300 words explained (300 words)

Someone I know said recently that she's considering starting a blog, but didn't know if it would be narcissistic self-indulgence or worthwhile creative expression. My comment to her was that I do it because it makes me write, and that sometimes I stumble onto something that seems worth posting, and others I sort of cringe at what's out there--it's public but not necessarily publicized.

The 300 word posts are squarely in the "makes me write" category. Multiple creative writing teachers I've had over the years have required a daily or every-other-daily 300-word exercise. The goal of them is not unlike the goals we have as composition teachers--getting some words on the page that, eventually, may end up being something much more interesting and/or compelling.

Of course, a lot of the 300 word posts end up being like yesterdays, which was largely an exercise in typing. Those, I am typically tempted to not post because they are, as my students might say, full of fail. However, I post them because of those very same students--to show that we all write crap, nonsense and drivel from time to time. Writers write, I tell them; I never say that writers write brilliant work all the time, every time.

So, in a nutshell, the 300 word posts are intended as fodder, as an exercise in language, and as a commitment to myself and the craft of writing. Sometimes their purpose is to mark space and time--a "Kilroy was Here" of the digital age, perhaps. Now and then, something will emerge from them that I want to follow--a path into an idea I hadn't spent a lot of time with. Those moments always remind me of why I like writing the 300 word pieces. Times like now, though, those times when I'm busier than I'd like to be, they're more like verbal treadmills--good exercise, even though I don't like them very much.