I wrote the following to a friend, a writer, editor & scholar.  Then I decided it should be here.

Seems like each creative interest ebbs and flows throughout my life and swings between photography, music and writing, although the writing has never really blossomed.  And lately I have a strong pull to write but I’m uncertain exactly how to get on with it.  I’ve even thought about taking some kind of online writing course but wouldn’t know where to find a good one, or if it would do more harm than good… y’know…?  I kind of want to write short articles/editorials/essays/whatever that (hopefully) well-express a point of view that will help make people think about issues and (hopefully) act as a result.  Kind of like this and this.

I realized a few days ago that I pour whatever creative juices I have for writing into… emails…  I could make myself feel a little better about this and use the word “correspondence” instead, painting a picture of Jefferson, Emerson, Vonnegut in my head, writing letters.  But it’s emails.  I realized that often I’ll draft, craft and edit so that whatever I’m saying to whatever person is exactly the way I think it should be.  I’m doing it now.  And I think that’s a little stupid, perhaps even sad.  But when I sit down to Write something (with a capital W) it’s so fucking hard to pull it together to actually write.  I realized that the reason I do that is because, mostly, emails have to get written – someone is expecting a reply or a contact from me.  Essays don’t have to be written.  In an email there is probably just one person, someone I know at least a little, and they aren’t reading it like it’s anything more than what it is.  It’s out the door, read, and then it’s gone.  No big pressure, no big expectations.  Same with music and photographs. Music is totally transitory.  And with my photographs I long ago found that emotional place where I can just put it out there and if people like it great, if not, great too.  People look and they move on.  Writing seems so very different than those.

Even as I’m writing this one possible bit of self-advice is forming in the back of my head.  Authors of books I’ve read offer up their wisdom and experience.  I hear Stephen Pressfield saying, “Just sit down and start writing. Keep doing it. Every day.” and Anne Lamott saying “Yes, it will be shitty. It will get better.”  I know.  I just have to impose some sort of structure and deadlines on my own writing I guess.  And not just to do the writing but to share it.  Seth Godin is now saying: “You have to ship, just creating isn’t enough.”

So, here’s the first shipment.