I hate writing about writing. Sometimes though, it is one of the only things that comes easily as something to write about. Somewhat masturbatory in its nature, but it does get the juices flowing, if you’ll allow me a particularly loaded turn of a phrase. There’s nothing like staring at a blank screen willing an idea to formulate itself in my mind such that I want to put it on paper. That I have ANY idea’s at all that make me feel like sharing them is something in and of itself, but as a stand up comedian it’s usually a lot easier to work with the gist of the idea on stage than it is to genuinely think about an idea, write it down, read it back, edit it, etc. Writing on paper (or on a computer word processor in this case) is a seemingly never-ending process of second-guessing. What is even the point of writing about writing? Is there a point to it? They say, a writer writes. Period. That is the only qualification given sometimes. A writer writes. They don’t say anything about what a writer writes ABOUT. Sometimes the act of writing about writing may just be simply to start getting ideas on paper, about jump-starting the creative mind. It’s about tricking yourself into being loose. Sometimes it’s not particularly easy to let the mind wander in just the right way to conjure the magic. It’s a bit like un-focusing your eye’s to see the 3-d image embedded in a painting.
And it’s not as if once the writing about writing is finished that it’s just discarded. Just because it isn’t written with another reader in mind (certainly not first draft anyhow) doesn’t mean that at some point down the line I might not want to let someone else read it.
I like the immediacy of performing stand up. The instant gratification/harsh criticism. Sitting and writing as it’s own purpose is usually a dead end for me. One of the biggest hurdles in performance is getting over that initial stage fright, that nervous anticipation of how anything and everything can and may go terribly wrong. I always told myself that as long as I had prepared material, it could never go too badly, after all, the material I have is for the purpose of performing it. It has no other use. It was created with an audience to share it with in mind. To write it and not perform it is to waste the time spent creating it.
The pretense of a blog is similar. I have written something that may or may not be any good, but it certainly was written with the intention of sharing it with the world, and hopefully getting some (positive?) feedback.
So here ya go world, have at it!