The Art and Neuroses of Writing

I wouldn't put "writer" on my resume or passport, but I studied journalism in college (that one year..) and I also used to teach an improvisation and scene study class, where I actually did a bit of writing as well. Ever since I was a kid, I yearned for the perfect creative outlet for my hot mess of a brain. It always comes down to writing somehow. Whether I'm releasing a long overdue brain leak of nonsensical bullshit or actually putting pen to paper about something of some importance, writing is a very interesting process for me.

I'm very much a scatterbrain. When I write, I tend to get off-topic by way of example, making a long-winded reference or just releasing too many unrelated ideas before they're called for. Any journalism professor would tell you this is a bad thing... and it is. It won't hold your reader's attention long enough in the sense that it's almost like reading a big run-on sentence (or 3/4 of your Facebook friends' statuses..). So my writing very rarely stays on topic, nor can I find myself getting to the point quickly. So, needless to say, writing takes me a long time. Sometimes my most clever tweets can take ten to fifteen minutes to perfect within that 140 character limit.

I'm also a compulsive editor. And when I say "compulsive", I mean "I change pretty much everything... at least twice.". Seriously. It's awful. That's part of why I started blogging way back when MySpace was relevant. I used to blog there constantly. It was just idea after idea after idea and I didn't have to think or edit any of it because I just said things the way I would speak. But whenever I've tried to write anything concrete in my life, I've always edited it down to nothing and then it became such an edited nub of writing that I basically give up and never look back. I edit myself out of my own writing.

And in keeping in time with the first point I made, I really have no idea what the point of this post is. As someone who writes frequently, I just thought I'd share what an annoying process this is. So.. long story short, I'll never write professionally. You're welcome.