of the tip of my tongue
After the last two bookish blips, I thought I’d keep it matchy-matchy and say three words about writing. Only three though, because I reserve rambling for academic papers.
I’m an introvert — every word exiting my mouth is measured and rehearsed. I’m a friendly introvert, though, with a little swag. Enough to be eloquent a few times a year, but not enough to go pro and freestyle rap fulltime. Thank God.
Of course it’s even worse with the written word. It’s painstaking, the coaxing out of words from the cozy cocoon of my mind.
So I pretend that I can write, and pretend that I can fire off effortless paragraphs while yowling falsetto harmonies to vintage Lauryn Hill, and ignoring the squeak of the pinkie-sized mouse who moonlights as a crumb destruction specialist in my kitchen, and wearing an obnoxious brass ring that jangles every time my middle finger types an E, D, or C.
See what happens when I try to write about writing? Gah!
All I really wanted to say today was this:
About three months ago the idea of this blog was pressing down so hard on me that I yelled “UNCLE!” and brought it into being. I’m so glad I did. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and engaging and enriching my journey since then.
Any unborn creative endeavor poking you in the ribs, these days?
So true! I just wrote a post about how I don’t write too much – ironic. I am an introvert too. Sometimes I am just not very talkative, and it shows in my posts : )
I’m definitely of the “less is more” school of thought, too — hopefully our readers can value quality over quantity. I know I do. That said, I think consistency is extremely important. I prefer reading blogs that post smaller bites, but more often.
“So I pretend that I can write” — No need to pretend, you write beautifully. As far as creative endeavors, I have so many marinating in the primordial soup that is my brain, eventually they will just create themselves by spilling out.
So you’re an evolutionist! I like the idea that creative plankton is coming together by itself and forming organisms on the sly — it takes so much pressure off of us, as writers/creators. (:
uncle!
Good for you! It doesn’t have to be easy to be good (sometimes the very opposite!) I think that photography has helped me out a lot as an introverted blogger. I don’t always want to say a whole lot, but I do want to share my world, and photos can go a LONG way to that end. And as for creative projects… Yes. I really want to start a blog where I share portraits of both strangers and people I know. But I am too shy to take pictures of people. I have the domain saved and everything, but I just can’t seem to put up that first picture and make it official– I don’t like starting things and not finishing/ letting them languish.
Go for it, girl.
I took a street photography course one summer, and it terrified the HECK out of me. I was surprised at how many strangers were genuinely tickled to be asked for a portrait, though — what’s the worse thing that can happen? (:
I think it’s all about the thoughts, not the words. If you have a thought, words flock to it like paparazzi. Do you measure yourself so carefully when you speak? When you think in advance, in solitude, fantasizing how you’d like to speak for yourself in society, things are measured there. But I think people who get along well in company do so because they’re loosed up and unself-conscious.
Declan, good thoughts. I think for me it’s more a matter of my love for precision and well-chosen words that make me a slightly more hesitant speaker. Even when I’m in the company of people I feel comfortable with, words don’t flock to me, I gather them. Especially when I’m speaking in languages other than my native English, which is pretty often these days.
You’re right, precision is always the prize of the mind’s eye. If I can just throw my flock image in the trash. But what I do think, is that expression is not geometrically neat. Suggestiveness is as honed as things get, a narrowing of the fuzziness of the borders between feelings. Our hearts and minds look like the lines of a map terribly out of focus and words a murky lens, always too far or too close to the map!
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