Monday 7 July 2008

What am I writing for?

Here I am in Swanage library. We holiday with my very generous in-laws every year and it is the one week of my year when there are more adults than children around so I am not so much in demand as usual and I savour the opportunity to reflect and plan, to read and to think. I carefully chose which books to bring from the pile, both physical and metaphorical, waiting to be read and selelcted seven! One book I picked up off the library shelf before I left was Blogging for Dummies. I hope I'm not a 'dummy' but I am hoping to pick up some tips and ideas on how to make my blog an even more interesting place to visit. One of the books I've been reading is Peter Elbow's 'Writing with Power' which is also making me think about what I'm writing for, who I'm writing to. And then, by one of my favourite writers, Henri Nouwen, I discovered this:
I decided not to go to the library to do research on the topic but instead just
kept asking myself what I knew about it. What did I have available from my own
experience? What did I know about it? Did I have some experience with
this topic that I could articulate so that other people could recognize it as a
real experience? ... to say, in effect, " I don't know the answers either. I am
simply a catalyst, simply somebody who wants to articulate for you things that
you already know but might get a better grip on if there are some words for
them."

In a moment the blurriness focussed. This is what I would love my blog to be, what I aspire to, and what I love in the blogging of others. The feeling in my gut when I read something that puts into words what I has sensed, suspected, felt but had never drawn out before, never examined before, is very special. I hope that as I blog more and find my writer's voice, this is what this blog might become.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

I like the Nouwen quote. It's what I aspire to, as well. I've been pondering how my blog shifted from my original intention of *writing* to inspire to what it is now...posting on our *doings* to inspire. At least I think that's what has happened. More to think on...
Kathy @ www.restorationplace.typepad.com

Gaynor said...

Thanks for your comment! I pondered after I posted if it was arrogant to think that my experience might speak to others, but I know that others' experiences speak to me, as yours often do, and so I hope I have something to say!