Book and blog

Via TightWind, a link to a brief essay by Mandy Brown reflecting on the future of the book and the relationship between a book and a blog. I would quote from it, but the essay is so brief, you should read the whole thing for yourself.

In college I was so uncertain of my ability to write well, and so concerned that what I turned in should reflect that the university had not made a mistake by admitting me, that I frequently sat paralyzed before the typewriter. (You can keep the follow-on wisecracks about abaci to yourself.) I could not start, because I couldn't imagine how I would ever finish, how I would ever polish the assignment to the impossible level of perfection I had set for myself.

Somehow, I graduated. Writing became easier, due in no small part to a job I loathed that required a lot of formulaic but precise letters and memoranda. Eventually I discovered email, and honed a personal style of writing that neither school nor work had ever allowed me to develop.

Brown notes of a blog that "roughness is its natural state." It's true. The only reason this blog exists is that I'm free not to care overmuch about rough spots. Occasionally I touch up an older entry to remove a misspelling or make other minor corrections, but I've trained myself not to obsess over mangled metaphors or awkward phrasing.

Brown writes, "blogging is the kind of writing authors have done for centuries but which usually remained hidden away." Evidently it's also the kind of writing of which the non-professional writer has always been capable, too.