Writing

Textured Thoughts In Text

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Gods I needed to see this article – Late-Stage Pandemic Is Messing With Your Brain. I feel so close to this author I never met, and far less alone.

This article is about what we’re experiencing during the pandemic and why. It’s filled with all-to-familiar descriptions of things we’re all dealing with. Such as:

. . . I feel like I have spent the past year being pushed through a pasta extruder. I wake up groggy and spend every day moving from the couch to the dining-room table to the bed and back. At some point night falls, and at some point after that I close work-related browser windows and open leisure-related ones.

These are words with texture. Though the article lists of science facts and quotes from experts, but these words remind you someone else out there is like you. It’s great to know why but this article also says yes, I am there as well.

We need articles and writing like this.

Earlier I noted I had gone from “please no Pandemic writing” to “let’s write about it.” This article is a grand example why, not just for the facts, but for the feelings. Facts explain, but feelings help us understand. Those personal words, those tar-sticky sentences that attach to our minds, create connection.

This is why even in an area that may be oversaturated – like the inevitable writing about the Pandemic – it is valuable to write and write well. Those deep connections you make with your textured words, those gritty little sentences, help people “get it.” They may “get” a scientific truth or just why you’re complaining, but they “get it” and take something away from the experience of reading.

Writing and writing well will connect you to people, even over things that may seem banal. So keep writing, as we all need that connection. If anything in these lonely times, we’re reminded of how even text from a stranger helps us feel understood and seen and be part of something.

Steven Savage

Actually, Let’s Write About The Pandemic

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I’ve been dreading that we’ll see an onslaught of “Pandemic tales” in the realm of books. Fictions with familiar plagues, quick books offering useless advice, and so on. I’m obviously and worried we’d see too many people jumping on the plague train.

I’d now like to take that back.

First, I want to take that back in that my assumptions were very negative. There are doubtlessly many people who will write about the Pandemic for good reasons. I focused too much on the negative reasons people might write on it, which was out of line.

My second reason is that I’ve come to realize that we need to look at the Pandemic in fiction, advice books, and memoirs. We need this so we can process the experience.

The Pandemic is overwhelming. Even those of us thinking we’re handling it are not functioning at 100%. Even after the Pandemic, we’ll need to understand our experience and that of others. The written word is a way to do that.

Fiction lets us understand experiences from a safe distance and even a different perspective.

Nonfiction lets us analyze and evaluate data and analysis.

Memoirs let us step into the place of another and see their experience.

Each written work is a gateway into another way to see what we went through.

Writing is a way for us to handle, understand, and share what we’ve gone through. Sure there will be bad work, exploitative work, and so on – but isn’t that happening anyway? I shouldn’t judge the Pandemic by the standards of what goes on anyway.

However, there’s a second reason I realized we should be fine with “Pandemic writing.” Some of us who write may need to write it. We want to get out our feelings, or our inspirations, or record our experiences. We as writers may need to write these books that will come.

Our muse is going to drive us to write these books, so why not? Hell, I’m even considering one at this point (from my unique approach, of course).

So, I take back anything I said about “oh, gods, not an onslaught of Pandemic books.” Writing is how we deal with, learn, understand, and experience things. The Pandemic is appropriate material.

(Besides, we can criticize lousy or opportunistic work no matter how it came to be.)

Steven Savage

My Place To Write: The Blog

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Serdar and I discuss writing all the time as we are both writers and people fascinated by writing. The blog post you are reading resulted from one of those conversations – what is blogging’s value? Yes, I am presenting you with a blog post about blog posts.

Serdar eloquently addressed this subject in his own blog, and it is my turn. He has his story, and I have mine, and this story explains why I find value in blogging.

Let’s start at the beginning.

I have always loved writing, and I mean that without irony or guile. I recall all my times writing and making comics as a child, inspired by the movies and shows and books of my youth. Like many children, I had the ambition to write professionally, but even as plans came, changed, and went, the writing continued.

I wrote.

Why? Ironically I can’t put it into words easily. Technically there’s the thrill of construction and creation. Emotionally there’s that feeling you get when sensations and experiences flow out of your fingers. Personally, there’s that hope to reach out to and connect people. As a finite being, there’s a sense of legacy, making something that outlasts you.

For all my writing experience, metaphor is the only tool I can use to explain the feelings.

So I wrote, and then the internet came – the age of web pages and text reaching people through HTML and email.

In the 90s I had to get a web page where I’d post links and rants and so on. I reached out to people via words, and though my motivations were a mix of sincerely trying to connect and just wanting attention, it was writing. Eventually, this became Seventh Sanctum, my site of random generators.

The internet kept giving us more, easy ways to connect (as newsgroups faded away). Soon I was on Livejournal, of course, because who wasn’t? That’s where I met blogging.

On LiveJournal I could compose and connect. I could put out a post and reach people. What I said and what I reblogged could influence people, help them, and get a response. LiveJournal showed how you could write and matter without having a book or a newspaper.

But LiveJournal faded, and blogging was the thing for the internet-savvy. Though blogging didn’t have the connectivity of LiveJournal, you had control. It was yours, doing things your way, and owning your name and domain and content. Blogging was perfect for my latest writing venture in the mid-00’s – writing about geeky jobs.

A friend of mine and I had considered writing a book about geeky careers as we knew many talented fanfic writers, cosplayers, and the like. We wanted to see people use these skills in their livelihood, but a book would be challenging to write and publish. But a blog? That was easy.

So we created a blog initially called Fan To Pro (later, MuseHack). We blogged like crazy and had fun doing it, writing about news, career advice, and the like. More people joined us, and we networked with others. Far easier than a book, right?

Then I took my knowledge and wrote a book.

Somewhere after 2010, self-publishing had become easy enough that people could publish their books. I took my writings and ideas and speeches on careers and made the book Fan To Pro (later rewritten).

The child who wrote because of books and TV shows and comics he read finally had a book decades later.

But when you’re an author, you tend to keep writing, and I did. Authors also need a platform – and most authors were starting to blog. Having been blogging for years for Fan To Pro, I blogged for myself as well, beginning in 2008

Thus I had a home for my writing, my way, my stuff. Some of it was for promoting my writing, some of it was done on autopilot so I kept making content, but I wrote.

What’s funny is that my author/personal site has actually created books. Multiple column series I created ended up being the seeds of books on skill portability and  resumes. Yes, my blogging due to my writing a book based on a blog turned into books.

I kept writing. I keep writing. I keep blogging.

Blogs are personal. They are a unique expression of yourself, and you can customize them as you see fit. You can’t get that on any platform you don’t own.

Blogs are long-form if you want. You can do a short post, yes, but you can also do long-form posts. They are a chance to express in detail – and communicate about detail.

You own blogs. Your domain is yours and controlled by you (hopefully). You decide on the technical setup. You are not dependent on any platform – and can move around if needed.

Blogs are easily transformed. Blog posts are excellent fuel for books or a way to try out some ideas to expand later. There is also the advantage that you don’t worry about who owns or rebroadcasts the contents.

Blogs are easily connected.  Blogs have RSS feeds if you set them up, and those can feed into other sources. You connect them your way and in your time.

Blogs last. The site you post to can kill your posts. Companies shut down. Your blog can jump from server to server, host to host, even to other formats (like the books I mentioned).

In an age of posting on other people’s sites, I feel that blogs have yet to be fully appreciated. If I knew how to use their power fully, well, I’d use it.

But no matter what I do or don’t understand, I’m going to keep writing.

Steven Savage