Blogging

Weekend Writing Prompt — What’s In a Name?

Fandango12 Comments

When I first started blogging back in 2005, my big question was what I should title my blog.

I wanted something unique and catchy, and I remembered having read about Dizzy Dean, an American professional baseball pitcher. Dean was struck in the head by a thrown ball while breaking up a double play in the 1934 World Series. Afterwards, Dean told reporters, “They X-rayed my head and found nothing.”

I titled my first blog, “They Took an X-ray of My Head and Found Nothing.”

(Exactly 84 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “question.”

Also for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (x-ray)

Streaking

Fandango34 Comments

According to WordPress, as of today I have posted at least one post a day for 1,595 consecutive days. That’s 4.4 years! And my blog has only existed for 4.7 years. So it’s been a very long time since a day passed without me having posted.

Now I’m in a bit of a jam because if I miss a day, I’ll have to start my streak all over again. Oh the pressure to perform. How long can I keep this melody going? And, more important, is it worth it?

Is continuing to post daily really that important? Is the goal of posting daily an effectual use of my time? Is that how I want to encapsulate the remaining days I have left on earth?

You bet your ass it does. What else am I going to do with my time?

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (consecutive), My Vivid Blog (jam), Ragtag Daily Prompt (melody), The Daily Spur (worth), Your Daily Word Prompt (effectual), and Word of the Day Challenge (encapsulate).

Blogging Insights — Non-writing Writers

Fandango17 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from German-language writer of visionary fiction, Franz Kafka.

“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”

Like most Kafka quotes and much of what he wrote, I found this quote to be rather “Kafkaesque,” meaning odd, peculiar, strange, surreal, unusual, and weird.

What does he mean by a “non-writing writer”? Is that someone who is not a writer but who attempts to write? Or is he talking about someone who is a writer but is not, for whatever reason, writing?

In either case, I am unclear why a non-writing writer should be considered to be a monster, or why not writing would be “courting insanity.”

I like to write, although I don’t think of myself as a “writer.” I enjoy blogging, but if, for whatever reason, I stopped blogging, I don’t believe that would turn me some kind of monster and don’t think that not writing/blogging would bring on any degree of insanity. I would miss it, yes, but I am pretty sure I’d remain sane.

Maybe I’m taking Kafka’s quote too literally, but I guess I would sum up my opinion about this particular quote in one word, which would be “huh?”

Blogging Insights — Do You Feel Me?

Fandango13 Comments

Dr. Tanya has decided to change things up a bit for her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. Instead of using the Q&A format, she provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and ask us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from American novelist E. L. Doctorow.

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

To me, Doctorow’s quote is similar to the writing advice that encourages us to “show, don’t tell.” It’s a technique in which the story and the characters are related through sensory details and actions rather than through exposition. It puts an emphasis on using and showing actions in order to convey the emotions you want readers to experience and interpret, rather than telling the reader what is happening or has happened. It results in a better experience for readers because the “show, don’t tell” style of writing is more immersive for the readers, allowing them to be right there in the room with the story’s characters.

So yes, I concur with E. L. Doctorow. Strive to get your readers to feel something when they read your words.

Blogging Insights — Don’t Interrupt Me

Fandango10 Comments

Dr. Tanya has decided to change things up a bit for her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. Instead of using the Q&A format, she provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and ask us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from French author Jules Renard.

“Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.”

Unless you’re a comedy writer for a TV talk show like Saturday Night Live or The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and must, therefore, work in collaboration with other writers, writing is mostly a solo activity. Well, it is for me, anyway. Hence, unless some emergency or other urgent matter occurs, I don’t want to have my train of thought broken by being interrupted while writing something.

And at my age, I need to write almost everything that occurs to me down as soon as it pops into my head, lest I immediately forget it. Thus, if I am in the process of writing a brilliant sentence regarding a tremendously insightful thought using a few perfectly chosen words, all of that will escape me if interrupted.

So, bottom line, I agree with Monsieur Renard’s quote, although sometimes I find that my writing will be interrupted by my own second thoughts.