I'm blogging...

I started this blog in an attempt to get myself writing on a more frequent basis.  I spend more time thinking about writing than I do actual writing.  This, obviously, is a problem being that I am currently enrolled in a writing program.

The subjects of my posts are yet to be determined, meaning there is no general theme to this blog.  It's likely going to be about whatever is currently on my mind that I feel compelled to write about.  With that said, I don't mean for this to be like a diary; rather, I'm hoping that I can accomplish two things: 

1. Free my mind of any thoughts that may be mucking up or keeping me from writing/finishing stories in progress.

2. Keep me in the habit of writing.

SIU hosts the Devil's Kitchen Literary Festival each year.  When I was I senior, there was a panel discussion where one of the writers said that writer's block doesn't exist.  You can always write something, she had said, even if it's shit.  It's when the writer refuses, or fears, to write something bad that they place blame on writer's block.  I agree with this assessment, but I also have other things to blame for my lack of writing.  For example, syndicated episodes of Seinfeld are always a good reason to delay writing for another half hour, even if I have already seen the "magic-lugee" episode a couple dozen times.  I get distracted easily, I put writing off until the last minute, there's suddenly something that must be done or the universe will collapse within itself.

I read an excerpt from Walter Mosley's This Year You Write Your Novel from the March/April 2007 issue of Poets & Writers.  He says that a writer should write no less than an hour and a half a day.  While he says this in reference to being able to finish a novel within the next year, I believe that in order to be a successful writer--successful in the sense that you write something worth reading, not successful in the monetary sense--writing every day is vital.  The writer needs to make time.

I figure that I if I make myself update this blog daily, I'll feel compelled to take the momentum and finish up one of my stories, revise one of my disasters, or get an idea for a new potential failure.  Even if this isn't the best mindset to have, at least I'll be writing.

The Super Bowl is tomorrow, the college basketball season is approaching its apex, pitchers and catchers report for spring training in less than two weeks, and there's some sort of election in November I heard something about in passing the other day.  I have a feeling these items will be the subject of one or many rants on this page.