On writing

And a contract with the Internet to do so regularly

I apologize for any mistakes herein— theoretical, grammatical, technical. And that’s the last time I’m going to be apologizing, for the time being.

I think I’ve decided to try a new kind of writing here. Or maybe not a new kind of writing, but at least a new technique. You see, I’m already doing it. Notice the words “I think” at the head of this paragraph. That’s something I wouldn’t do if I were writing for publication. It’s tentative and doesn’t belong in an article disseminated under the pretense of being pure, unadulterated fact. I’d like to speculate a little.

I’m not writing for publication right now. Well, okay, I’m probably (maybe?) going to click publish on this. But that’s not the point.

Okay, let me back up a step.

My brother is doing this thing, right. This thing, I’m doing here, I think. Where he writes. For 15 minutes a day. A certain number of times a week. This is a thing people do now, as I understand.

It’s a cool project. I struggle with putting limits on myself, in large part because I want to believe in spontaneity and the 15-minutes-a-day-5-days-a-week-thing feels a bit… well, a bit contrived.

Like, what am I supposed to write about? I’m already staring off into space.

Okay, so let me get back to some semblance of a point. I’ve got a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head. I posture that’s a condition many of us find ourselves in. And this medium (can’t help but cringe every time I use that word on this site) seems pretty well suited to mollifying, or at least channeling that condition. And I don’t mean Medium, and I mean writing, like this, in the rawest, most spontaneous way. So there’s the rub: while writing for a fixed period in a fixed interval is not spontaneous, what comes out, I think is.

Alright then. I suppose I’ll commit to something here. I know that if I put it on the Internet where other people might see it, I’ll feel bound to it. (That’s a weird, unintended side-effect of this project creeping into my stream of consciousness already. I like it.)

First, I feel the need to disclaim. I disclaim, as I said before, the mistakes in grammar. I can’t quite disclaim mistakes in theory or thinking or writing that might offend you, reader. But nor can I apologize for them, as I haven’t committed them yet.

I’m just going to start writing and see what comes out. And so now, we come to the terms of the agreement.

Let’s see then. I’m about eight minutes in. I didn’t quite start the recording on time. I promise I’ll do better once this statement of intent is published. But that’s roughly more than halfway through my fifteen minutes.

This brings me to another question. And here, you’ll begin to notice a frenetic quality. I think that’s part of the process. But the question is, do I edit? And I think for now, the answer is no. You see, I do a lot of self-editing in my day job. I spend easily as much time self-editing as I do writing, usually much more time. That’s the nature of that, and this process has to have a different ethos or I’ll get sick of it. This is writing.

I won’t promise any parameters. I can’t say what I’ll feel like writing at three in the morning on a Saturday, or eight in the morning on a Tuesday, or in an airport, or in a coffee shop, or on my phone, or, or, or. On that note then, I can’t say exactly how long I’ll want to write in those places at those times. Perhaps I’ll give myself a range?

Alright. Let’s start this off slow. I’m going to write in 10–15 minutes intervals four times a week. We’ll time it at midnight Saturday, with the coming of the new Jewish week. That way I’ll hopefully have time to play catch up. I’m going to disallow for the moment writing multiple entries in one day.

No catches, penalties, or commitment mechanisms. Just a promise.

And so, briefly, my motives. I did set a time on this one for fifteen minutes, and that will buzz momentarily. Just buzzed, actually. Okay, well I’m not going to just stop writing cold like a twerp. I’m doing this for emotional catharsis. To improve myself as a writer. And above all, as an experiment. To see what comes out.

I think I’ll hit publish.