Bloggin' & Writin'

One reason why I hesitated to start a blog was because I was afraid it would cut into my writing time. That turned out to be foolishness. Far from slowing me down, the blog kicked me out of a lazy rut I’d fallen in and has energized my writing like the morning’s first shot of hooch energizes a drunk. I’d forgotten that cardinal rule of writing, “thou shalt write every day.” If I didn’t have a project due, I didn’t write. I let myself watch TV, that great killer of minds. But now I start my day with a blog entry, and once my fingers are on the keyboard they pick up a momentum that keeps them moving. And the ideas for projects are coming fast and furious as the need for blog-fodder makes me reexamine my writing world. Already I’ve finished “The Devil’s Woodchopper” piece that I mentioned a few entries ago, and that was a project I’d let languish for weeks. I started a new story, “The Cold Inside the Warm,” and though the plot is still in the early stages I think the writing is going well. And, for the first time in over a year I’m ahead on my columns for The Illuminata. A month ahead! Those column ideas came directly from this blog; and the blog also reminded me that the discipline to “put butt in chair” is the secret to finishing writing projects.