Writing to write.

I promised myself I'd write, so I'm writing... This is hard. I think my greatest struggle is letting myself just write. I often feel a strange obligation to my reader when I write. Like everything needs a context and back story... This isn't in and of itself a bad thing... however the backlash of this "selfless perspective" has been a lack of writing. Even in a blog like this I find myself put off by the fact that a random reader would know so very little about me. They have no context for my words but are just thrown into them... My words are not strong enough, I fear, to stand alone. They need a context. The reader needs to know they come from a good guy - as if my character somehow influences the quality of my writing. Self indulgent writing so often feels like a waste of time. I actually feel guilty in a way for writing things that don't serve a clear purpose.

I don't think this is a good thing. I have the same problem with reading. As such, I seldom read fiction. This is despite the fact that I love fiction. I am a storyteller after all. A creative type who only recently learned his creativity counts.

See, creatively I draw a great deal of influence form those who've gone before me. This is especially true in my music, prose and comedy. I learned this when my father-in-law, an unsuspecting interpersonal genius, shared a series with me called "Everything is a Re-Mix"... At first the whole premise seemed too obvious to merit conversation, but as Kirby Furguson unpacked his thesis it became clear that my drawing on others works and reinventing my own interpretation within them is indeed creative. Currently the series is hosted here: http://everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/

I cannot recommend it enough.