So I’m taking part in this new thing… well.. newer than this new thing. This blog is new, but the newest of the new things is the new Writing 101 that’s going on in the daily prompt. In an odd sense of belonging and coincidental signage, the theme of the first project is “Just write” 20 minutes of free writing to be put up on the blog. Which at first seems like a cop-out but that’s only to me. Who am I to argue with the teacher. I am the student (Ohm… No that’s not an acronym)
I think my biggest struggle with this being the first lesson is that I’ve been free-style writing for 10 years on my public journal that I keep over on Digital Expressions and have been keeping for the past 10 years. Not 10 years straight mind you. There was times where access to a computer or time, more accurately, was limited. So where I look at free writing or when I hear those two words combined the first thing that comes to mind is a simple narration. Something that is my forte to say the least. I could narrate a frog crossing the road and make it sound interesting… but I feel like that’s been done so I won’t go there.
Blogging in it’s whole is something of a bandwagon that I was on before it was a thing but at the same time it was very much a different outlet for me than it has become today. Today people blog not only to get their voice out there but to get their voice out there on a very particular topic that is almost sanitized in the professionalism of it. I’m not trying to paint with a wide brush here (Although I realize I do that a lot) but the blogs that are ‘out there’ the most are the ones where people are almost ‘safe’ with what they’re writing about. Something that appeals to the masses and hell, why not? That’s how you get out there right? So the point I’m really trying to make is that I’m not trying to crucify those who write opinions professionally, it’s just not something I “get.”
For me, writing has always been a very personal outlet, where I could express my queer thoughts and odd nature without the risk of being judged. Even in my darkest moment where I wrote something akin to psychobabble without punctuation or paragraphs but rambled for paaages, people still managed to comment either agreeing or giving me moral support for having the gall to ‘get it all out there’ because, in my belief, what causes people to go off the handle is that lack of outlet. If you have no one to talk to or no where to put your thoughts, your mind will be poisoned.
10 mins left AHHHH The pressure!
Writing pressure. The one pressure that drives me round (Right round baby, like a record baby, right round round round…. Sorry.) As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m a kitchen manager. I deal with Students of a Post Secondary level that are looking for a job to supply them with beer money, or rent… but most likely beer money. So it goes without saying that pressure is nothing new to me and nothing I can’t handle… Except relationship fight pressure. That stuff is THE WORST. Amirite?
Anyway.
The pressure I get from writing is all self inflicted and I feel that’s the worst pressure of all you can put on yourself. When you put pressure on yourself you’re like a nail that’s holding the hammer. You can pound as much as you want but you’re a) Doing it to yourself and B) you’re only impacting yourself into something that you can’t get yourself out of. I feel like there’s more analogy talk in there but I’m going to skip over the rest of it because it’s starting to hurt my head (And all I can picture is a Cartoon nail with a hammer above it’s head clenching like ‘this is gonna suck!”)
As I come up on the last 5 minutes of ‘just write’ I ask any new readers who are about to come by here, but how do you deal with writing pressure?… that took me way less than 5 minutes to type…
Thanks for Reading,
-Zed
Just Write 