Well I guess Blogging will come into its own during this period of mass self-isolation. Today, everyone will need to become an isolated writer figure in order to pass the day and share all of our thoughts with a wider world of friends and acquaintances that -due to the pandemic – we don’t dare to meet up with, hug, kiss and shake hands with.
If everyone is a Blogger today, then what might make my own utterances worth reading? And are they really written for the eyes, for the sake of others? Or are my Blogs just necessary outbursts, ways for me to ‘get something off my chest’ (no pun intended there) or to feel that, despite all of life’s complexities and diversions I have, nevertheless, at least here, in some small way and every week, done a little bit of writing and been a little bit of a writer – it’s reassuring.
If the motive is clarified, the next thing we need is a content, and any regular reader of this Blog will know that my contents can be very immediate and local (I’m tempted to write about that Robin who sings every day on the Cherry Tree outside my window, but of course I did that last week).
I have also often turned my content into a reflection on the task at hand, writing about writing, trying to define Blog writing in particular, or writing in other ways about the very process I am involved with here and now. But perhaps that’s a bit of a ‘cop-out’ and not something many readers would ‘go with’ for long.
Another trick (or method) I sometimes use, and which you might have noticed, is to start writing about the first thing that comes to mind and then just use that as starting point and try to weave my way towards some kind of relevant conclusion.
However, writing is often misunderstood as having been written just as it is read, i.e. as if it flowed from the pen or keyboard just in the way it read, and thus took just as long to write as it takes to read. This is a ‘misunderstanding’ because, of course, a writer re-writes what they have written to correct and improve it, editing, composing, and ultimately contriving something of value and a certain kind of experience or journey for the reader.
Having said that, one of the things that perhaps distinguishes many Blogs (or it might just be me and my blog) is that they are written very fast and published immediately and thus might retain a certain freshness and lack of composure and contrivance, while nevertheless potentially reaching a large audience, and – again potentially, and again, nevertheless – constituting some kind of more or less serious contribution to the long and noble history of writing in general and writing’s many different encounters with different writing technologies.
'ONLY YOU' – A few words on Art and Life In London, by Art Writer Paul O'Kane 