An Actual Beginning: On Hobbies

Not long ago, I left a message board that had become a hobby to the point of obsession. I can't explain what it was about this particular corner of the Internet that had me so entranced (the people? the games? the knowledge that there was a prevalent idiot base that was easy to shut down, placating my ego and assuring my place on the top of some imagined intellectual food chain?), but I was there... for a long time, and for long periods of time during the day. And night. And at work. And pretty much all the time.

These are the sorts of distractions that make writing such a daunting task. We don't like to admit it, but people feel a sense of obligation to our hobbies. And I'm not talking about nerds like me who are into pro wrestling and video games. I'm talking about football fans, water cooler reality TV junkies, and presumably bolo tie whittling hobbyists. The things we enjoy can--and do--consume us, particularly in a culture that connects consumerism, consumption, and entertainment as intrinsically as this country does.

So I come forward today with a theory for creative writers, one that I think will be a guiding force in this blog. I think that, more than anything else, we should learn to enjoy writing.

It's a hard balance to strike. I believe that writers need to be so arrogant that we get a rush when we write... and when we read what we create. We need to be selfish bastards, enraptured by the worlds we create on the page. On the other hand, when the time comes to review, to revise, and (usually) to rewrite, we need to be able to detach ourselves from that obsession, to look back on our work with an objective eye.

In order to commit to writing, we need to obsess about it the way other people obsess about their hobbies. We need to cut loose the distractions. We need to make excuses to sit down and write, because too often, it feels like work.

That goal--to keep writing from feeling like work--will be something to which I'll come back frequently. For now, this blog exists as a catalog of my life in writing as it happens, and I hope you'll find something interesting or insightful along the way. But for the most part, it's an excuse for me to a prick about my own writing. Call me a selfish bastard if you want. That's fine. I think it makes me a better writer, and anyway, I can give it up when it's time to fix, fix, fix.

Enter the Baconatrix

First post goes here whooooooooooooooooooo.