Commitment

I've been toying around with the idea of making a commitment to write here once a day for a month. I have a friend doing that right now, and I know others who have done this. I guess my problem lies in thinking about why I even feel the need to do it.

There is a part of me that resists the idea of forcing myself to write. I am not of the school that good writers sit down each day and write for a certain amount of time, no matter what. Like a job. Of course I'm learning to shake off my Puritan shackles and embrace a more bohemian outlook on life, work, etc. But I guess that this idea that writing each day is like a job that one must trudge through troubles me, and makes me looking upon writing as a chore.

On the other hand, I am not of the school that one should write only when struck with inspiration. If that was the case, I would never have finished the MA, or written half much as I have on this blog.

Perhaps, I lie somewhere in the middle. My writing style drives H nuts. I will sit around and do no writing for days. I talk about what I want to write. I think about it. I make some half-ass attempts to write but I don't save anything that comes out. And then one day, a week or two (sometimes longer) of having the original inspiration to write, I sit down, and in a matter of minutes/hours, have typed out the whole thing. It's a combination of inspiration but also of time spent, I suppose, working to make sure that I have it all laid out in my head. I don't take notes, make outlines, etc. I just mull it over for a long time and eventually I feel like I can put it all into words.

But I also feel like I've been letting other things (Facebook and cheap mysteries) suck up my time. Instead of doing the writing here I get distracted by stupid things. I wonder if forcing myself to write regardless of what I'm feeling would help me to break away from these things. I want to break away from them for various reasons. I want to write even though I'm a little scared of what will come out right now.

I guess I just argued myself into writing everyday for the month of August. Keep in touch...might get interesting here.