Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Blogs Put The Joy Back Into Writing.





I created a Facebook page for this blog. I will also post my other published works there too. I've always felt a little weird posting my own stuff on my Facebook stream. If I were to chart in psychobabble Nurse-speak, I'd call such posts to my Facebook page as "Attention Seeking". And it is. Every writer is Attention Seeking until their Attention is Sought. Hence the millions of blogs out there written by lots of everyday people who just want to express themselves. God bless 'em.

I love it that people have blogs. Blogs have brought the fun back into writing. As much as 7th Grade English tramples any love of language that a kid might have for reading and writing, blogs and the Internet are resurrecting our interest. Do we really have to teach writing by diagraming sentences? Why do we spend hour after hour teaching English in a Math-Like Manner? Writing isn't math. Language should be fun. Writing is fun. Why do we teach it like it is pure drudgery?

I got a D minus in 7th Grade English. My grammar never fully recovered--hence, you'll find plenty of mistakes here. Editors always make me look better and I'm nearly always either annoyed by how they clean up a piece or fully enamored with their command of grammar and style. Most times I feel both ways---and when I push a limit, I'm always ecstatic when it squeaks through.  I could never edit--that's a skill I don't have.

This blog is unpolished. What you see is always a first draft filled with lots of mistakes. But some of the mistakes are intentional. I will often emphasize certain words that I think are important by writing them in the Upper Case. I haven't a clue how to use a semi-colon; I think most people haven't a clue how to use them. As for the "comma splice", I'm all for them. Yes, we should Write Right as Ed Abbey used to say--so if you see some grievous errors, feel free to mention them. Just don't ask me to diagram a sentence. Been there. Done that. I failed.

For those who are so inclined, you can Like the Facebook page for this blog, and my other scribbles, by following this link.

Thanks...

3 comments:

  1. Kia ora Allan,
    I'm glad to see a few bloggers still at it. From the heady days of 4-5 years ago when there seemed to be a fairly large and active "community" of bloggers things have certainly quieted down out there. I am not one to track stats and such but going by comments from then on a post would often reach 50 or more, now has dwindled to a few here and there. Most of the like minded blogs I read regularly have disappeared or remain inactive. Apparently most blogs last about two years. I guess I hang in there as I write more for my own record and enjoyment than accruing comments and stats. It is nice to know of course that people do read and view the stuff, and the 4-5 regular visitors who comment I have developed real friendships with, meeting most of them in person along the way.

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  2. ...sorry had not finished. Anyway I think the emergence of FB has eroded blogging as well. And unfortunately that means more sound byte crap than substance in so many cases. Glad to count you as one whom has hung in there. Kia Kaha e hoa!
    Robb

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  3. Robb, I do think you are correct that Facebook did pretty much end blogging. I read your blog, cuz, well, it's good. You are one of the more poetic of writers. Ecstatic in the Muir sense. And that post you wrote about the night you spent in the cabin with your son lost in the woods, hell, that one you should clean up and send to Backpacker. I write for fun. Because it makes me think. Because I have to. Some posts get 50 hits---some posts get thousands of hits. One post got picked up by the national Sierra Club so that one did pretty good. Like you, I've made friends through this medium. I certainly would consider you a comrade. And your buddy Larry (who I met last summer---and if I ever do the John Muir Trail, it will be with him as a partner). Blogging has connected me to a couple writers and editors that I admire. So I continue to pluck out entries, although not near as many as I used to. A person should write a bit everyday---and journaling is much too boring for me. I want to be read. Or at least have the potential to be read. Thanks for reading it...

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