Writing on Writing

October 23rd, 2023

I read a lot of writing (upon writing this sentence, I realise how banally stupid it sounds. As opposed to what — reading non-writing?). What I mean to say is that I read quite a bit of personal writing from other people; people who I haven’t had the luck to meet yet, people whose lives I nonetheless find fascinating.

Perhaps as a result of this, I spend a lot of time thinking about the act of personal writing. In high school, I thought a lot about language and how it compresses — and sometimes fails to compress — complex sentiments/ideas. Now, what feels more interesting is how writing can track our progress, and our evolution — language being used as a snapshot of what exists at the time. Reading the blogs I’ve been reading, more than anything, makes me feel as if these people are much, much, much farther along a path that I’d like to be on — a feeling that could be revealed over a hour of conversation, perhaps, but one that is revealed almost instantaneously when reading the words they write. I don’t mean a path as a reference to anything formal — not a particular place, name, or job — but more as a way of thinking that requires time to develop and rise, like a good dough.

I’ve also found, at least personally, that a lot of my writing comes in fragments. I’ll walk and think of a sentence I like; lie in bed as short reflections on what I’ve read most recently flit through my vision. Many of these fragments are probably not worth sharing. Many of these fragments interest me greatly. I’ve been writing not to clarify my thinking on these things to other people, but instead to finish those fragments in my own head.