Until Your Face Bleeds

There's an old saying attributed to the late Red Smith: "Writing is easy. You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed." It's kind of a gross metaphor (and if you're interested in the history behind quotes, here's a fun link that explores this particular saying more in depth) but it's true. Writing is essentially sitting down at an appointed time and waiting for the words to come out.

Of course, it's not that easy. If it were, more people would be writers. Then again, in this day and age, when everyone has a blog and Twitter and Facebook, maybe we've reached the point where everyone IS a writer.

Whatever. It's still not easy.

I sometimes forget this because I don't have a problem sitting down at the keyboard and cranking out 1000 words for a blog post on any given day. I have dry spells, sure, but for the most part I'm able to blog daily (and lately, blog on two entirely different sites on entirely different subjects) without much struggle. Once upon a time, this wasn't so easy for me because I made the same mistake that a lot of people make when writing: I tried to write things I thought people would read.

That meant I spent a lot of time trying to be cute. Cute is the enemy of good writing, unless you're talking about a kids book. I can't tell you how many hours I wasted bashing my head against the wall in an effort to come up with a clever title or a funny angle on a topic. Or the number of times I sat down and wrote something that I just knew would stir the pot and create discussion in the comments. Every single time I thought I'd come up with something that would enflame the passion of the masses, I'd inevitably end up with a post that only my mom and two other really nice people would read.

And every time I've thought I'd posted something fairly safe and ordinary, I get tons of response. It's the way of the world.

It comes back to another writers' axiom: write what you know. Or maybe this one: write what you'd like to read. If you put out stuff that you'd be interested in, you'll be surprised to find that there's an audience willing to read it. Suffice it to say, in the couple of years posting this blog for Patch, I've been utterly amazed at the audience willing to read it.

Astounded, really.

There are a lot of good writers on this Patch. Sharon has a fantastic crew of locals who are not only passionate about their subject matter, but passionate about writing well. You can click on this website on any given day and find fascinating explorations of the weather, or animal trapping, or the insides of Lori Duff's brain and just KNOW you're getting a good read. That's not something to be taken lightly.

And while I can't truly speak for all of our Patch bloggers, I think I can safely say this: we're happy to write for you. Happy to sit down at our laptops or desktops or smartphones and stare at the screen until our face bleeds, because we understand another true axiom about writing, and are happy to live by it.

Write something that helps people in some way. Whether you give them a smile, an insight, or a temporary break from their life, if you give something to the reader, you'll get plenty back in return.

Here on the Patch, nothing's ever been truer.