My Writing Really Does Suck

A friendly comment from a self-confessed "grumpy old man" named Morris
had this to say about the previous post:

"Hey man, your writting [sic] does suck."

It's funny, I think that this is the first time anyone in my life has ever said that (usually i get "what the fuck are you talking about?"
or "this is so pretentious and over my head!"), and the effect was
interesting: I told the guy to bite me, before promptly asking him for
writing advice (he is an <href="http://www.crazypromofun.com/">advice columnist< after all).
It's always a surprising experience to suddenly taste, feel, and see
your ego popping out of Nowhere, and this guy pushed a button that
hadn't been pushed in a long time.

The thing is, I don't expect anyone to even bother reading my posts,
all I'd like is the occasional "did you post yet today?" just to keep
me in line. I'm even considering making this thing completely private.
Basically I just want to take advantage of Blogger's archiving engine
as a storehouse for my rough ideas to be turned into-- god
forbid--finished pieces later. For these reasons and more, yes, my
writing on Just Write! does kinda suck.

But what does it mean to "suck"? For a writer, we might look
at two variables: the interior and the exterior of the written work.
The exteriors of my writing on this blog: my use of grammar, economy
of language, etc. are admittedly pretty bad. These posts are dashed
off in my email client, glanced at once, and sent to Blogger without
much second-guessing. That this does a disservice to the casual,
demanding reader (such as Morris, who found this blog god knows how)
is fine by me, it's important just to get my brain churning out ideas
every day of the week (4 days and counting!).

The interiors are another matter, if equally as under-realized on this
blog. The interiors are the intentions, the IDEAS I'm trying to get
across. These are hampered by bad exteriors to be sure, but also by
their own lack of clarity. Normally when I write an essay or a story I
go through a grueling 3-4 coffee shop marathon with a notebook,
exploring every angle of an idea (analogous to the sketchbook practice
I keep as a designer). Sometimes this leads to something brilliant I'd
never even considered when I first sat down to write, other times it
makes me question my entire existence as a writer (as did Morris's
rude comment, even if I sorta asked for it). But with this blog, that
whole process is skipped, and I go write to typing, often formulating
and exploring an idea as I actually type it.

BUT THAT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT! -- something raw, in process, mere
chunder to feed the meta-plants I plan to grow later (if I could ever
get a free moment from work). And the more I practice and take time to
analyze what I've written, the more economical and to-the-point my
writing might become, to the point where, one day my spontaneous posts
WILL be worth reading.

At that point, Morris can still bite me.

ADDENDUM:

A direction this blog might be taking is as general advice for
writers, the same way Matthew Dallman gives excellent advice to
artists of all types. In fact, Morris's advice blog might be a good
way to go: I could solicit requests for writing advice, and do my best
to honor them. Giving writing advice, along with editing, is a great
way to become even deeper in the practice, and serves as a way to
"give back" to those a little earlier on the Writing Path than I may
be. But until then, please do NOT send me any samples of your own
shitty writing, I have enough of my own to deal with ;)