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Why Haven't I Been Writing?

Several reasons.

First:

I've become an obsessive drafter. I have many ideas at various levels of conception in my blog cache, and I've only satisfactorily completed and published a fraction of them.

Second:

Graduating from college has snuck up on me, and it has included things like exit counseling for loans and repayment plans and figuring out how to take care of health insurance. It's a bunch of strangely adult and dead-dry boring tasks.

Third:

The past three weeks in particular have been devoted to a new writing project, something I'm hoping to put up here in chunks as it matures.

When my grandmother began dying May 10th, I immediately began to take careful notes. She passed away the following Sunday, and I continued to take notes until long after my family privately wept over her urn that Friday.

The project will be book-sized, and it will be an attempt to photograph my Dad's side of the family in that two week period.

There are three motivations to this project:

1) To become a better writer. It is an excellent chance to exercise the non-fiction writing that I excel in, and to develop it even more. I cherish the subject matter, which will be a good motivation to push through the pages.

2) To cope with the loss. As the days go by, I keep stumbling into new holes I hadn't realized my grandmother left behind. I want to try and find as many of those holes as I can, and articulate my complicated grief.

3) To make a gift for my family. Perhaps the final version will be good enough to attempt to publish, but I'm not concerned about that. I am trying to give to my family what I can out of the common loss we suffered. The best thing I've got is my writing, so that is what I will give to them.

With college now in its final throes (my very last bit of college homework is due this Wednesday), perhaps I can start polishing and publishing old drafts I've been too much of a nit-pick to previously post. And if I don't do that, like I said, I'll start putting up chunks of my Big Project as it coagulates.

Comments

Dorian said…
Like like like! I'm so excited to see the final product, 'eddur. Let me know if any illustration work comes into the picture?

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