Wow. Peter Graham’s The Age of the Essay was a spectacular read. I compiled a few points he made that I found bookmark-worthy.
In the things you write in school you are, in theory, merely explaining yourself to the reader. In a real essay you’re writing for yourself. You’re thinking out loud.
But not quite. Just as inviting people over forces you to clean up your apartment, writing something that other people will read forces you to think well. So it does matter to have an audience.
What we Networked Media students are doing with our blogs are, in essence, similar to what Graham describes as essay writing. On this WordPress platform, in this very white block of space, I am thinking out loud. But not quite. These thoughts go through certain articulation before coming together as sentences and paragraphs. I am continuously backspacing, I am constantly refining. Writing encourages you to think, to scrutinize, to deliberate, to investigate.
The river’s algorithm is simple. At each step, flow down. For the essayist this translates to: flow interesting. Of all the places to go next, choose the most interesting. One can’t have quite as little foresight as a river. I always know generally what I want to write about. But not the specific conclusions I want to reach; from paragraph to paragraph I let the ideas take their course.
I’ve recently taken up the role of Editor in an up and coming lifestyle magazine in Singapore. And one of my core responsibilities is to generate story ideas. Like a beast. But when I find myself in a writer’s slump, I am useless. No ideas spring to mind and I am as good as a dried prune. The point is, whenever I feel that way, I remind myself to just write anyway. Write whatever. Write anything. Just. Write. Like Graham said, the act of writing – especially for an audience – encourages you to think. It keeps your mind active, keeps it churning. And once you begin to write, begin to “flow”. Flow interesting. And ideas will eventually form.
The more anomalies you’ve seen, the more easily you’ll notice new ones. Which means, oddly enough, as you grow older, life should become more and more surprising.
This, I just completely agree with. The older I get, the more I feel like “life is just beginning” (no matter how cliché it sounds). New knowledge, new anomalies – bring it on!
P.S.: If you’re finding Week 3.1’s readings a bit tough to get through, Tim did a great post, explaining some of the key concepts. Do check it out!