the moment, like Twitter, or meant to be added to or revised later. I am not afraid to record my thoughts as I think them; I have been doing this for years. What scares me is the real-time sharing that Twitter and the rest of blogging technology allows for.
Reading something you've written is sometimes an out of body experience. "Did I really write that?" I often ask myself. Identity is fluid and affected by context, life status, art, you name it. We're always changing, even just a little bit. These changes manifest themselves in different voices in writing. When I write something, I want the chance to read it over with a different identity before I share it. I want to at least try to read it from more than one perspective. I want to meditate on how it will be received by others.
The internet doesn't necessarily eliminate the meditation process. But allows for in-progress sharing. It's like a notebook whose pages are one-way mirrors. When you look at them, all you see are your words. But from the darkened room on the other side, the whole world can see your words, and through them, you.
Reading something you've written is sometimes an out of body experience. "Did I really write that?" I often ask myself. Identity is fluid and affected by context, life status, art, you name it. We're always changing, even just a little bit. These changes manifest themselves in different voices in writing. When I write something, I want the chance to read it over with a different identity before I share it. I want to at least try to read it from more than one perspective. I want to meditate on how it will be received by others.
The internet doesn't necessarily eliminate the meditation process. But allows for in-progress sharing. It's like a notebook whose pages are one-way mirrors. When you look at them, all you see are your words. But from the darkened room on the other side, the whole world can see your words, and through them, you.
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