A Novel Figure Here

I've been think about the craft of writing a lot more and I would assume that this is because of A Moveable Feast. Ernest Hemingway talks about his thoughts on writing a lot in that book. Did you notice that I've tried to sound like him in the last few posts? I've done a bad job of it, but it's true.

Something that I've done over the last little are little memoir/short stories about friends who I've fallen out of touch with. I would still consider all of them my friends, but in every case I am nowhere near as close with the person as I used to be. I think they are pretty good. I also think that I am nowhere near comfortable posting them at this time. It would not be hard for them to find them. If the people they are about read them, it would be weird.

They are very personal and I guess that is what makes it weird. But that's also what makes it good. If I feel weird about posting them, that means they're hitting on something true. Does that mean I should post them, regardless of consequence? It means that these mini memoirs are hitting on something bigger in my life and about people my age. I guess I'm projecting that last sentence onto them.

It's mostly that these are things that I would certainly not say to each of the people personally, so I would feel awful saying indirectly here. But if I felt the need to write it down, was it not worth saying?

I'm really just going around in circles here. Not even a shred of value in the whole post. Just trying to hash out when something is good, what makes it good and if me putting this writing anywhere, having the courage to do so, would in fact be the functioning quality that makes them good.

Good Luck is a very good band. I slept on them way too long. This record is just wonderful.

Five Second Pose

When I write in this blog with regularity, pieces start to percolate a lot faster in mind. Generally, the more I write, the better my ideas to write about get. That makes sense, because I suppose that the more I write, the more I think subconsciously think about writing, thus making ideas for blog posts come together in a much better way. Those sentences seem fairly confusing. Do they make sense? I hope they make sense.

I've said things to that effect many times before on IMU here, so much so that I'm sure a post about my writing process now induces nausea among my two devoted readers. But there's also another funny thing that happens when I'm writing constantly: Some of my ideas suck.

This happens to everyone. Even the best artists produce bad work sometimes.

 (Being an author certainly constitutes being an artist, in some way for sure, especially since the second half of the Nineteenth Century. All artists are trying to do the same shit; some with paint, some with an instrument, some with a laptop keyboard. But writing this blog constitutes being an author in some minor way too, right? So therefore being the creator of this here blog makes me a (shitty, Gen Y) artist too, doesn't it? I ain't no one-trick pony. I play root note basslines in a punk band AND write incoherent blog posts.)

Every single one does. Your favourite painter has a notebook full of unfinished sketches, your favourite author a garbage can of crumpled up notes. What's weird about this blog is that all of my god-awful posts are right there beside my good ones. I guess what I gain by having a nice, visible place for my writing to exist, I lose by having my most half-assed efforts being equally as visible.

I started thinking about this after I put that post about Andrew W.K. up about two weeks ago. I think that that is a truly awful post. There's some sort of statement I'm trying to make about how great I think AWK's life philosophy is, but it gets lost in incoherent prose that skirts my main idea, but never really expresses it clearly. I thought about deleting that post, but I have a self-enforced rule that I am never to delete a post from this blog, no matter how embarrassing it is. You can check that now, look how much post-break up awfulness there is back there.

Brother, there's tons.

This lead me to create a 5-level ranking system for own posts on this blog:

5: You could not have written that blog any better Tim. You said exactly what you wanted to say. You even went to new places you hadn't planned on going while writing it. High five.

4. A great and enjoyable read. It came out looking just like you wanted it to. Good points!

3. Didn't quite get there, but still has a main idea and more or less resembles what you set out to write. Next time!

2. Well, you were trying to say something, I guess. At least you got that going for you.

1. You should probably delete this, but noooooooo, you have to stick to your principles.

Look at me, providing you with handy links there to understand my point. That's gotta move this post up from a 3 to a 4 at least! You know how much I cringed looking at that ALL video post? Fuck.

 Now, those examples are really just off the top of my head, and honestly I might give most of them a different score depending on my mood.

I really just started this thing as way to cover myself for the AWK post that I embarrassed about, so I'm not really sure what type of note to end this off on. One of the main topics of my thesis is the idea of failure and how society responds to it, so it's something that constantly on my mind in various capacities.

What's weird/neat/distinct about blogs is that all of my failures (poorly written/thought-out posts) are all right here on display. That's kind of the way the world works now too. Everyone is on display constantly through their various social media accounts and whatever else, so more and more every person is turning into a "this is me, take it or leave it" type of thing. That could be bad in a lot of ways, but it could also be great in a lot of ways and I'm not really sure which stance I would want to take on that issue.

I guess I'll end with one of the true principles of the world:

Fuckin' way she goes Rick.