I was IM-ing with a friend back in the states, and we got onto the topic of writing. It’s one of those subjects which I find myself falling into with relative ease. The older I get the more I realize how rare and precious good writing is. (And yes, I also realize how much better my own could be.) It’s striking me just how important writing is in my life and how much my life is shifting around it.
(Ironically, I’m finding myself unable to articulate what feels like an immensely important topic. The difference between “real” writing and journal writing—like this blog—is that here it’s more important that I slog forward whereas the former would require I stop, think, draft, erase, re-draft and then edit, edit, edit! So slog on I shall.)
If you were to ask me at age 20 whether “writing” was likely to be an integral part of my life, I’d probably have shrugged my shoulders. Back then I wrote short stories because I enjoyed it, but I knew it to be a hobby—one I wasn’t particularly good at—so it didn’t carry much weight. Back then I probably thought I was going to ultimately become a Math professor at some college, and beyond the occasional esoteric paper being published, it wouldn’t be a big deal. Back then I thought “writing” was done by people who wrote books and that was about it.
I’m guessing that if you don’t know me you would see this as an introduction to the profound writing-intensive career that my life has taken on. No, not so much. Right now I write computer code which isn’t the same thing at all. But there are a lot of things I’ve been doing around the periphery of writing that I’ve been doing quite a bit of. For example, a year ago I was working hard on co-writing the bylaws of the Stonewall Young Democrats.
That’s a project I’m rather proud of. Writing bylaws is a lot like writing law. Once upon a time I thought writing law meant you had to use obscure terminology and weird grammatical sentence structure in order to help preserve lawyers’ job security. In fact, the best law is that which is written cleanly and simply. The U.S. Constitution is a good example of a document that was masterfully designed, "as complex as necessary" and absolutely no more. Compare that with the California State Constitution, which is written with so many twists and turns that it’s no wonder the state is one big legal traffic-jam!
I’ve written a few articles on this web site, mostly computer bits. Too many are unfinished drafts, but a few (the shorter, complete ones) have been helpful to people—or so a variety of friendly e-mails have told me. One of the reasons I’m studying Spanish right now at the local community college is a hope that soon I can start writing computer articles in Spanish, a language in which those sorts of materials are sorely missing. (And I harbor a secret hope that I’ll consequently get a nice cushy job-offer in some exotic place like Argentina or Chile. At least for a few years or so!)
The part of the Murray-persona that is still an aspiring actor knows that I’ve got to start getting good at writing stage material. Nobody ever "gets discovered" in this biz—that’s all a myth. The best thing to do if daddy isn’t last generation’s great Director or Producer is to create your own one-man show. My friend Dale, who just a couple years ago expressed that he wanted to try the career of Comic, is well on his way to creating a one-man, one-woman show with a partner titled "Sacred Underwear". It had it’s first preview in Trenton, New Jersey last week. Really Dale’s putting me to shame, because whereas I’ve been quietly grumbling that I need to do something like this, he’s gotten off his ass and done it. He deserves a lot of credit for putting his money (or energy or whatever) where his mouth is. Dale’s comedy-blog is also fascinating because he goes through his internal process of developing comedy material and then editing, editing, editing and experimenting until it’s working right.
Finally there’s more political work. I’m on the Communications Committee of Stonewall Young Democrats, and I’m not the VP of Communications for Stonewall Democratic Club. Here my roles involve working on these groups’ web sites, developing PR strategies, and generally figuring out the best way to craft “messages” for effective consumption in public. I’m also a fan of simply good communication, like the really effective oration of President Clinton and up-and-coming Representative Angie Paccione who is awesome to watch in a political panel because she just eats up the camera and takes great relish in explaining to the public what’s going on with a particular issue and how to tackle it. When they say “the pen is mightier than the sword” these are the people they are talking about.
There's a little bit of the old "fiction" writing that I used to do so prolifically as a kid. Mostly it's just in a fun little co-writing project that I'm doing with a friend. (Which is a private enough endeavor that you shouldn't expect to see more mention of it here. It's just a fun writing exercise between two friends.) I wish I could do more of it, but in a life as hectic as mine is, "fun for-the-hell-of-it writing" takes a back bench to other projects like getting out and dating more. But who knows what the future has in store. I guess I also don't think seriously about that kind of writing because I'm not all that good at it. (Now if you want to see someone who has a really good grasp of the short-story form, there are some real gems in a friend's web journal—he hates the word "blog" so I won't use it. Ooops!) I especially like "Teaching Robo" and ""Jeff vs the Gorgon".
Now comes the point at which I feel I should come up with some nice overall summary to explain why my audience (you) should feel rewarded for patiently putting up with a couple pages of my rambling. (Duh......) I guess it’s just as simple as I’d started: it’s really beginning to hit my how much my life and interest and focus surrounds “writing”. I’m recognizing that I’ve got to set the goal at getting better at it (both writing more regularly and writing more clearly) and I’ve got to get off my ass and do it more. (Although damn it takes a lot of time! This little rambling has taken over an hour out of a short and precious weekend.)
I do hope to set myself the goal of writing a couple essays (that will end up simply blog entries) that have a higher caliber than my typical rant, where I'll actually plan what I'm writing, do a couple drafts, edit, and end up with a higher-quality piece than my readers (both of them) are used to. One idea I've been tossing around in my head is a piece titled "I, Ferengi" based on the cultural differences I've noticed between my own U.S. culture (mores, priorities, etc.) and more European ones. I'd also like to maybe write a general impression of London, now that I will soon have spent 8 weeks here.
Sadly, sitting down and crafting English tends not to be a high priority in my life. I hope to change this, but we'll see. Until that point, I think it's admirable enough to commit to keeping my blog(s) more regular.
Posted by Murray Todd Williams at August 21, 2005 08:13 AM