Opening Comments

I'm thinking about the kinds of things that I can do here, and the possibilities are endless. I'm hoping to post on a variety of subjects, and I'm hoping that I won't feel like I need to compartmentalize. I'm hoping that I'll be posting original fiction, original poetry, as well as some creative nonfiction and some political/cultural/social commentary. I want to be an informed and original voice in all of these subjects - though that might be asking a lot.

I'm a teacher on Christmas break right now, so I have more than the usual allotment of time. I'm hoping that this will help me make writing a habit. Because I want it to be a habit.

Why do I want writing to be a habit? Like most people who have been told, at any point in their life, that they have a gift for putting words together, I imagine myself as someone with Stephen-King-like earning potential. It would be nice to get rich off my writing, right? It would also be nice to be famous. What attracted me to so-called "literature" in the first place, though, was that I wanted to be a "great writer." I wanted to study the Great Books (not my term) so that I could write my own Great Book some day. That is, after all, why most people study them, right? What percentage of English majors at any college picture themselves writing a novel someday?

While it's certainly true that many English majors want to write novels, that's not news and not very interesting. My larger point is this: the difference between writers and wannabe writers is habit. To be a writer, you have to write. To be a good writer, you have to write every day. You have to write like it's your job. If you have another job, you need to write like it's your part-time, 20-hours-a-week job, only you really don't get paid for it.

The other thing that really attracts me to writing is simpler and more profound than all of the above. You leave something behind. You leave a trace, or proof that you weren't idle or useless. That's more important to me than greatness. I want to leave something behind - Covey calls it "leaving a legacy," and he considers it a fundamental desire. This is how I want to leave my legacy. Not this blog - I have limited expectations for this blog - but I want to start developing habits here that I can transfer into something else more enduring.

More later.