The Need to Write

I feel the itch. 

It comes tonight as it does most evenings, when I'm least aware or ready or prepared.  I have to go to that place -- that quiet, scary place -- and write.

Most of what occurs in that place appears here on this blog.  Looking back over the last year-and-a-half of blogging and writing, I'd estimate that 15% of what I start to write never makes it to the blog.  But even on those nights when I might spend an hour or two writing, even if it does not appear here, the itch gets scratched. 

The blog has been an almost perfect medium for me in which to write.  It wasn't easy at first.  For the first six months or so, I worried almost entirely about the wrong things.  Was this blog was getting enough traffic?.  I wondered, would people cared about what I wrote?   

But as time has ticked forward, I worry less and less about audience.  I've come to appreciate blogging for the chance it offers me as a writer unfettered. 

Back in the day, when I was first discovering the power of writing, words came from my brain unto a piece of paper that could be shared only one person at a time. Today, my potential audience is beyond comprehension. 

So, problem number one solved:  lots of people can read what I write.

Problem two?  Finishing.

Again, the blogesphere addresses the problem perfectly.  Sometimes I write online (via Typepad) and sometimes I write offline (via Pages, which I've come to enjoy more than Word), but the bottom line is that I need to write and only have finite amount of time and brainspace in which to write.

GitRDone, in other words. 

Blogging has helped me get more writing done.  It is a beautiful place, and my primary place, for first-draft writing.  Sure, I work hard to fix typos in my posts.  I also work hard to avoid terribly constructed sentences or awkward thoughts.  But the writing is very much first-draft.  Type, think, type, and think for a solid 45 minutes to one hour, and then it's done.  Like tonight, I routinely begin after 10pm and aim to finish not long after the 11pm bell sounds.

I also love the immediacy of blogging.  I write something, someone else reads it, and I get comments.  Any writer feels wonderful knowing others read what they have produced.  The other day, when I published my quarterly newsletter as part of my day job, I got a call at 8am on the morning on which it was published from a reader who liked what was published. 

With blogging, it's even faster.  People read and respond almost instantaneously. I get to learn what works (and doesn't) immediately. 

I also love how blogging makes it possible for a part-time writer to think full-time about writing.  There isn't a moment these days when I am not thinking about writing.  As I drive, as I meet with people, as I look at the night sky -- all of it unfolds in the language and habit of writing.  I see people and scenes, and think about it in terms of paragraphs.

The practice of blogging -- beyond scratching the existential need to write -- also forces me to record what I think and see.

There's no more hiding.  No more confiding to a few close friends or family members what I think.  The page beckons now.  I can't help but respond.  I must write.  I must confide and think and organize and present. 

Thanks to the blogesphere, I get to be a writer.  I get to scratch the itch.

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Funny how your words describe how I feel. "I need to write", although I've only published one article and have thousands on my desk that have never been submitted, I continue to write! It's something I need to do. The confidence I have in myself as a "writer" is very low, and I know there are those that will never read the words written through tears and laughter, but I still find myself bombarded with the urge to sit at my computer and write! Hats off to all those guys (and gals) out there that are brave enough to share!

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