Thinking about Writing

Thinking about Writing:

It’s 2:16 AM here in Israel, and after a long absence I am returning to work tomorrow morning. When I opened this blog I decided to write in it once a day at a minimum, as long as I can access the web, about something I read or experienced online.

Had I heard myself a few years ago, I think I would have found the notion ridiculous – even if I ignore the late hour, forcing oneself to do something seems like the best way to make a habit distasteful, and it’s outcome – useless and of bad quality. I probably would have kept thinking that had I not seen my mother do it for a year.

As part of her job my mother began writing weekly pieces for a newspaper. She wasn’t forced to do it at any point, as the column she wrote did not exist beforehand, but once she decided to begin contributing to the newspaper, she never took a break – even when she felt like she had nothing to write about.

Hearing her experience – how stimulated she felt from the weekly practice, was one inspiration for this blog. The other was the realization that if want to start being part of the developments in this world, I need to get out and read information, as well as engage with it myself (in more than a facebook share or a tweet, not that they don’t have their merits).

Granted, I’m still starting here, but I’m proud that I didn’t give up today, and hope it is a sign of things to come. I’m also happy that this habit is restoring my craving for another one – the habit of reading. I’m starting by reading articles but my kindle account is starting to overflow with samples of books I’d like to read.

All this thinking about writing and reading lead me to share the following post with you – it’s an excerpt of an essay of Nicholas Carr on reading where, unlike his often mentioned persona of a “buzzkill”, he writes beautifully on the immersion of readers in prose.

So despite this blog being far from being literature, I hope it will be stimulating and perhaps even inspiring – or at the very least, that the links I share will be! 🙂

via tumblr http://vehpus.tumblr.com/post/15266620324 at January 04, 2012 at 02:34AM

Tags: inspiration, reading, writing