“What makes a writer good?”

I typed the question into Google and the first answer I got was at Blog.eprep.com saying
"It’s a question that appears to have some magical, formulaic answer. For better or for worse, it doesn’t.  A Princeton graduate and accomplished writer, John McPhee, gave the best answer to this question: ‘Perseverance.’ ‘Of writing,’ McPhee said, ‘You have to stay with it. Great writing doesn’t simply happen; it takes time, struggle, and a willingness to accept that sometimes you won’t know where you’re headed.’”

This is my first blog. Yes, I have succumbed — to what, I’m not exactly sure.  I’m not a big blog reader — not for lack of interest — mostly from lack of time. I’m sure I’ll fall into all the normal potholes along the way.  But I’ve been writing for myself for years, mostly looking for clarity, searching to understand myself and my experiences.  Very navel gazing. I don’t think navel gazing is particularly interesting to those outside the navel but I do think searching is pretty universal. So, I’ll try to keep the self absorption to a minimum.

I don’t think I’m a great writer.  I once wrote a poem about it— well more of a tantrum on doing something, i.e. writing, without getting a degree in it first. Mind you, I believe in education (I’ve got tons of it).  But in college, in the ONE creative writing course I took, all my teacher could talk about was COMMAS! (I used too many of them).  I asked about content and she said “Oh that’s fine,” and went on to talk about commas. This was a CREATIVE writing class after all.  I dropped the course and didn’t write a thing for about ten years.  So, I have no degree in writing and I don’t plan on getting one. My spelling and grammar will not always be correct. And if that drives you crazy, you won’t want to read most of what I write.  Go to Seth Godin’s blog — he’s very good and entertaining.

So, here I plan to share some of my thoughts, many of which are not of the mainstream. Knowing me, I’ll write about the following: acting, theatre, film, astrology, spanking, sex, ologies (theology, astrology, philosophy, psychology), alternative healing and the search for meaning and balance in my world.  I hope it will be interesting, entertaining and hopefully shine some light on those things or at least my search for meaning inside them.  So welcome to my unstable mind, perhaps we may find some light here together. Whether you find it here or elsewhere - Happy hunting.
-UM (Unstable Mind), May 21, 2008