This blog post is going to be a little different. It’s still a list of sorts, because despite their inescapable ubiquity on the internet, I rather like the list as a form. I could have done away with the numbers and the headings, but that would be a different essay.
I’ve participated in multiple free writing challenges lately and, as a result, have been thinking about writing even more than usual (which, for the record, I already do quite a lot). The essay, in particular, has captured my attention. The possibility embedded within it — the looseness of its rules, if it even has any — is comforting and challenging in equal measure. Essay, after all, as so many essayists love to point out, simply means to try.
5 Thoughts on Writing: An Essay from Gen
This then is an attempt to talk about writing — five thoughts on writing, to be exact. She’s a slippery topic, but limiting it to just five things wrangles it rather nicely, and given that it’s an essay, all that’s being asked of me is that I try.
1. Essay Camp
My most recent foray into the realm of mini writing challenges was Summer Brennan’s Essay Camp. It takes place over five days and each day she issues a writing challenge and a reading challenge. The fact that this challenge comes with a reading list already endears it to me over some of the others I’ve done because it brings me back to my days of academia. I also love nothing more than adding to my reading list to such a degree that the greatest tragedy of my life will be never getting to read everything I wanted to.
The first writing assignment is to write. Isn’t that always the assignment? She suggests beginning with the 5 Things Essay prompt, so here we are. Yes, I am subjecting you to my first assignment. It’s a good prompt. She doesn’t even insist that the five things be related, although I’m willing to bet that finding a connection between five disparate things once you’ve written about them is possible about ninety percent of the time.
2. Journaling
If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll know that we are pathologically incapable of keeping up a journaling practice. For me, it mostly boils down to not knowing what to write about and finding the navel gazing aspect of it unbearably cringe. (This is not a judgment on anyone who loves keeping an introspective journal! I simply cannot.) The 5 Things Essay prompt is asking me to reconsider.
What if I wrote about five things every day? Five unrelated things. It no longer sounds insurmountable nor does the suggestion inspire me to physically recoil from the blank page. Actually, it sounds like a potential gold mine of ideas. Except that I’m putting the ideas there instead of uncovering them. Or, maybe I’m doing both. Maybe it’s more like a pot of soup into which you dump a bunch of vegetables that have almost crossed the threshold into unusable and turn it into something delicious as they all mingle together. Maybe this metaphor is getting away from me. In any case, much to consider.
3. Content
The dreaded ‘content.’ I hate that word. It’s a horrible little catch-all repurposed to make overworked editors, writers, and social media managers feel like they have one job when in fact they have six. I do blame social media for this one, though I suppose the click-bait driven internet at large is also to blame. Content just sounds so soulless, and it’s so insidious to pair it up with creation, which should be expansive and curious and experimental, instead of tailored to appease the maw of whatever algorithmic monster rules the day.
I spend a lot of time creating content. Sometimes it’s fun. Sometimes it feels like a job you want to quit on the spot. The SEO plug-in for WordPress, Yoast, while helpful in laying out exactly what you need for optimization can also be incredibly depressing. If I hadn’t already elected to divide this essay into five sub-headed parts, Yoast would have suggested I do it for readability. As it is, I know it’s going to have something to say about the length of my sentences. It assumes you, the reader, need them to be shorter to remain engaged. Like I said: Depressing.
4. Word Count
I admit to getting hung up on word count. It used to be that whatever I was writing — whether an essay for class, a novel, or a piece of fanfiction — I was stretching to make things longer, to fulfill rules both spoken and unspoken about appropriate and required document lengths. My efforts to make things longer have maybe worked too well because now it seems I cannot shut up.
I can’t tell if this is because I have more to say and trust myself more to say it, or if I’ve actually ruined my ability to write succinctly. More likely, it just means I need to edit more. In a first draft, the word count is merely a sign post to let you know if you’re at least approaching the right neighbourhood.
5. Em-Dashes
If you don’t have a favourite piece of punctuation, are you really a writer? I think probably every writer has a punctuation mark that they adore and, as such, lean on too heavily. Mine is the em-dash. I’m always pulling myself back where the em-dash is concerned — asking myself if it’s necessary and checking my work to make sure I haven’t used one in the previous sentence, or multiple times in a single paragraph. But look at that elegant dash in that last sentence! That little bit of emphasis it lends. It gives your eyes a break and lets you catch your breath with a beat before carrying on.
If you’re unfamiliar with the em-dash, you’ll see upon closer inspection that it’s longer than your run-of-the-mill hyphen. AP style dictates a space on either side of it, but you’ll often see them without spaces in novels—connecting the two pieces of a sentence just a little more closely. I don’t have a preference for one style over the other, so as long as the em-dash is included. It does so much more than a hyphen, which, in its puniness, can get lost in a sentence, failing to achieve what the em-dash does so easily. This is important, the em-dash says. This marks a break in the line of thinking. We’re going off on a tangent just for a moment, or adding a bit extra to this thought. What a genuinely perfect piece of punctuation. I recently read Clive Thompson’s piece in defense of the em-dash and I’ve never felt more seen as an em-dash advocate. Long live the em-dash!
What We Love Most about Writing
Perhaps the best thing about writing is the endless possibilities. There are always ideas, writing challenges, journals to fill, forms to explore, and punctuation to enjoy. And let’s not forget writing about writing — a topic that no writer can resist. We do so love to expound on our craft.
What do you love most about writing? Please do share your favourite writerly tips and habits, and the piece of punctuation you cannot live without.
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