A few weeks ago, my classmates and I named this blog “Against Our Will” because blogging was foreign to us and we were reluctant to post so frequently on one. As the module ended last week, the posts dropped off expectedly, with my last post self-aware of its terminal nature. (see “Writing with Pictures”) Now here I am, typing more or less proactively (my posting quota is not technically met), breathing life back into this purely-experimental writing space.
Not since a strictly summer-spanning journal written in a traditional black-and-white composition notebook have I written for the sake of writing. In hindsight, that experience was most likely crucial to my current writing ability, but I still abandoned it for simple reactive writing. I will most likely improve faster by keeping up with a blog like this one, so it is probably in my best interest to start a spin-off. It will keep me light on my figurative toes so I can more confidently tackle essays and other projects. This is no huge revelation, but constant blogging is pretty much exercise for my skills as a writer.
Essentially everything I was writing before was something I wouldn’t have written unless prompted to. Just like this blog, those essays, those reports, those short stories, were done “against my will,” no matter how well they were done. Surely, if I plan on making a living out of this, it should be fun, lest it become a joyless stint like working at a supermarket. Forget exercise; I need to want to write, and a blog will take me there. It will take me into the realm of social writing and, instead of being like the campanilistic products I continue to treat my compositions as, they will be additions to conversations in text. I just hope someone will be listening to my willful writing.
I still feel the need for that moment of clarity in several aspects of writing, and that includes picking a title. Thus, when I think of a fitting title for my own embryonic blog, I’ll give y’all a holler on this one.
Until then,
Ryan
